King Street

I have now lived in Washington D.C./Alexandria for a little less than a month. I will write later about the drive adventure as well as the apartment. I have been a little intimidated by my new surroundings and haven't been exploring a lot quite yet. I have poked around close to our apartment in Alexandria on King Street. Using wikipedia King Street is the "heart of downtown Alexandria" which is a seemingly endless street of shops, restaurants, unusual theaters, art galleries and many other unique businesses. Bubbling with energy, King Street is a massive tourist attraction but luckily does not feel as if it is cliche, or over-run. As a "local" (I guess I still don't really count as a local yet, despite my new drives license) I still felt a sense of neighborhood and community despite the masses of people visiting historical sites and the waterfront of the Potomac River.

At the waterfront end there is a old torpedo factory which has been converted into a large scale community art center unlike anything I have ever seen. There is about three floors of studios that are rented out by local artists. You can browse artists collections, and if you are lucky even watch some of them at work. There is also an extensive list of classes you can take available in pretty much every media you can think of.
This is the waterfront side of the torpedo factory

After exploring the torpedo factory art center we ventured away from the water and I was amused to find on each side of King Street there are blocks of cobblestone streets. The exposed rocks are so rugged that when faced with the option to drive down one of these streets we have found ourselves finding a different way to reach our location.

I am sure there is much more to see on King Street and I am sure there will be many more postings on my other adventures but for now this was a good introduction to my new home.