Second Story Beach

Merrifield, VA

Here’s a mural that I almost didn’t see. It’s not noticeable from ground level, but you can view it from the parking garage. I assume that there is a hotel pool there; thus, the beach scene. 

I took these pictures a month ago when I ventured up to Northern Virginia to buy some grocery items that I cannot find in my rural county. I braved the traffic to drive to the organic market in the “Mosaic District,”  a planned urban area in Merrifield. The parking garage is across from the store, and other shops and a hotel are clustered around it.

Monday Murals / Mosaic

 

From the upper levels of the garage, I could see people below. I also noticed interesting shadows on a wall, which I thought was worthy of its own photo

I probably won’t drive there to shop on a weekday again. It was easy enough getting there, but coming back, the traffic was awful! I wasn’t surprised because I have sat in that traffic before, but there was a vehicle on the edge of the road from an earlier accident, causing everybody to slow down even more than usual. 

I used to work in Merrifield, but it was decades ago, before nice restaurants and stores came in. The area was mostly industrial and downtrodden, and the modern building where I worked was near a recycling facility that attracted a flow of old diesel trucks with smoky exhaust. We also had pollution from the intersection of I-66 and the Capital Beltway. I referred to the area as the armpit of Northern Virginia!