Fairfax Station, VA Outdoor Activities

Course designer Tom Clark of Ault, Clark, & Associates earned Pleasant Valley Golf Club a 4.5-star rating from Golf Digest, whose editors applauded the architect’s creativity in the site’s rolling hills and dense hardwood forest. Clark’s 18-hole brainchild allows players to tee up from one of four tee boxes and test their mettle against the par 72 course, taking care to avoid the water in play on six holes and the grassy meadows that lie outside the fairway borders. Players can bookend their round with a warm-up session on the range and a cooldown at the grill, helped along by a club sandwich, a Gatorade, or a glass of ice water dumped on an overused foot wedge.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course
• Total length of 6,915 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 73.5 from the back tees
• Course slope of 137 from the back tees
• Four sets of tees per hole
• Scorecard

You'll be led in the ways of matching and loving under director Ron "Ald" McDonald, aka Tennis the Menace, aka the Count of Volley Cristo—a US Professional Tennis Association–certified coach and 35-year veteran of successful tennis-knowledge transmission. You'll be grouped with a handful of swingers at your own skill level, allowing you to reap the benefits of group training and assign each other catchy nicknames. Through fun drills and lightly competitive scrimmaging, you'll build on fundamentals and incorporate new flourishes into your victory dance.

United Social Sports brings recreational athletes together to socialize and showcase their hand-eye coordination. Free agents or team-sized groups register for the organization’s casual coed leagues dedicated to traditional sports such as softball and volleyball as well as carnival games such as cornhole and skee-ball. Each league hosts 6–8 weekly matches, which culminate in a final tournament and an end-of-season party—much like youth-sports leagues, but with postgame drink specials.

Sculpted into the rolling hills of Northern Virginia and designed by prolific course architect Dan Maples, South Riding Golf Club’s course plots a challenging path through mature timbers and glassy waters. A fleet of golf carts equipped with GPS technology helps players navigate the 7,148-yard chain of fairways by giving them the distance to upcoming hazards, greens, and blitzing linebackers emerging from the rough. Streams and ponds ripple throughout the course, including on the par-3 13th hole, where golfers are faced with a forced carry over a pond situated between tee and green. The club’s grass-tee driving range, short-game area, practice bunker, and putting green allow players to nurture their relationship with their putter, wedges, irons, woods, or modified soup ladles. When not conquering the course, duffers can take advantage of South Riding's modern clubhouse, fully stocked pro shop, and staff of golf instructors.

Course at a Glance:

• Designed by Dan Maples
• 18-hole, par-72 course
• Length of 7,148 yards from the farthest tees
• Course rating of 74.8 from the farthest tees
• Slope rating of 140 from the farthest tees
• Five tee options (including blended tee layout)

Since 1973, skaters have been sailing effortlessly across Fairfax Ice Arena’s spacious, icy surface during public skate sessions, figure skating–lessons, and hockey leagues for all ages. At the family-owned arena, a staff of dedicated skating coaches guides students while calling upon experience from the St. Petersburg State Ballet on Ice, Disney on Ice, and the lesser-known On Golden Pond on Ice. The arena is open throughout the year, hosting a full hockey and figure skating–pro shop in addition to its Arena Café.

In 2005, the Montreal Expos became the Canadian Expats, pledging a new allegiance and taking on a new identity as the first big-league club to inhabit America's capital since the Senators moved to Texas in 1971. In 2008, the team christened its new stadium, Nationals Park, which today welcomes up to 41,418 fans, its 4,500-square-foot HD scoreboard almost distracting from the panoramic views of the Potomac riverfront, the Capitol dome, and the Washington Monument. Accredited as a Leadership in Energy and Environment Design stadium, Nationals Park also sits 24 feet below street level, making its main concourse even with city sidewalks and saving many fans the danger of riding frozen, thin-aired escalators just to reach their seats.