Click on Image to View Slideshow

Azaleas were in bloom at Ashby Pond.

The sign

A view of the pond

A Canada Goose swims in the pond

Reflections

One of the houses in the neighborhood

It is complicated...

Flowering Tree

It was Yard Sale day. I stopped at a few, but did not buy.

One of the many shopping centers

The oldest house in the City of Fairfax, although it only dates back to 1812.

The Fairfax City CourtHouse

It was rare album release day, so a line of about 100 or so disc enthusiasts waited outside Mobius Records in the small downtown.

One of the many short paths that make this a bike-friendly city.

You can lose your bearings among the strip malls and irregular traffic patterns in the City of Fairfax. But you can also find paths and small parks that help give the area its charm.

A few months ago, I ran along the maze of trails near Country Club Hills Commons, but didn’t write about it right away and misplaced the photos. On this visit, I started out at Ashby Pond Conservatory Site.  Colorful azaleas brightened the smallish neighborhood park bordered by backyards on three sides and a small road on the fourth.  On the early Saturday morning, a lone burly man wearing a Redskins jacket was trying his luck at fishing as a half dozen mallards sat in the grass and a few Canada geese glided on the water’s surface.

After doing the quarter mile trail around the pond, I headed out through a well-kept middle class neighborhood and then to the small, eclectic downtown. I took a few photos of the iconic courthouse before heading back. Built in 1799, it became the model for many of the courthouses in Virginia.

The City of Fairfax is about 16 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. It packs a population of 24,000 into its six square miles. It was named one of the top places to live well by Forbes magazine in 2009.

117 runs down, 17 to go.