Every Spring and Summer there are farmer’s markets all over Fairfax County, Virginia. The towns in the county have them on different days, presumably to avoid duplication. And competition, for that matter. 

Anyway, Reston has a farmer’s market from early May through mid-November on Saturdays. So I went over to Lake Anne to take a look and snap a couple of photos. See below. 

Lake Anne is the original location envisaged by Reston’s founder, Robert E Simon in 1964. It was supposed to be a kind of urban Utopia.  Actually, the 1960s were chock full of utopian schemes. Over the years, though, there just wasn’t enough room for development around Lake Anne. And as it turned out, the brutalist architecture featured around Lake Anne, didn’t afford enough choice to accommodate a change in scenery.  

Eventually what is now Reston Town Center, where we live, became the hub. It’s about a 10 square block area that bears more than a faint resemblance to the upper East Side of Manhattan. It’s a mixed use area, meaning office buildings, apartment, condos, and high-end restaurants and retail stores are located there. 

As Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote back in 1849, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”

JFB

Every year around this time Reston, along with local businesses, sponsors an annual “Cardboard Regatta”.  Basically, school kids, often with the aid of their parents and teachers build cardboard boats for a sailing competition in Lake Anne. Teams get in the boats they designed and constructed,  and then they are launched. The teams compete to make the best time paddling up to one buoy and back—without sinking. 

Today, August 10 was the Saturday for this year’s annual Cardboard Regatta. So…Mary Anne and I went over to Lake Anne to watch the proceedings, along with a throng of people who were also there to watch and to shop at the Farmer’s Market. The place was just packed. It was also hot and humid. But the crowd was in good spirits and rooted all the players on. And yes—at least one boat named the Purple People Eater, sank. The sailors were duly rescued by the volunteer rescue squad assembled for that purpose. All in all, a good time was had by all.

JFB

We were able to take a quick trip up to the Jersey Shore to see friends, including a couple from California who rented a house in Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island. It’s been quite a while since we stayed on LBI. It has really been built up; especially since the times we went there when we were (ahem) quite a bit younger. Still nice as ever though. 

We also got a chance to see friends from the Spring Lake area and bumped into Mary Anne’s brother Joe while we were out to dinner in Sea Girt. That was a surprise, so we made plans with Joe McDonald to go out to Charlie’s in Bay Head for lunch the next day. 

Actually the whole visit turned into a bit of a restaurant tour. We wound up going to Scarborough Fare, Inn in Main, Charlies, Brandls. We also had a fine dinner of BBQ chicken at Dennis and Maryanne Mulvihill’s house in Spring Lake. All in all a good time was had by all, and we will be back before too long.

We also got a chance to make our way to Ocean Grove where the Tent Houses were set up. 

And that’s all for now. We will be back at the Shore before too long.

JFB