Tyson's II sounds great as we have been there with the kids before. We are
working on our schedule to try and come down from Ct. for the event. Hope we can
join you!
Koyote
(The End Gang)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The Air & Space Annex claims they're sold out of yearly passes in the
first week? That stinks. We live about ten minutes from it and were
going to take the kids over break, but haven't made it yet because the
papers report big crowds plus reports of folks having to pay the day's
$12 parking just to go inside to buy the $50 pass. Decided we'd give
them a bit of time to work things out. UGH.

Alternate indoor kid-friendly venues at my end of Fairfax County:
1) Dulles Town Center mall
(http://www.shopdullestowncenter.com/main.html) - 28 & 7,
Sterling/Countryside. Upstairs food court has carousel and is adjacent
to airport-themed play area. Very close to Claude Moore Park. Straight
shot down 28 to Ellanor Lawrence (sp?; boxes) and Walney (boxes).
2) Fair Oaks Mall (http://www.shopfairoaksmall.com/index.html) - West Ox
& 50, Fairfax. No specific food court, but lots o' places to eat in the
arms plus a small, usually busy "breakfast foods" play area for very
little kids. Not far from Ellanor Lawrence (sp?; boxes) and Walney
(boxes) and Sully Plantation (no boxes that I know of, but it's neat).

We live about halfway between the above malls, very close to Frying Pan
Park (2 boxes). Should we look instead for a quickie food venue that
has play space for the kids so we can feed them and branch out to boxes
from there? There are several such - Chick-Fil-A on the Reston/Herndon
line, just off of Spring St./Sunset Hills and 7100; a huge McDonald's
and a huge Burger King across from each other in Centreville on 28 north
of 29 and near 66... Is any of the stuff at Planet Splash 'n' Play on
28 near Westfields indoors AND open in the winter? We haven't been
there yet.
Would help the planning to know how many kids we're talking about and
their ages. I'm guessing mine (almost 2 and almost 5) are among the
youngest, and I know the Doubtful Guests have teens who would get bored
at the breakfast play area at Fair Oaks.

I can think of one other place that has always sounded interesting;
never been there. It's about 40 minutes' drive w/o much traffic from
our house. I've heard it's a small but neat place. Aimed at
10-and-under so it may be boring for teens; don't know.
Explore & Moore (kids' museum )
12904 Occoquan Road, Woodbridge VA 22192-2839
703-492-2222
Links to info (not sure if it has a home page):
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=%22Explore+and+Moore%22+museum+Woodbridge+VA&btnG=Google+Search
"B" on this map.
http://imgi.maps.yahoo.com/overviewmap?OVMAPData=fp4ehOR32XXdrY620uwMjS.RlyebOPJIWo0Uqdn57Gb864LcZrheE_.YlxHShldBSzc3xs7tm6xv8Rvv94s1Gpr8UpmZv.HKrlQMT15L9ysm48Ql5_KZDFaHoK9E&ORG=JVWCR_Mmhni5rS6GaC6sso3rral0kyN65SnPZwlZkWdjEXORpJJvCipa4ZmTdd6YGrm21L3PLeHnlwd.dQ.sDd1lDygehdafvDxRmF0gB3hX8poitS3v
The Washington Post article from 3/22/02
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=entertainment/profile&id=1070945&typeId=3)
says, in part:
"Open 9 to 3 Monday through Friday, 10 to 6 Saturdays and noon to 5
Sundays. Admission is $5; $4 for ages older than 55 and visitors in
groups of 10 or more; and free for ages younger than 2. A frequent
visitor pass enables a family to receive one free admission after nine
paid admissions. The museum offers two party rooms, and party packages
that cost from $85 to $200 for up to 10 children. The museum does not
accept credit cards."

Arielle

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "thedoubtfulguests"
wrote:
>
> I am open to ideas. I would still like to have it in VA. Y'all in
> MD can organize a picnic in the spring. :-)
>
> I am considering the Tysons II Galeria food court, or the Pentagon
> City Mall food court. Both have plenty of free or cheap parking, a
> variety of food without fussing with the check, and plenty of space
> for kids to run around.
>

We like either one of these - offers a variety of food choices and
plenty of room for all age groups - plus either is an easy exit for
those coming off the Beltway.
gg

My vote is Pentagon City, it's on the Metro's Blue and Yellow Lines
and many folks could get there without driving.

(It's a Holiday letterbox is hidden there too.)

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "girlguides"
wrote:
> --- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "thedoubtfulguests"
> wrote:
> >
> > I am open to ideas. I would still like to have it in VA. Y'all
in
> > MD can organize a picnic in the spring. :-)
> >
> > I am considering the Tysons II Galeria food court, or the
Pentagon
> > City Mall food court. Both have plenty of free or cheap parking,
a
> > variety of food without fussing with the check, and plenty of
space
> > for kids to run around.
> >
>
> We like either one of these - offers a variety of food choices and
> plenty of room for all age groups - plus either is an easy exit for
> those coming off the Beltway.
> gg

In a message dated 1/5/2004 10:32:14 AM Eastern Standard Time,
poisonivy@haveashittyday.com writes:

> My vote is Pentagon City, it's on the Metro's Blue and Yellow Lines
> and many folks could get there without driving.
>
> (It's a Holiday letterbox is hidden there too.)
>

I would like that, too. I think having it on the Metro encourages more
people to come.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

We prefer Pentagon City, too--as we will definitely be taking the
metro and as a mom with a couple of young kids in tow, it will be,
by far, the easiest method of getting there for us (especially after
the cross country trip to that area we'll be taking the day prior to
the event). After spending years in Seattle traffic, each week I'm
not too keen on fighting metro DC traffic in a vehicle in the winter-
-after I haven't visited the area for a LONG time.

On a side note, from previous gatherings we've attended/coordinated,
I've learned personally that I'd rather use the gathering time to
get to meet other letterboxers--since that's sort of the reason
folks are attending the event anyway (especially when you reside in
an area with very few active letterboxers and really meeting a
fellow letterboxer on the trail is highly improbable). If there are
too many 'resident' letterboxes in the area, then folks tend to
scatter pretty quickly looking for the boxes and then rarely
reassemble as a group--you never really get to meet all of the other
letterboxers at the gathering. Of course, this is only my personal
preference--I presume other folks feel the exact opposite about
these things.

dvn2r ckr
DuPont, WA

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, gbecket@a... wrote:
> In a message dated 1/5/2004 10:32:14 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> poisonivy@h... writes:
>
> > My vote is Pentagon City, it's on the Metro's Blue and Yellow
Lines
> > and many folks could get there without driving.
> >
> > (It's a Holiday letterbox is hidden there too.)
> >
>
> I would like that, too. I think having it on the Metro encourages
more
> people to come.

Hi Scarab:

I'm certainly glad there is a change in venue. I know about the
horrible parking situation at the new air museum and had decided not
to attend the event for that very reason. Now that its being moved
to a better location, count me in!

Pentagon City or Tysons II are both OK for me. But I agree with Ivy
that Pentagon City, being metro accessible, may be easier for more
people.

Mary

My vote would be for Tysons II or anywhere other than
Pentagon City.

:-)

--Mahjong

> Pentagon City or Tysons II are both OK for me.
> Mary