Lunch Report: Chart House, Alexandra, VA...

I'm on the road at the moment and the group of folks I'm with decided we needed to escape the high class area near our hotel and scoot over to Alexandria, VA (less than ten minutes away) for some lunch. We have been to an Outback and some Italian place, and really needed to get something different.I have driven through Alexandria and walked through Old Town before, but this was the first time I had my camera with me. Just a few representative pictures to give you an idea of how beautiful the place is.I don't know the specific real estate situation, but I'm going to guess a town home in this area isn't going to be in my price range. From the tree lined streets to the brick sidewalks (a lawsuit waiting to happen, in my mind), everything is beautiful. IT doesn't hurt that the weather here is perfect - apparently cooler than normal. It was breezy and about 80.I did not know that Old Town was the wig capital of Virginia.So down by the waterfront is The Strand and aside from some art places, we found the Chart House restaurant. I think this place is a chain, and in fact they may have one in San Antonio.The place is heavy on seafood and cater toward a class of visitor used to something a little more classy than the standard butcher paper and Styrofoam cups.

We had a really excellent waiter overseeing a new waiter on his very first day. Aside from the fact that he was just clearly nervous, he did great. I would never make it as a waiter, much less a waiter in a fancy place. I wish I had a picture of it, but this guy had a little metal trowel that clipped to his apron made specifically for scooping up crumbs. I'd whip out a Dustbuster. While the people ate.Anyway, I started with a bowl of Clam Chowder. Extremely wonderful! I was a bit put off by the fancy little serving kettle but the chowder was awesome.After the soup, I opted for the salad bar and to insure that I would not be going out for a later dinner, I opted for seconds. There is nothing like a well stocked salad bar complete with fruit, pasta, and all sorts of stuff to throw on top. Bottomline: Good. A pit pricey, but add in the nice walk in Old Town, and as an overall package, it was worth it.Oh, that is until you figure out that the Alexandria Police enforce the parking meters within seconds after they expire. When we first parked, having no idea where we were going to eat or how long we would be gone, we put in enough change (actually, all the dimes the group of us had), for an hour and a half.As we were walking up to our parking spot, I knew that we were going to be at least 5 minutes over our time and sure enough, there was meter maid.And of course, like several other cars, we were recipients of a ticket.And at $35.00 a pop, I wonder how much Alexandria makes in a day?