Adventures With Little Bear: Boat! Moon! Light! Moon! Moon!

Haha, last night we headed to Old Town Alexandria for their Boat Parade of Lights, which is held each year around the holidays. It's always been something we've wanted to do, and we figured Chloe would be interested in the lights. We were right!

We arrived at around 4:30, as I'd heard there would be entertainment beforehand. We missed Santa's arrival and declined to wait in the very long line to see him in his gazebo, but we did listen to a great brass quartet play Christmas carols! The crowd got a little thick when a high school dance group came in so we walked up the street and found a place to eat dinner. We were thinking soup and sandwich so we chose La Madeleine on King Street. Despite of the extremely confusing ordering process and an extra order of a half-sandwich (returned, not paid for, luckily, haha) we had a nice dinner. LB enjoyed her fruit plate and "CHEEEEEEEEE" (mac and cheese).

After dinner, we walked back down to the waterfront and on the way, Chloe was so excited about all of the lights that had been turned on in the trees when the sun went down. She was pointing and talking all about them; it was so sweet. When we got to the waterfront, we decded to walk a bit down into the park and found a good spot to see the boats. It was a great little show! People were pretty creative with their light designs, and LB was super excited about each boat, and, as you saw in the title, the "MOON!" An added bonus was the fact that many airplanes were flying over to land at Reagan Airport, so that was exciting. We heard a lot of "ahh-chay!" (airplane) and "bye-bye" when they flew out of sight. Too funny.

Anyways, this event is one to keep in mind for next season! It was crowded, but not so much so that you couldn't see the boats and have room to move around. Garage parking was easy and cheap. Market Square and the store fronts are beautifully decorated too!