Welcome fellow Blogtrotters! My name is Vicki and my family and I currently live in Arlington, Virginia. We have lived in many a city, state and even country. Second to Germany, Arlington has been my favorite place to live, and we’ve only been here for eight months. If you’ve been blogtrotting long you’ll remember Zahra’s post on Arlington, and it was a fabulous one. So, I’ll try to give you my take on Arlington.
When many non-locals mention or think about Arlington they are thinking about Arlington National Cemetery.
That is a humbling site to behold, but Arlington is so much more.
It is a city and county all at the same time. It is old mixed with new. Tradition mixed with modernity. Concrete and parks. Corporations and families. Small-town neighborhoods sitting a block from big-city businesses. Bicycle paths and HOV lanes. We’re a short metro ride to professional sports teams: football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey. Across the Potomac is Washington, D.C.; 1.5 hours west are the mountains; 3 hours east are the beaches. Reagan International Airport can get you around the world. Everything is at your fingertips in Arlington.
Arlington has a lot of:
- dogs — more prevalent than kids, which reminds me a lot of Europe.
- joggers — we’ve got to be one of the healthiest cities in the world.
- Starbucks — no less than 23!
- parks — the Arlington website lists 127 of them! Many of these are great playgrounds nestled in the many neighborhoods.
- neighborhoods — around 67 – 14 of those are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (including mine!)
- libraries — 8 public ones
- restaurants and stores — reminds me a lot like Europe as well. Outdoor cafés, dogs at those cafés. Outdoor stores (as opposed to stores in malls), dogs in those stores. Here’s an example:
Here are some things around Arlington that we have enjoyed:
The county fair! The Arlington County Fair is located right in the city because there is no “country” in the county to have the fair.
I even met the First Couple! . . . or a close facsimile
We’ve met Sergeant York, the horse who carried President Reagan’s boots during his funeral procession. Sergeant York lives at Fort Myer with the U.S. 3rd Infantry’s Army Old Guard Caisson Platoon.
The Pentagon Memorial (The Pentagon is in Arlington). Each day thousands of people drive by the Memorial on I395 and each day thousands of people work alongside it. It’s a quiet place to be, even among the populous:
We saw a commercial being filmed. Several months later I found out it was for Get Square VA (a tax amnesty program). This was filmed in the Clarendon neighborhood:
Here is the beautiful fountain in Clarendon. We got in trouble for letting the girls dip their hands in it (oops!):
It’s not all warm and sunny weather around here. During the winter we got more snow than ever before!
There’s a little bit of everything in Arlington and we’ve just begun to scratch the surface. I wish you were all here to experience it with us! Thanks for stopping by!
If you would like to get an in-depth, albeit hilarious, idea of one of the bright and growing areas of Arlington, the Orange Corridor (because the orange line of the metro runs through it), watch this “rap” video. It pokes fun at how safe Arlington is and it proves how many Starbucks we have. I love it. And I love Arlington.
Not So SAHM 
Vicki, great tour! It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Arlington (um, 18 years long), but I remember how much I liked it there.
Great tour!
And now I’m in the mood for a venti latte with a shot of hazelnut…
I’m sure a lot of things have remained the same even though there’s been a lot of change!
Thanks for the tour! Can you believe we have none – zip, zero Starbucks in South Africa? And I love their breakfast blend.
Does Starbucks ship to South Africa? I’m a chai tea person myself 🙂
Looks like a wonderful place to live! I don’t even drink coffee and talk of 23 Starbucks in one town is impressive to me!
Thanks for the tour!
I don’t drink coffee either. I’m a chai girl, and their chai is pretty wonderful. Too expensive for me to enjoy all the time, but it’s good to know I can get one at almost any street corner.
I’ve been to Arlington Cemetery back in 2004 but it was beautiful (loooong walk though). Other than that I don’t think we did anything actually in Arlington, but more the DC. Same with my second trip. We arrived too late to go into the Cemetery but got to see it from the road LOL
Did you see the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?
Lovely photos! Eight public libraries – that sounds like my kind of town.
We’ve visited several of them and they’re all great. My favorite part is the self-checkout!
I had no idea Arlington was so pet-friendly! I only have cats, though, who are decidedly NOT the types to come along calmly for an afternoon of shopping and a spot of tea.
Great tour! Thanks for being a part of BlogTrotting!
Cats are all that we have too and you’re right, people would NOT appreciate those two in a store!
Last time I was in Arlington I was about 22. Wow. Long ago. 🙂
Nifty tour. Thanks for the insight!
I wonder what the differences are between then and now. Were you visiting or staying?
I could live in any place that had that many Starbucks, although I gave them up for lent!!!!!!
Great tour, would love to visit.
Saw you TOG button, we use it too!
I gave up facebook and twitter for lent 🙂 I’m trying to memorize Bible verses instead. I’m on my first go around of the third year of TOG. I LOVE it! I noticed that your favorite concert would include Skillet. We are fans! We’ve seen them a couple of times and they make us feel young 🙂
Nice post. I think you did Arlington proud. That’s coming from someone who’s lived in Northern Virginia for my whole life, minus a few years in college. And I love that you included the Remy rap. That was one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. Also, funny thing — I walked right pass the store that allows carried pets yesterday. 🙂
Thanks! I’ve fallen in love with the area. I can’t see myself living anywhere else right now! I took a picture of that hand-held pets sign this summer; it struck me as so funny.
I have actually been to Arlington. The only thing I did get to see was the Pentagon (from the outside) and the National Cemetery and John Kennedy’s grave. What a sobering experience to walk through and to watch the exchange of duties at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The rest of the vacation, my children were sick so, of course, Mom had to stay at the hotel while Dad got to take the others sightseeing.
Thanks for the great tour.
Oh no! I hope you get to come back. I’m excited to see the cherry blossoms this spring in DC, I’ve never seen those before.
Popping by by way of Reno, NV. I so want to come visit Arlington! I love all the comparisons to Europe. What an exciting town to live in. Thanks for the tour!
From what I hear Spring is a great time to visit! This will be our first spring here and I’m looking forward to it!
I watched the video and can’t wait to get a glimpse of the “craziness” that you are surrounded by! I see that you will have a lot to show us when we come! I know I definitely won’t have a problem getting a cup of jo!
AAAAGGHHH!!! It’s going to be so much fun! And we can be as hyped up on caffein as you want 🙂 We can start trying to come up with a list of things that you might want to do while you’re here. One thing I want to try while y’all are here is parking at the end of the runways at Reagan International and watching the planes take off and land. I think the boys would like that (both young and not so young)…and Ashlyn…and all of us really.
Great post! We just moved to Arlington in September, and we love it too. So much to do with kids in the metro area! I also love all the trails- we live right by two of them, and love walking and seeing all the neighborhoods and parks off the trails. You are right- there are SO many parks. I feel like we have been to tons, and I bet that we have only seen 10% or so. It is a great place to explore!
What a great tour! Thanks for letting us tag along!
Wow, you made me want to move! Great job on telling us where you live, it really sounds awesome!
Oh my gosh, I was just thinking about you last night! Your baby is so big and beautiful now! Well, you should definitely come to DC, there’s so much to do here. I’m hearing that Spring is an especially nice time to visit with the Cherry Blossom Festival and the nicer weather!
I have been one time but it was for a day and that was not nearly enough time to see everything. Cherry Blossom Festival sounds like a perfect thing to come and see, thanks for that heads up!
Thank you…he’s growing so fast! And now we are talking about doing it all over again and give him a sibling! 🙂
I know that I’m terribly late in my Blog Trotting visit and for that I’m sorry. But I’m so glad that I am finally getting around to visiting you. Our family has always wanted to visit Arlington but we have yet to do so. One day we will. I love your blog and I can’t wait to see more of it.
Kim
The Misplaced Midwesterner
Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully you will get a chance to really visit this area sometime soon. There’s something to offer everyone and I’m already afraid we’re going to miss things before we have to move. Hope you make it out here!
WOW~ Thanks for the tour! Really does look like an awesome place to live.