City On A Lake

On the perimeter of the Washington region are several planned communities, or "new towns." Reston, Virginia, was designed in the 1960s. I'm not familiar enough with the history to understand if the point was to get away from the bustle of urban life or to relieve the isolation of suburbia, but my guess is that it was a little of both.

On the road to Reston, for a moment it feels like you've entered the countryside.

Lake Anne, one of the original parts of the town, looks like a state park as you drive in. It's actually a shopping center, office complex, residential area, farmer's market and restaurant row.

The homes around the lake are built on the model of an Italian village, but with discordant postwar architecture.

At a Moroccan restaurant by the water, we ordered mint tea with the distinctive taste of honey.  Then we explored the more modern "town center," which is compact but rather empty, with an assortment of mall stores. According to the website, it has "the vitality of an Italian piazza and the diversity of a French boulevard."