The Family Drive-In

Posted by Reston Dad on Mar 23, 2012 in Arts & Entertainment, Day Trips, Kids | Comments Off

The drive in opens tonight!

Yes!  The Drive-in!

Sorry, it’s not @ Lake Anne.

It’s at the outer limits of my notion of a day trip from Lake Anne, Reston, Va

  Yes!

There is, within driving distance from Lake Anne Village, an honest-to-goodness, actual 1950′s vintage, beautiful, Family Drive-In.

It opens for its 56th season tonight!

The Family Drive In is completely modern in every aspect, except nostalgia.

New Releases – first run movies – with an amazing concession stand (Funnel Cakes made fresh while you wait)

Fresh Mountain air, sky full of stars, and family ambiance of the ’50′s 

See my post on the Day-Trip page for directions & basic info.

This is worth the trip!

Here is a copy of today’s email from them:

Magical Movie Moments Under The Stars  March 20, 2012 SAVE $$ PURCHASE A SEASON PASS AT 2011 ADMISSION RATES   SALE ENDS MARCH 22nd (Extended 2 days!-on March 23rd-2012 rates apply)   Save $10-20 on movie admissions this season. Passes are available in 5,6,8 & 10 admission increment denominations Passes our good the entire season and can be used 1 or 2 admissions each time you come to the theatre or you can bring family and friends and use all admissions at one time- it’s your choice! Click here to purchase a pass: 2012 Season Passes     Quick Links… Our Website Twitter Account Like Us on Facebook HELP THE EASTER BUNNY HUNT EGGS!SATURDAY NIGHT APRIL 7, 2012  6- 7:30 PM STARTS MARCH 30th.     ——————————- MOVIE ADMISSION: $8.00 Adults $4.00 Children (Ages 3-11)   Children under Age- 3: FREE BOX OFFICE OPENS AT:    6 PM    ———————   COME EARLY FOR THE BEST PARKING SPOTS!   ——————— Theatre Movieline: 540-665-6982 BIG SEASON OPENING: THE HUNGER GAMES Come out and see the hotest movie of 2012 with us!   The Hunger Games is on pace to match Harry Potter’s and Twilight’s popularity.    It all starts on Friday night, March 23rd! Features on SCREEN 1:   Friday/Saturday, March 23 & 24: Hunger Games (PG-13)                   Good Deeds (PG-13) Show time: 7:30 PM                           Show time: 10:15 PM Features on Screen 2:    Friday/Saturday, March 23, 24: THE LORAX  & BIG MIRACLE  Showtimes: The Lorax (PG) – 7:30 PM                        The Big Miracle (PG) – 9:20 PM ———————————————————————– Win a pair of tickets to see Kenny Chesney & Tim McGraw in concert at FEDEX Field, August 12th!   Come out to the drive-in to see a movie this weekend (March 23rd or 24th) or next weekend (Friday, Saturday- March 30, 31st) and register for a chance to win!  Contest sponsored by Z104.9 Today’s Fresh Country and The Family Drive-In Theatre Did you know that all movie theaters must convert to digital projection within the next two years to survive as a theater? The movie studios are quickly phasing out 35MM film movie prints.  Theaters like ours don’t mind converting to digital –and there will be some advantages to using digital for us–but the kicker is that independent theaters like ours; can not qualify for the studio financing plans –used by the big movie chains– therefore  we are left on our own to find a way to pay for digital.  To convert The Family Drive-In Theatre we are looking at close to: $140,000! How can you help?  The best way you can help us is to purchase food in our concession stand– the profits go towards theatre operations, whereas the money we charge for movie tickets is primarily used to pay for the films we exhibit– so the more business we have in our concessions operations this year– the better it will be to save some $$ to convert. If you would like to know more about how you can help– click on the link below:   HELP US GO DIGITAL    THANKS for helping us keep movies “Under the Stars” for years to come!

Central Park in Reverse

Posted by Reston Dad on Aug 5, 2011 in Lake Anne, Lake Anne Village, Parks & Recreation, Paths | Comments Off

 Most mornings Benji and I go out early for a nice walk.

Thanks to the path system in Reston, we have several routes to choose from, long and short

.Four or five times out of 7, we take a walk around Lake Anne.  From my condo in Northgate, it’s about a 2 mile walk.

It’s like a walk in the park, but not.

We stroll through Lake Anne Park, where someone is always either shooting hoops or lobbing tennis balls against the wall, and the RA staff are busy tidying up.  Down a hill, through the underpass and onto the almost deserted Plaza.  Maintenance men are tending to the fountain and such, a few fellow dog walkers, and the oh-so peaceful lake.

Serenity hits me as we reach the corner of the promenade near Heron House, where we pass  a small group doing tai chi – to the strains of peace inducing music.  The calm is reinforced by the gardens and foliage as we approach the Van Gogh Bridge.  And thus my walk continues, almost entirely separated from vehicular traffic.

Peaceful.  Like a walk in the park.  However, this walk is almost entirely through various communities that dot the lake. I’m walking through a commercial plaza and past townhouses and single family houses. But also through woods, and along the lake shoreline.  It’s an ever-changing vista.  Like a walk in the park should be.

Central Park, in New York, was designed in the mid 1800′s to rival the great urban parks of Europe and show those Europeans we had community spirit.  It was the first urban designed park.

Turtles on a log in Central Park Lake

Thanks to the genius of people like  Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux and later, Robert Moses, this wooded oasis in the urban jungle offers New Yorkers a wild piece of nature.

Except, of course, that the park is completely man-made.  Totally designed, landscaped and manicured by man (and woman and child). It looks so natural, but it’s a man-made park carved into the urban landscape.  Granted, it was carved out and designed before the urban landscape surrounded it.

Lake Anne Village (and all of Reston, but especially Lake Anne Village) is similar in many ways –   in reverse.  Ok, so maybe it’s not exactly an Urban Jungle carved into nature, but, like Central Park, the park-like infrastructure was carved out and designed before the urban landscape surrounded it.

Reston was designed to be an urban center carefully inserted into a forest of  oak, maple, sycamore, and Virginia pine.  Environmentalists were involved from the beginning, a nursery was established in North Reston to replace some of the trees that were removed during construction.

Thanks to the genius of people like Robert Simon, James Rossant,  William Conklin, and Vernon Walker, our community shares quite a bit with central park.  Consider:

Pedestrian paths

(paved walkways that are separated from vehicular traffic).

Central Park:  58 miles

Reston:  55 miles

(note – consider this while driving to the beach this weekend, distance from Lake Anne to Annapolis is 56 miles)

Man Made Lake

Central Park: 20 acres

Lake Anne:  28 acres

Open Space / wooded preserves

Central Park:   843 acres (entire park)

136 acres   (woods)

Reston:  1,300 of our  6,700 acres were preserved as open space

Walker Nature Center:  72 Acres (woods)

Public Art

Lake Anne Plaza has lots of public art - the fountain, pyramid, and boat to name a few. Perfect fit for the plaza and all well explored by our children.

However, for sheer grandeur and size (Alice in Wonderland, Bethesda Fountain), Central Park may have us beat for public art.

But  IPAR is still working on this one.    

I Enjoy Life in a Park.