If you're coming in from out of town, you might want to enjoy some of the local color during your stay (or you can sit in your hotel room and watch TV; it's pretty much up to you).
The area is just chock-full o'history, not only because it was on the side of the continent that the European settlers got to first* but also because it got tromped all over by various soldiers during the Civil War. You can't swing a cat (and I'm not for a minute suggesting that you try) without hitting something historical.
To that end, you might enjoy the historic towns of Occoquan and Dumfries, both pleasant to wander around and both simply reeking of yesteryear. ("Yesteryear" smells like mothballs.) Occoquan also offers the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge (703-690-1297) and Occoquan Harbor River Cruises (703-385-9433). Manassas also has an historic Old Town, which hosts a Fall Jubilee in October.
If you're interested in Civil War history, the Manassas Battlefield Park is close by (you can also check out the Civil War Traveler to find loads of other sites in Virginia). For Colonial history, you can hit Mount Vernon or the Claude Moore Colonial Farm. There are also some museums in the area (such as the National Firearms Museum and the Weems-Botts Museum, which may or may not be interesting but is lots of fun to say), but, frankly, you're 20 minutes from the Smithsonian, so why aren't you going there?
If you're feeling a little more outdoorsy, you can check out the Parks Guide or the Forest Park Site. Lake Ridge Park (which doesn't have a Website, if you can believe it - 703-494-5464) is in Woodbridge, mere moments from where you'll probably be staying. There's also the Leesylvania State Park, Great Falls Park (very pretty), the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park, and the Ben Lomond Rose Garden (I don't know who Ben is either).
Probably due to its shocking abundance of surface water (which should make visiting Californians extremely nervous), this area seems to have a preoccupation with mills. There's Colvin Run Mill, George Washington's Grist Mill, and the Mill House Museum in Occoquan which offers "Haunted Ghost Tours" every weekend in October (703-491-1736).
Those of you interested in old buildings ("Look! There's an old building! And there's another one! I need a life!") might enjoy the Pope Leighey-Frank Lloyd Wright House, Gunston Hall, or Pohick Episcopal Church (one of the major points of interest at the church is "authentic soldier graffiti" from the Civil War, thus neatly proving the theory that anything becomes valuable if you let it get old enough).
If you suddenly feel mall-deprived you can check out the Potomac Mills Outlet Mall, which is one big freakin' paean to consumerism.
If theatre and the arts are more your speed, try George Mason University's Center for the Arts, the Lazy Susan Dinner Theater, or Wolf Trap Park for the Performing Arts.
There are several public golf courses, although there's a high probability that if you travel several thousand miles and then elect to spend your time here playing golf your wife will kill you.
When Jenna was researching the attractions for this page, she was delighted to discover something called The Bug Box right here in Woodbridge. Hosted by a local pest control company (of course), it is a "live insect zoo featuring hissing cockroaches, Australian walking sticks, giant millipedes, tarantulas and scorpions." How cool is that?
Some of you (you know who you are) may be researching your roots whilst you're visiting. For Genealogical Information, call the Prince William Genealogical Society 703-361-6354 or the Prince William Regional Library System 703-792-6100. For research purposes, the Manassas Museum also houses a substantial collection of local/regional historical publications. They're at 703-368-1873.
For suggestions on where to eat, check out the Washington Post's Restaurant Guide.
Suggestions for area hotels are on the Logistics page.
Other places of interest include:
For other resources and travel brochures, call the Prince William County/Manassas Conference and Visitor Bureau at 1-800-432-1792 or visit them online at www.visitpwc.com.
*Here we're quietly ignoring all of the Spanish settlers who were technically European because this coast refuses to recognize anything that happened on the West Coast as actually being history. If you'd like to watch the veins stand out on Jenna's forehead, ask her about this tendency some time.
