Lost in Loudoun - Bluemont

My dad has been pestering me for weeks now to put up the pictures I took while he and I explored the area to the west of my new hometown.  You may (or may not) recall that I mentioned in a previous post that I like to set a few destinations, in a roundabout way, and see what I find.  In late March, I did just that and took my dad (in town on a visit) along for the ride.  If you read LostGirls, you might recognize some of these photos, but this time I’ll tell you a little bit about them.  For this first post we're going to take you to the village of Bluemont, in western Loudoun County, Virginia. 

The first place I wanted to visit was the Bluemont General Store.  Bluemont sits at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Loudoun County (west of DC).  I was curious to see if their store would be at all like the fancy general store I visited in Healdsburg, CA, a few years ago.  It isn’t.  What it is, though, is a general store that’s been around since the 1840s in a lovely building on the Snickersville Turnpike (the town was originally called Snickersville).  The Bluemont General store carries local produce (from Potomac Vegetable Farms in Vienna) and locally raised, all natural Angus beef, among many other items.  Oh, and they have really good bottled rootbeer, but I’ll have to go back to find you the name of the brand we tried.  If you want to just go for a drive or maybe visit one of the local vineyards, the store is a nice place to stop.  You can sip rootbeer on their porch or take a shaded break under the 100 year old maple tree out front.

There is a big yellow house right next door to the General Store that was for sale in March (might still be), in case you’re looking.  Snickersville Turnpike wasn’t particularly crowded when we visited (weekday, mid-morning) and I don’t know about any other landmarks, but the houses, trees and flowers on that street were quite lovely.  The Nielson’s Village Center building, down the street, looked abandoned but with new signage, so I looked it up and found Friends of Bluemont, a preservation society for the village's historic buildings and landmarks.  According to their page, the Nielson’s building was originally a mill, then a dance hall and is currently being renovated as a shopping center with office space. 

If you don’t think that’s enough reason to go for a visit, check out the annual Bluemont Fair.  The fair has been held for a weekend in September for the past 35 years and the entire village serves as a fairground.  Definitely a day in the country not to be missed.  Really, any day that includes corndogs is not to be missed. 

Local Foodie Lit

Yesterday, we received something in the mail called Cultivate.  My housemate looked over at the stack of mail and said, "Did you order a magazine on growing pot?"  I believe I responded with a comment about his intelligence.

In any case, Cultivate is a magazine that the Virginia Farm Bureau sends to its associate members. It looks like the previous owners of our house were just that (don't worry, we'll forward it on to them).  I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened Cultivate, I actually wondered if it was something like Flavor Magazine (a local indie about local food, wine and sustainable agriculture).  After reading this issue, I'd say they're certainly in the same magazine grouping, but I wouldn't tell you to get one instead of the other - they're both good reads.

To give you an idea of why, as a local (old or new), these two magazines might interest you:

Cultivate's April 2012 issue starts with a brief explanation of why it is so important to watch out for farming equipment on the roads around here (where I live feels so suburban, but go thirty minutes to west and you're in farmland) which may seem like common sense, but if you've experienced the drivers here, you'll be wishing everyone read about this.

In addition to a few seasonal recipes, there is a great article on farmer-veteran partnerships.  Virginia isn't the only place to have these partnerships, but DC does have a large population of both farmers and military veterans and the article is downright inspiring.  Having grown up in California, I am very familiar with farmer's markets, but the DC Metro Area seems much more attuned to sustainable eating and living (CSAs, locavores, etc.).

I dearly miss the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market in San Francisco (if you're in the Bay Area on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, do yourself the favor of going - it's worth braving the crowds) and the Martinez Farmer's Market, which was right outside my last job's front door.  But there are farmer's markets all over this area (even one in Falls Church that is year round) and I'm going to take up the challenge on page 18 to spend $10 a week on local foods (the challenge came from the Virginia Food System Council).  Hold on a moment.  Go back and click on that link embedded in the word "challenge" and look at that map!

There's more to read about in Cultivate and if you go back up to its first mention, the April issue is available in the embedded link.

And then there's Flavor.  Instead of telling you about the most recent issue, I have got to tell you about the Winter 2011 issue, which was the first one I picked up.  I can't imagine California doesn't have something like this somewhere, but I certainly never read or took interest in it.  I saw "The Younger Farmer's Issue" in the magazine aisle of my local grocery store (Wegman's) and picked it up because I remember seeing it at a friend's house (and that friend does not farm).  You'll love the Local Grazings section, since it is really hard to figure out where to start in an area as big and crazy as the DC metro (and in the suburbs, it's easy to feel disconnected and not realize that you're just over the hill from a great winery or a place that makes their own felted-wool wrapped goat milk soap).  If you can get this back issue, the article on the "future of farming" features mini-interviews with local farmers who are all 40 or under, many of whom did not grow up on farms or learning about agriculture.  And, of course, there are recipes spread throughout.  But if you have any interest in wine, you'll want to turn to the back of the magazine for Terroir, several pages devoted to local wine.

Since I didn't have time to get pictures of these great magazines (but again, linkage!), I am including a couple of pictures of why I am grateful to my brother and the Alexandria Farmer's Market.  Picutred is the gift of rosemary focaccia and fresh fruit, which reminds me of breakfasts with my mom in Genoa.  And since I can't visit her this year, I'll say goodnight and leave you with my favorite view from her apartment.

Everyone's a Stranger Here

I moved to a town that is about thirty miles from Washington DC three months ago.  Having spent most of my life in California, I expected to have the same type of culture shock that I experienced during the year I lived in North Carolina, but also the joy of learning about the culture of another state (I lived in a military town, but there were plenty of locals there).  For some reason, I thought that living outside of DC, I would meet some Virginians.  I haven’t yet…  I do have a great appreciation for my fellow transplants – who have always been ready with a recommendation or an offer to show me various places in the DC Metro Area.  But I miss the luxury of locals who can tell me where the best of everything is located, because my new home is their original hometown.

I have been trying to become less dependent on my GPS (since it isn’t always reliable here - see our Getting Lost post), but I still can’t find my way around this place.  If you were to ask me for directions to the nearest grocery store, I could take you there, but I couldn’t tell you the street names.  This is an area where there are multiple ways to get everywhere that, depending on traffic, could all take the same amount of time.  Just yesterday, my housemate and I decided to take a different route to the grocery store (meaning ignoring the Garmin’s directions, but keeping it on just in case we got completely lost).  My housemate decided to stay on city streets and avoid the highway.  It was a nicer drive with less traffic, took the same amount of time and helped us completely bypass a very dangerous merge that we both loathe.  But I digress. 

I have lived in nine cities in California (both Northern and Southern) and even one place in North Carolina, briefly.  Between my immediate family members, I’ve found my way around a city in Texas, one in Utah and another in Italy.  After years of short visits to Utah, I can probably navigate around Salt Lake City (the nearest big city to one family member's home) a lot better than anywhere in the DC Metro Area.  The problem is that I live here and I’ve already been here long enough that I feel I should know my way around.

I can usually figure out just enough to be dangerous (to myself, mostly) within a month.  Moving around so much and having family in so many different places has made me, not so much adventurous, as just determined to know where all the necessary businesses, buildings, parks, etc., are.  I’m a fan of being able to get around on my own, even if it ends up not being necessary.

The DC Area, at least the part in Northern Virginia, confounds me.  Although North Carolina also has that sort of southern sprawl (so different from most cities on the West Coast), I never accidentally drove out of the city I lived in and didn’t realize I was somewhere else.  Here I feel like I’m not entirely sure which city I’m in half the time and I don’t know that my GPS does, either.  To make matters worse, it seems like everything has at least two names, if not more.  So when you’re looking for a place in Tyson’sCorner, it’s really in the city of McLean.  And if you’re wondering where Harry Byrd Highway is while you’re driving on Virginia State Route 7, well – you’re already on it.  Now I’m not saying I’ve never been anywhere where street or highway names didn’t change while you were still on them.  What I’m telling you is that it seems like almost every street here has a number it’s also known by and every route and highway has a name to go with its number.  Unfortunately, in my experience, the GPS often gives you the one you are not seeing on the signs you’re driving by.

It’s disconcerting, to say the least.  But I have a plan.  I admit that it’s been slow to evolve, but I also have to say that I’ve been more motivated lately because writing for Lost in DC provides me with an excuse to help myself, by the possibility of making something useful for others.

I’m New Here, Myself…

What I wish I had done when I first moved here, instead of assuming that my housemate or one of his friends would be able to tell me where things were, is this:

Sit down and write a short list of places you’d like to find.  For example: a grocery store, a pharmacy, the nearest gas station, a coffee shop and a post office.  From there, you can map it out (you can do this online, you don’t have to pour over an atlas first) so that you can either (a) take a really long drive all over town, finding the places on your list (and seeing everything else that’s out there) or (b) find an area that has the highest density of what you want and explore just that one area.  It is tempting to have someone else drive you around and show you places, but I’ve found that doing the driving myself helps me remember how to get to those places.  This is also best to do on a weekday, in the late morning, so that you don’t have to deal with traffic of any kind.

The Long Way ‘Round…

I finally decided to do Option A (the long way) this past weekend and I discovered two things.  First, that the Best Buy I’m always being dragged to is right across the street from the local WalMart.  It faces a different direction, so it was hard to see from the shopping center that Best Buy is in.  I didn’t know this town even had a WalMart.  Now, you may be saying to yourself that you couldn’t care less where the WalMart is.  But keep this in mind – you’re not just looking for the places you want to go, you’re also looking for landmarks.  If you ask where something is and the stranger you asked tells you it’s near the WalMart, you’ll be real glad you knew where it was.  So what was I saying? 

Oh yes, the second thing I discovered is that my town does, in fact, have a TJ Maxx.  This may not seem surprising to you, but it just so happens that the first thing I looked up upon arriving here was the location of a TJ Maxx.  And I did not find one.  My GPS said it didn’t exist and when I looked up “TJ Maxx/my location” online, I got a long list that started with Richmond, VA (which is nowhere near me).  I scrolled down a little, but stopped at the 20^th location.  Guess what?  Mine was #24 on the store locator list (I know this only because I just looked it up).  Obviously I could have tried harder and found that it did in fact exist, but I honestly thought nothing of it.  Not that I wasn’t mightily disappointed.  So, imagine my surprise, when I drove right by it on my way to WalMart.

WalMart, you guys.  You don’t have to shop there, but you should know where it is. 

Cancel that, you totally don’t have to know where the WalMart is, but you get the general idea.  Big landmarks will help you find your way around later.

After you’ve done your recon, you should have a slightly better idea of the layout of the city or town you now live in.  And, hopefully, you’ve seen a couple of other places you’re either glad to know the location of or that you want to go back to. 

Before the WalMart incident, I had done this kind of recon trip, but only in other parts of Virginia.  Sometimes, when you have little to do and very little money to speak of, it’s nice to just go drive places.  So far, I have a decent idea of how these Virginian cities are laid out and what I’d like to see or do when I go back:


Leesburg: Cute historic downtown, a nice little beautyboutique and a bunch of historic sites and seasonal attractions.


Round Hill:  Found a place with great pie and a place with great wine, right next to each other and just off the same route that goes through my town.


Bluemont: Pretty, but didn't see anything to go back for at the time, now I realize they have a couple of vineyards, so I'm definitely going back.

Shenandoah National Park/Front Royal:  Only a two hour drive from me, something to do when the family visits and it’s warm enough to enjoy.   Also found a great burger place, Spelunker's (there are caverns nearby), on the way out of the park.

All this reconnaissance and writing lists may seem like a complete waste of time to you, it certainly does to my housemate (“That’s what your Garmin is for!”), but if you’re feeling a little lost, this is one way to get a firmer grip on your surroundings.  

Have a tried and true technique for finding your way around a new place that you would love to share with others?  Contact us or leave a comment on this post.

Getting Lost

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I often heard people say that the best way to learn the city (because in the Bay Area, San Francisco is “the city”), was to get yourself lost in it.  Since the main part of San Francisco is only seven by seven square miles (within the city limits) and is packed with great restaurants, interesting (though sometimes questionable) things to see, a variety of events to attend, and parks large and small to hang out in, it isn't hard to find something to interest you, no matter how lost you are or how little money you have. 

When I moved to the DC Metro Area, I knew that it would be different from San Francisco.  At over sixty square miles, it had to be.  I felt secure in the fact that there are a variety of guides to Washington DC and some of the bigger cities that surround it (Arlington and Alexandria in Virginia, Bethesda in Maryland, etc).  You can find a map of DC and the immediate surrounding area virtually anywhere.  But I found that once you get about twenty miles (if even that) outside of the District, it is a lot harder to learn your way around.  Since DC tourism doesn’t usually extend out this far (at least, not here in the suburbs), there aren’t many updated guides or useful maps, unless you want the whole county.

I’ve lived in Sterling, VA, for a few months now and, although I still feel that getting lost is a great way to learn a place, I also recognize that this particular area is too big and the routes look very similar (and are pretty meandering and long) to not, at least, have a rough idea of where you’re going, if you ever want to actually get there instead of ending in the Potomac River or West Virginia.

I also discovered that my first instinct, to get maps despite having a Garmin, was right.  If you rely solely on your GPS in this area, you will eventually fall victim to what I like to call, “Garmangles.”   DC Garmangles are parts of the Metro Area that the GPS just can’t figure out, despite frequent map updates.  There is a part of Interstate 495 that makes my brother’s Garmin go haywire (this experience is where the Bermuda Triangle connection was originally made).  And I have had my GPS take me to a housing development instead of a nursery and then, when I tried to get to the second nursery on my list, it led me half a mile out of my way for no apparent reason.  Although in that instance, I should have known to just follow the freeway till I saw it, since I’d driven by that particular nursery several times before.  I really wanted to trust my GPS. 

During my time here, I have been lucky enough to be given a few useful tools for navigating the area, including a heads up on great apps for my phone to help me get around.  Having a place to share all these tools and various lessons learned has helped me become a little more adventurous.  I am looking forward to sharing all of these things with you and begging all of my new DC friends and acquaintances to divulge their secrets to surviving DC.

If you’re new here, or if you just want to explore more of the area, I do still recommend getting lost.  But bring a map so you can find your way back and don’t be afraid to download more apps than you can shake a stick at to navigate the area.  No one will blame you.