Alexandria, VA (USA)

[Mollie and I spent much of the day shopping at the nearby Base (new clothes for me, electronic items for everyone) - after a visit to Target to spend a gift card, we drove over to the Telegraph Road & South Kings Highway entrance to the (very expansive) Hartley Meadows city park - there was a nice paved trail through the woods there (mostly between Telegraph and US-1) - we saw lots of other hikers and bike riders, despite the chilly weather - Mollie told me she had seen an entrance on the other side, but this was the first time I ventured into the park - we enjoyed the nice weather and looked for birds (we weren't as lucky as our recent trip to Mason Neck...) - we wanted to get all the way to the middle of the property, where there was (supposedly) an observation tower, but the sun was almost down - we hurried back to our car and barely made it before the darkness hit - we will definitely need to go back!]