When I first moved to Burke, I wondered, "Are there any museums around here?"

Washington DC has famous museums like the Smithsonian, so it's hard to compare.

At first, I thought of Burke as just a quiet neighborhood with lots of houses and parks.

However, I found that you don't need big and flashy attractions to have interesting places to visit. If you look around a bit, there are small but fun spots hidden nearby.

One place I surprisingly liked is the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum.

It's located right next to Burke in Fairfax Station and has the atmosphere of an old town train station.

It's not very large, so it might not be worth driving an hour just to see it.

But the stories from the Civil War make it interesting.

Clara Barton, famous for her work with the American Red Cross, cared for wounded soldiers in this area during the Civil War.

What seemed like just an old train station looks different when you know this history.

It's a great place to take kids and say, "Trains used to run here."

A quick visit on a Sunday afternoon followed by a meal nearby is just right.

If you want to see a more established local museum, there's also the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center.

It's housed in an old school building built in 1873, and admission is free, so you can visit without any pressure.

You can learn about how the Fairfax area developed, and it also serves as a tourist information center.

The great thing about places like this is that they're not crowded. As I get older, I appreciate that too.

A small museum where you can take your time to explore is much more comfortable than a place where you spend 30 minutes parking, 40 minutes waiting in line, and just looking at people.

If you head toward Lorton, there's also the Workhouse Arts Center.

This place is unique. It was once a prison but has been transformed into an arts space.

Now it features galleries, studios, and performance spaces, blending the old building with modern art.

The Laurel Grove School Museum in Springfield is also worth remembering.

It preserves the building of a segregated school that African American students attended, so if you know a bit about American history, it gives you a lot to think about.

It's both fascinating and bittersweet to see the history of segregation from textbooks reflected in a small local school building.

There aren't any massive tourist attractions around Burke that you'd say, "I came all the way to America to see this." Instead, there's the joy of discovering one place at a time as you live here longer.

On a Sunday afternoon when you have nothing to do, you might say, "Shall we check out that place today?" and find it more enjoyable than expected, taking a few photos along the way.

In the end, that's what a neighborhood is about. At first, you only see the grocery store and the hospital, but as you live there longer, you start to notice the old train station, the small museums, and the history of the area gradually revealing itself.

Burke is not just a quiet residential area when you get to know it better.