ALEXANDRIA It takes a tough man to wear a kilt in the knee-knocking cold of December.

"Doesn't bother me," said Virginia Sen. John Warner, 80, clutching a cup of hot chocolate and showing a little leg in the red tartan kilt he wore for his role as grand marshal of Alexandria's annual Scottish Christmas Walk parade. "I was a Marine in Korea."

He also has Scottish blood in him, his great-great-great-grandfather having built Balmoral Castle, the Scottish home of the British royal family. Warner has been a frequent participant in the parade over the years, but actual ancestry doesn't seem to be a deal-breaker for enjoying the festivities. Thousands line the streets of Old Town for the parade as the melodic howls of bagpipes fill the city. Even the terriers wear kilts.

The parade is the centerpiece of a weekend of Scottish festivities. It also features a marketplace and tours of historic homes and serves as a fundraiser for the Campagna Center, a nonprofit organization that helps children and families in need. The event, held this year on the first weekend of December, has become a holiday tradition over the past 30 years and is representative of the rich cultural history that distinguishes Alexandria, a city of 135,000.

An old Colonial seaport on the Potomac River, Alexandria in its early days was a gathering place for traders and travelers, and it was very much an international city. It has remained so in more recent times as it developed across the river from the most powerful capital in the world without losing touch with its past.

In the 1940s, the city had the foresight to designate a historic district -- Old Town, as it's known today. The popular residential, shopping and dining area retains much of its Colonial charm while combining the best of, say, the Fan, Carytown and Shockoe Bottom into a single neighborhood that stretches for blocks.

A trip to Old Town is, at once, a step back in time and a step into the Gap.

"Alexandria is a wonderful place because both the past and the present are so integrated here," said Pamela Cressey, the city's official archaeologist for the past 30 years. "Alexandrians have always wanted to move ahead with new technology and new forms of social expressions and interaction, and yet the past physically is so preserved here.

"There are artifacts in every city in America, but they're often forgotten or unconsciously destroyed. Here, Alexandrians [believe] there's something about this dirt that's special, and these little broken bits [recovered in archaeological digs] have meaning."

Alexandrians are still digging. The city is excavating an 1800s burial ground for blacks who fled to Alexandria, after it was occupied by federal troops, to escape slavery. The so-called "freedmen" lived like refugees in harsh condition, and many died. The Freedmen's Cemetery, final resting place for as many as 1,800, was forgotten for years beneath a gas station next to the Capital Beltway. The gas station is gone but the graves will remain, and plans are in the works for a public memorial to honor those buried there.

That sense of history lures visitors and those looking to stay. Chef Cathal Armstrong, recently proclaimed one of Food & Wine magazine's "10 Best New Chefs," left a popular restaurant on Capitol Hill in 2004 to cross the Potomac and open his own place, Restaurant Eve, in a building that dates to the early 1800s.

"One of the biggest reasons we came to Alexandria was we wanted something that had more of a historic feel to it . . . more than a modern city like D.C.," said Armstrong, a Dublin native, whose wife, Meshelle, grew up in Alexandria. Restaurant Eve is named for their 7-year-old daughter.

"People say to me now, 'You should open a restaurant in D.C.' I say, 'No way. Why would I go back to D.C.?' You can't park. The traffic is ridiculous. For those reasons, businesswise, Alexandria just makes more sense."

Foodwise, Alexandria is developing a reputation as an up-and-coming dining scene. In September, The New York Times featured Armstrong and other admired chefs who have opened restaurants in Alexandria in a story headlined "A Town Takes Its Place at the Culinary Table."

Armstrong has discovered Alexandria diners to be more food-sophisticated than those in Washington, that partridge and tripe are more appreciated than chicken and salmon. Entrees are between $26 and $34 on the bistro side of the restaurant; there's also a "tasting room" where meals are priced $95 and $125, depending on the number of courses.

In the past 18 months, Armstrong has opened two other restaurants in Alexandria -- Eamonn's, an Irish fish-and-chips place named for his 4-year-old son, and The Majestic, a historic eatery serving comfort food.

Crowds flock to King Street, a main shopping stretch that features a little of everything: clothiers, fine arts and jewelers, Irish pubs and Thai restaurants. From the marina at the end of King, spectators on the first Saturday evening of December braved the chill to watch the annual holiday parade of boats.

With the dome of the U.S. Capitol glowing across the Potomac, more than 60 boats of all sizes and shapes paraded along the river, showing off their decorations: Christmas lights, oversized Santas, reindeer, snowmen and the occasional pirate flag. Holiday cheer was in the eye of the skipper; lights on one houseboat spelled out "Elvis Lives."

The marina is next to the Torpedo Factory Arts Center, a one-time, yes, torpedo factory that has been transformed into three stories of artist studios and shops. The Alexandria Archaeology Museum, directed by Cressey, also is a tenant. There you can find assorted artifacts uncovered over the years, including a musket that was found -- cocked and loaded -- in a backyard privy.

Things like blocks and blocks of preserved row houses, unearthed cemeteries and even old muskets stashed in odd places "can expand the public's appreciation of the value of a place," Cressey said. "It makes it possible to create a new place with a sense of history about it."
Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or wlohmann@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Bob Brown at (804) 649-6382 or bbrown@timesdispatch.com.