wrekehavoc

rosslyn is mostly a concrete jungle of skyscrapers and condos. there are a few restaurants here of interest (love santa fe cafe), but nothing really here but hotels for tourists.

lord almighty, ballston is not exactly a destination. there are a few restaurants of interest; but mostly, it’s a concrete office and condo jungle. nothing to see here, folks; move aside and leave it for locals.

enjoy it now. almost every other vietnamese restaurant (including queen bee and cafe dalat) have fallen victim to the redevelopment of clarendon, and hopefully, this one won’t go away as well. love it. great service, nice people, yummy food. very accomodating for vegetarians :-)

Clarendon was once a really, really cool place to hang. All sorts of independent stores and restaurants and bars thrived. There were plenty of places to park. Now, everyone wants to live there. A billion condos are built there. Chain places are cropping up - restaurants, stores. Fer crying out loud, there’s even a Cheesecake Factory there. It’s like it turned into a mall, with more expensive parking. Restaurants that made the place special - the Vietnamese restaurants that gave the area the nickname “Little Saigon” - as well as some of the quirky independent places - are being chased away by high rental prices. Congratulations, town planners and business people—you’ve stripped away the character of a great neighborhood. The way things are headed, I suspect there will be an Olive Garden there next. ::Sigh::

They repaved paradise and put up a strip mall.

If you aren’t from the UK, be careful when you are having your picture taken walking across the street (a la the Beatles) or else you might get run over ;-)

I grew up in T.R. and spent much of my youth waiting to get the heck out of town. I have no desire whatsoever to return.

The gardens are gorgeous. Get a crepe filled with nutella from a street vendor, sit down on a bench, and watch the world go by.

There are signs all over the Louvre telling tourists to stop taking photos because the flash pictures are destroying the art. When I visited La Giocanda, there was a huge contingent of tourists from Japan there, snapping photos of the Mona Lisa. I was frantic because I didn’t speak Japanese. My husband still laughs about the time I “tried to save the Mona Lisa.”

If you’re into impressionism, this is a great museum :-)

The last time I went to Island Beach State Park was sometime in the early 1980s. I grew up across the bridge and, as a townie, would avoid Sleaze-side Heights (too many annoying tourists) for either Ortley Beach or IBSP. IBSP was a great place to come – quiet, uncrowded, not commercial. I wonder if it is still like that…