Things to Do in Fairfax

Fencing Sports Academy teaches students to parry, lunge, and riposte in fencing classes that cater to everyone from beginners to Olympic-level competitors. Head coach Ervin Szucs previously worked as head coach for the Hungarian National Team and has trained U.S.A. North American Cup gold medalists and World Team members. In classes split by age and skill level, new students learn basic foot movements and guards while more advanced fencers explore tip control and complicated maneuvers, all while brandishing blunt-tipped swords or unsharpened rubber chickens.

The instructors at Guns-n-Gear LLC dedicate their classes to developing handgun knowledge, range-shooting skills, and firearm safety in pupils pursuing proficiency in handgun sports and self-protection. The three- to four-hour NRA FIRST Steps Pistol Course, led by NRA-certified instructors, commences with classroom slideshows, discussions, and shooting exercises with dummy ammunition before students apply their newfound abilities to an NRA range session. The Learn to Shoot Pistol Class, meanwhile, condenses similar lessons and hands-on instruction into a 75-minute course, including a 15-minute open-book range-safety quiz that requires trainees to fire their answers into a scantron sheet with a no. 2 handgun.

Barely an inch of wall space at Stars Beads remains visible. The rest hides beneath a rainbow of bracelets and necklaces, as well as dangling baggies of shiny beads, semiprecious stones, and the materials to turn them all into expressive accessories. Drawing from this stock, jewelry-weavers of all skill levels can plump up home arsenals or gather together in the shop to bolster the beading community. Classes led by experienced crafters guide groups through projects such as creating beaded clasps, learning the arts of metalsmithing, or using pearls to create bracelets and necklaces instead of decoy-gumball collections.

Listen. You’re a creative person. You know it, we know it. So what if you spend your life hunched in a cubicle, writing reports summarizing and aggregating multiple reports in a daily report in preparation for the weekly and monthly reports. There’s something inside you, something bright and starlike that burns in your soul like a fire-breathing dragon (only smaller and maybe without wings or fire breath, but with some impressive firelike appendages coming out of its nose instead, like star-nosed moles).

Decorated in lights, a yellow kayak stands upright outside the entrance of Jack's Boathouse, welcoming customers into the nearly 70-year-old business. Countless visitors— including Travel Channel's Samantha Brown— have dog-paddled their way to the boat house over the decades and taken kayaks, canoes, and standup paddleboards on winding journey's through Washington, DC.

The Potomac River forms a tranquil waterway past some of the capital's most famous locations. Whether on tours or self-guided paddles, boats can capture views of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and where the founding fathers played Marco Polo at Georgetown Harbor. As the sun sets, wildlife such as eagles and beavers join in on Jack's aquatic excursions.

Wine & Food Festival