Metro DC - Early Morning Sessions?

[Kim to the Max]

Good morning all!!

I am going to be in the Washington, DC area from 3/27-4/1 for a conference at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, MD, and my club's ice show is 4/3-4/5, so it would be helpful if, while I am away, I could at least get on the ice for an hour or so... Does anyone know of any rinks in that general area (not too far away) that may have early morning ice on a Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday?

Thanks!!!

--Kim

[NoVa Sk8r]

The Mt. Vernon RECenter (http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/rec/mvrec.htm) is right across the Wilson Bridge in Alexandria. It has weekend ice (hmmm, where was this when I was living there? :P) and early morning weekday ice.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/rec/calendars/mvfreestyle.pdf
(Check page 2 for March calendar.)

[Ellyn]

Cabin John has "mixed use" freestyle sessions starting at 6 AM on weekdays.
http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/enterprise/ice/cabin_john/index.shtm

They also have an 8 AM public session on Sundays that is often pretty empty for the first half hour.

Wheaton Ice Arena has an early freestyle on Saturdays and on Mondays in March but not April:
http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/enterprise/ice/wheaton/index.shtm

But, yeah, from National Harbor, Mt. Vernon would be closest.

[Scarlett]

Mt. Vernon is your best bet for the weekdays. On the weekends, the schedule there gets a little goofy. Try the Kettler Ice Complex in Arlington, Va for early weekend ice.

[Query]

I maintain a page with links to all DC area ice rinks and their schedules at
http://mgrunes.com/dcicerinks.html
and a map link at
http://mgrunes.com/grunes/dcicerinksmap.html
All rinks below are linked to there.

There are a lot of rinks in the area. So many that non-busy daytime weekday public sessions are usually less crowded than evening and weekend club and freestyle sessions, though some rink-run daytime freestyle sessions are also not crowded - there is rarely any (weekday daytime) advantage to freestyle and club sessions (in fact, DC area freestyle and club skaters are aggressive, and my reflexes are too slow) but a small number of local rinks do limit figure skating moves during publics. Any public session becomes crowded once in a while, if someone holds a party or field trip. Almost all sessions are least busy at the start (and some rinks quietly allow skaters to enter early), so arrive early.

Weekends and evenings are busy in most (all?) DC area rinks.

Early morning (before 9 AM) freestyle sessions are rarely busy.

Traffic can be awful around DC, especially in DC and Virginia, and in the parts of Maryland near Virginia north of DC, and on the bridges connecting Maryland and Virginia - you may sometimes get stuck a few hours around rush hour there. You can get stuck in DC itself for more than that, especially if you don't know your way around. DC itself gives many traffic and parking tickets, so be extremely careful and slow there, and don't park anywhere that isn't explicitly marked as a parking spot that is open to the public. Most unmetered parking spots in DC require a permit. Navigation is difficult near DC (DC itself and some parts of Virginia don't mark many roads) - a GPS would be wonderful (may not work near high buildings around Georgetown and Dupont Circle - no rinks are in those areas). If you don't have a GPS, the ADC map books are fairly good. National Harbour is too new for many maps and GPS's. Traffic congestion and the price of gas determines most people's ice rink choices here - don't drive farther than you have to, or through jams.

The DC Metrorail system is very nice to where it goes, but doesn't go to National Harbour. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Harbor,_Maryland says that there is a bus between National Harbour and the "Southern Avenue" metrorail stop. The DC Metrobus system is sometimes slow, and contends with traffic jams too.

Two rinks are walking distance from dc metrorail : Herbert Wells (which has busy public sessions, is partly outside, and has rough ice, may not be open this season) and Kettler (daytime freestyle sessions usually not too crowded).

Most of the rinks are accessible by some combination of metrorail and metrobus.

If you are interested in metrobus or metrorail, look at
http://www.wmata.com/rider_tools/tripplanner/tripplanner_form_solo.cfm
and
http://www.wmata.com

National Harbor http://www.nationalharbor.com is upscale, unlike some of the areas around it. Parking may be expensive, unless it is included by your resort.

Taxi service around DC metro can be expensive, especially in traffic jams, and they often refuse to make pick-ups in bad neighborhoods. Many taxicab drivers have trouble navigating certain areas.

I believe National Harbour is closest to Tucker Road, Mount Vernon, Capital Clubhouse and Bowie, in that order. I will largely limit this discussion to those rinks.

I don't know anything about Tucker Road, except that the neighborhood is a bit rough, but some people love it.

Some Mount Vernon public and (I think) sessions are very busy - metro Virginia doesn't have many rinks, so they all get crowded, and there will likely be traffic jams getting there and back. Their ice is usually pretty clean, but is erratic. Says they must pre-qualify you to skate freestyles - I'm not sure it is enforced.

I haven't been to Capital Clubhouse much, but they weren't busy and the ice was clean when I was there. If you make an appointment (not always open), Skater's Paradise (owner: Mike Cunningham) is a well regarded pro shop there.

Bowie evening and weekend sessions are busy, but their public sessions weekday mornings or noon-times are wonderful (usually 0-8 people). But once every few weeks there is an afternoon and evening traffic jam driving route 50 there, or a morning jam driving back. Very clean ice. Blades of Bowie there is another good pro shop, with slightly erratic afternoon hours, ask for owner Chuck on sharpenings. They have a lot of daytime public sessions, so you can skate almost continuously then. I wish I lived next to Bowie.

All of above (but I don't know about Tucker Road) let you figure skate during public sessions, though it is difficult during busy sessions.

[AgnesNitt]

Capitol Clubhouse. My experience is call before you go as posted times on the website are not always valid.

Mike Cunningham--great skate technician, keeps very limited hours booked weeks in advance, but if you have an emergency and he's open .....
http://www.skatersparadise.com/

[Kim to the Max]

Thank you everyone!!