October 31, 2025

Alexandria, VA

It was moderately late last night before we managed to get to bed. I went to Starbucks in Courthouse Square and my cappuccino and sausage, egg & cheddar sandwich about 07:00. I sat in Starbucks and watched people come and go. Again, there really aren’t an overwhelming number of people, and again probably due to the shutdown. A couple people did appear to be taking things back to the office, i.e. multiple drinks and a bag of breakfast goodies. No young college aged people mostly people in their 30’s and 40’s would be my guess. No Halloween costumes.

I got Mary a PSL (Pumpkin Spices Latte) as I was leaving to walk the two blocks back to the hotel. We are getting picked up by Aunt Arlene and her daughter Kathy at 11:00 and going to Old Town Arlington to walk around a little and have lunch. We chose our hotel here in Arlington based on its proximity to Arlene’s house. The plan is to walk over on Saturday and Sunday.

We were in the lobby just before it had gone 11:00. A bus pulled up to the curb and dropped off what looked like a Women’s college basketball team. I couldn’t figure out the logo on the team jackets they had on, and I didn’t want to appear as a dirty old man by asking.

Arlene and Kathy pulled up just at 11:00 and we began by driving to Arlene’s house to “show us the way”. The route was a little circuitous. Google maps says it is less than ½ a kilometre (0.7 miles) from the hotel if you are walking. If you are driving Google says it is just a little more than a ½ kilometre (0.9 miles). The route Kathy drove was maybe an entire kilometer and was very confusing. When we walk we are going to simply follow google maps. We did get to see the park where Kathy played as a kid. And we did learn about the gentrification of the neighborhood with the old houses were being replaced with much larger new ones. Ones which appeared to be a lot less stylish in their design. Or, maybe we just like the old brick look of the houses.

One of the reasons homes cost so much more today than they did in the 1950’s and 1960’s is the sheer size of them. Back in the “good old days” it was one room for the parents and one room for the kids, with a shared bathroom for everyone. It seems a modern home has a bedroom and bathroom for each individual living there, and probably a guest bathroom which is kept clean in case any guests should drop by. Oh, and yes, we had one TV with three channels, not a TV in every room with 100+ channels.

The ride from Arlene’s to old town Alexandria took us along the Potomac river past Arlington National Cemetery, the Pentagon, Crystal City, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and then into old town. Here you a really begin note historical size difference in the homes. These are relatively small homes, maybe 100 square meters (1,075 square feet), compared to the new homes near Arlene’s house which looked like they 250 to even 325 square meters (2,700 – 3,500 square feet). These are homes where the average family was closer to seven than four. They are now on small lots but originally, they all had a yard for raising chickens and maybe even a pig or cow or two. They probably also had a small garden for raising vegetables. This is easy to see as every other home was newer than the one before it. This is how cities grow, and why it is more expensive to living in the city than the country where you can grow or raise at least some of your own food.

We found a parking spot on the edge of old town, outside the two-hour limit where you have to pay for a spot to park and walked through old town towards the river. A number of the homes where beautifully decorated for Halloween. Quaint area of cobbled streets, small historical homes, and, at this right now, trees changing color and dropping their leaves. It is a nice warm day, although quite windy, which would certainly leave some one with the impression this is a great place to live. However, once the snows of winter, the wind off ice covered river, and long winter nights settle in you would probably get a different impression. Of course, summer would give you yet another experience. Crowds of tourists, high temperatures and humidity would probably change your mind.

Lunch was at a river side restaurant allied “Adas On The River” (3 Pioneer Mill Way). While the name says it is “on the river” the truth is that is slightly off the river and a little above it. Just below the pathway around the river and one the shore was a place called Barca Pier Restaurant which was quite literally on the river. Probably a great place in the summer, but with plastic walls probably a little cool today,

Adas wasn’t so busy when we first arrived as it has just gone noon. However, within an hour it was very busy. Clearly it is a trendy hip place for lunch. Although there weren’t many offices obviously nearby there must have been a few. Adas serves seafood and steak.

Mary had a grilled shrimp and avocado salad, bibb lettuce, radishes, citrus, coconut vinaigrette, toasted almonds, and picked fresno peppers, which she said was very good. Arlene had a charred gem lettuce salad with a garlic-anchovy vinaigrette, “rustic” croutons, shaved parmesan and coal roasted tomatoes with hanger steak. She really liked the Italian spices on the hanger steak.

Kathy had the grilled kale and citrus salad, which contained roasted hazelnuts, medjool dates, and a lemon vinaigrette buttermilk yogurt dressing, on which she put a piece of “well done” salmon. Not a combination in my book. I went with the more traditional “Wedge Salad”. This wasn’t exactly traditional as I remember it. Yes, the base was ½ to ¾ of a head of iceberg lettuce, it says it has a bacon vinaigrette (?), four small roasted plumb tomatoes, bacon lardons (which looked more like a slice of traditional bacon cut into small pieces), whipped blue cheese with corn bread croutons. Well, there was maybe a whipped blue cheese vinaigrette, after all there was a pool which what looked like a thin whiteish dressing on the plate. There were no corn bread croutons. Bacon lardons mean small cubes of pancetta to me, but like I just said it looked like someone cut up one slice of bacon with a pair of scissors.

Don’t get me wrong it was a wonderful lunch. The place is a little loud for me, so hearing was difficult. The view of the river, the pathway and the trees changing color was very nice.

Arlene and Maria in Old Town Alexandria 

After lunch we walked back to the car via the long route taking in all the historical homes and the Halloween decorations. The homes are very nice looking from the outside. We got back to the car and Kathy drove us back to our hotel.

Back at the hotel we took a short nap. Adjusting to even just a three-hour time change is getting a little more difficult each year, even when you would think it is in your favor. About 18:00 we went downstairs and called for a uber to take us to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Crystal City. People were in the streets in full Halloween get up. No, not kids in Halloween get up but perhaps college kids and people in their 20’s and 30’s.

The Uber picked us up and we drive through a little bit of the neighborhood before getting on the highway. We did see a number of families with young children out trick-or-treating. Some of the houses in the neighborhood around the hotel did quite a job decorating for the holiday.

Ruth’s Chris is located on the 11th floor of 2231 Crystal Drive, overlooking Ronald Reagan National Airport. Quite a nighttime view of the airport and Potomac river. It was empty when we arrived, ok we are old and eat early, but filled up as the night went on.

We shared a shrimp cocktail. The shrimp was very nice, and the cocktail sauce served with it excellent. Still would have liked some of their great lobster bisque but it isn’t currently on the menu. Mary got a petite filet, and I got the 16 oz ribeye. Together we shared an order of au gratin potatoes.

If you have been following me, you may recall our experience at the Ruth’s Chris is Toronto in August. That was a disaster. The food was very poor quality and just didn’t taste right. We were somewhat concerned that Ruth’s Chris had fallen in quality. The ambience in Toronto, like here is quite traditional, white tablecloths, nice napkins, and somewhat formal appearance, but was the food going to be good.

We’ll were very pleasantly surprised. From the hot fresh bread and whipped butter to the cheesecake at the end everything was great. The steaks were cooked exactly as ordered and had a great flavor, unlike Toronto. Even the potatoes au gratin were wonderful.

After dinner we took an Uber back to the hotel, arriving back about 21:00. We stayed up a while before retiring for the evening.

That’s all for today folks.

Buonanotte e Ciao,

Enrico e Maria