Alexandria Events Dec 2019 FEATURED EVENTS 6TH & 7TH 49th Annual Campagna Center Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend & Parade Parade is December 7th at 11 a.m. Admission: Free for parade and Heather and Greens Sales; $180-$290 for Taste of Scotland; $40 for Holiday Home Tours Throughout Old Town 703-549-0111 Don’t miss Old Town Alexandria’s most spectacular holiday weekend. In 1749, the City of Alexandria was officially established by three Scottish merchants and named after its original founder, John Alexander, also of Scottish descent. Today, the city continues celebrating its heritage with a weekend of festivities. At the Campagna Center’s iconic Scottish Christmas Walk Parade, dozens of Scottish clans dressed in colorful tartans parade through the streets of Old Town, joined by pipe and drum bands from around the region, as well as terriers and hounds. The parade, which takes place rain or shine, begins at St. Asaph and Wolfe Streets and concludes at Market Square with a massed band concert. campagnacenter.org/scottishwalkweekend 7th 20th Anniversary Alexandria Holiday Boat Parade of Lights Parade begins at 5:30 p.m.; Dockside festivities 2 to 8 p.m. Waterfront Park (1 King St.) Admission: Free 703-746-3301 Old Town Alexandria’s historic waterfront will shine for the 20th Anniversary Alexandria Holiday Boat Parade of Lights at 5:30 p.m. as dozens of brightly lit boats cruise along one mile of the Potomac River shoreline. Enjoy dockside festivities from 2 to 8 p.m. in Waterfront Park including holiday music and giveaways from 97.1 WASH-FM. Take part in hands-on activities during the afternoon sponsored by local businesses. At 3:30 p.m., Santa and Mrs. Claus will arrive by fireboat at the Alexandria City Marina to take photos with children and families at the annual Torpedo Factory Art Center Holiday Festival. Parade viewing areas: Founders Park (351 N. Union St.), Alexandria City Marina (0 Cameron St.), Waterfront Park (1 King St….
Take Photos, Leave Footprints By Scott Dicken Top Travel Destinations for 2020 Why settle for socks in your Christmas stocking when you can give someone a travel experience to remember for a lifetime? Every year I feel a twinge of excitement when the world’s most famous travel guide publisher, Lonely Planet, releases its annual top ten countries to visit, and the 2020 list has just hit the streets. While their list is by no means scientifically generated, their top 10 destination picks reveal the buzz that countries are generating amongst the tourist industry and general public. But how is a savvy gift giver like yourself going to pick from those ten destinations? Without doubt, all ten are worthy of their place on the list, but I’ve chosen to highlight two countries that, despite their diminutive size, have a whole lot to give! eSwatini (Lonely Planet Ranking Number 5) eSwatini (formerly the Kingdom of Swaziland) may be extremely tiny and often overlooked by tourists, but what it lacks in size it certainly makes up for in its diversity of wildlife, scenery, and culture: World-Class Safari eSwatini is home to three major safari destinations: Milwane Wildlife Sanctuary, Hlane Royal National Park and Mkhaya Game Reserve. Both Hlane and Mkhaya are home to four (Lion, Elephant, Rhino, and Leopard) of the “Big Five” must-see animals on safari and draw tourists keen to experience a traditional big game safari. In the big game hubbub Hlane and Mkhava generate, the Milwane Game Reserve can often be overlooked. This small, but extremely picturesque sanctuary isn’t home to any dangerous carnivores, which means that visitors are free to mountain bike or even walk through the park! It’s certainly a unique and relaxing safari experience that shouldn’t be missed. From personal experience, I just suggest you exercise caution…
By Nancy Bauer 2019 in Virginia Vineyards, a Time to Saber Like a life raft for the forsaken after 2018, this year’s Virginia grape harvest started a little damp and unsteady, but when the sun came out in late spring, all was well. More than well, actually—splendid. Superb. All the right feels–wet, dry, sunny, cool, hot–at all the right moments. Some who live that life 24×7, like Melanie Natoli, might even say that 2019’s is a vintage beyond compare. So a few weeks ago, the winemaker from Cana Vineyards in Middleburg did what many an exhausted, giddy winemaker did to mark the end of this year’s knock-out harvest: she knocked the head off a bottle of champagne with a machete–“sabering” it. When you have a job that, at times, makes you want to turn the machete on yourself, a completion ritual like sabering is relief: mental, emotional, physical. One more harvest over, one more transition from the heat of the vineyard to the chill of the cellar. One more start of the cycle, complete. These days, the wine industry is such an important part of Virginia’s economy that harvest success and failure regularly make the 6:00 news. But twenty years ago, while most of us had some vague, glamorous notion of life on a vineyard, few of us knew anything real about what it takes to run a winery. And what we did know – or thought we knew – looked a lot like those Bartles & Jaymes guys relaxing on their porch. “You call that a job?” we would have scoffed, if we’d thought about the wine life at all. My window into the lifestyle grew from a peephole to a porthole one sunny fall day when my now-husband and I stopped by the now-closed Piedmont Vineyards. After sampling…