Now that the sun has been shining bright over Vienna and Oakton, Vienna resident Kerry Farley and her 3-year-old son don't have to be cooped up indoors. For the past several days, they've been going to Meadow Lane Park, where the kids like the playground while the moms like the shade.
"It's getting better now that we can go outside, but it's getting hot for the kids," Farley said, as she sat on a park bench, while children around her played in the sandbox or on the swingset. But "we went from one extreme to another."
As weeks of rain created soggy grounds, canceled ballgames and drove people indoors, the notorious Washington summer of heat and haze recently came into full force with Code Red conditions. While area residents cast away their umbrellas, the humidity finally forced many families to crank up the air conditioning.
Yet despite the heat, area residents and businesses specializing in summertime fun have enjoyed the consecutive days of sunshine.
"I'm not complaining about the weather because it's been raining for so long," said Fairfax City resident Teesta Ghosh, who stopped by Cox Farms on Chain Bridge Road to find plants for her home garden.
Indeed, Cox Farms employee Margot Doucette hoped the sunny weather would last.
"Now that the sun has come out, business has really picked up," Doucette said, as the sale blossoms around her burst with color. "The rain really did kind of put a damper on it. We had a lot of soggy flowers."
A few miles east, mothers watched their young children navigate the playground equipment at Vienna's Meadow Lane Park. Vienna resident Jeanne El-Hindi watched her son Jamal, 3, and her daughter Leigh, almost 2, shovel sand with toy shovels that easily fit into their small hands. A few days ago, her family brought out the kiddie pool for the first time this summer.
"I actually enjoyed the cool weather, so I didn't mind it at all," confessed El-Hindi, adding that she grew up in Michigan, where the summers weren't so hot and humid.
North of the park, on Church Street, Steve Johnson, co-owner of Nielsen's Frozen Custard, was busy preparing the soft-serve treats for the lunch crowd. Chocolate and vanilla are always favorite flavors, although the caramel cashew flavor offered only on Saturdays has had some popularity as well.
"In the sun, everybody's out. The warmer the weather, the better for us," Johnson said.