June 9th: Katie's graduation from Virginia Tech University

I left the Bambics and headed to an Airbnb in Roanoke where I would stay for the graduation. Roanoke is about 45 minutes from Virginia Tech University but accommodations were very limited. Fortunately, my niece Nora, made reservations a year ago knowing space is very limited during the week of graduation. My nieces, Christi and Mary were staying in the Airbnb with me. Mary and I arrived Friday and we were picking Christi up at the Roanoke Airport Saturday afternoon.

My great niece (Graduate) Katie 

I had offered to make dinner for the Franko family Friday night for anyone interested. Restaurants would be very crowded. Mike, Nora, Aaron and Katie were about 45 minutes away but they decided to make the drive. 

My nieces Mary,
Christie and Nora

It was my first opportunity to see everyone except Christi in person since COVID began, so it was a very fun evening. 

The iconic Roanoke Star

From our window we were able to see the Roanoke Star on top of a nearby mountain. We decided we'd need to check it out further before we left.

Niece Mary and Steve

Mary and I enjoyed exploring a little of Roanoke. Saturday morning, we went for a walk and found a great breakfast place, Clutches. They offered a Smoked Brisket Eggs Benedict which the waitress highly recommended. She explained the brisket was slow roasted and smoked for 18 hours. Mary and I were both both happy we followed her recommendation!

Clutch plates

I asked the waitress about the name "Clutches". She pointed to a wall behind me that had numerous clutch plates attached. The building used to house a rebuild and repair clutches shop.

Mary and the Descending
 Night Sculpture

After breakfast we walked toward the downtown area. Neither of us knew what to expect. We came to a wide street that had numerous sculptures. This area was clearly completed recently and was very nice. 

I particularly like the creative idea of this Start Sign! And I definitely thought of Matt when I saw this bike sculpture 

Here is a link with more of the sculptures. Roanoke Sculpture Walk

Before the Dozzis returned to Blacksburg, we were informed that my brother John had said his favorite cake was carrot cake. None of us could recall that being true but.... We were also celebrating John's 79th birthday. Mary and I knew there were several bakeries downtown so we set out walking to find a carrot cake. The first bakery was closed. Bummer! We walked further and found a bakery/coffee house. Looked in the display case and there was a huge carrot cake!

John's 1/2 carrot cake

There was already a decadent graduation cake so we were looking for something small. I asked the cashier if we could buy one piece. She said "No but you could buy 1/2 of the cake." I said "Sold".

Niece Christi and brother John

The above picture doesn't give a size perspective. This is the same cake (1/2)

Roanoke Farmer's Market

We continued to the downtown area. We were surprised how well the downtown area has been renovated, keeping many of the old buildings. There were numerous small shops and restaurants. The variety of restaurants was amazing. Just about anything you could think of. There was also a very nice farmers' market.

Roanoke Square

There was a fun atmosphere in town. Everyone seemed happy and friendly. I appreciated this sign outside a cafe.

It became time to pick up Christi at the airport and head to Virginia Tech for the pre-graduation party. Katie took us for a tour of the campus. It is very impressive. It is much larger than I thought, 30,000 students. The Chapel reminded me of the Duke Chapel. Also very impressive. 

Katie was able to take us into the engineering building where we saw her newly hung Class of 2022 picture!

Back at Katie's place, the party began. There was plenty of food ordered from Olive Garden. The two cakes topped off a great dinner. Then we all went to the 7:00PM graduation ceremony.

Katie Dozzi, Class of 2022

Mary, Christi and I returned to our Airbnb around 11:30 PM. It was a fun day. Mary and I told Christi how impressed we were with the Roanoke downtown so we all went to breakfast Sunday morning. Christi was flying out late afternoon so plenty of time. 

We had a great breakfast and passed several fun shops. One shop had very unique purses. They looked like flowers! 

Christi's favorite shop was the Chocolatier! The picture shows only half of the chocolate treats available.

There was also a book shop that Christi said her daughter Kaitlyn would love. Sadly it was closed on Sunday.

Taubman Museum of Art, Downtown Roanoke.

Not all the buildings were old. There was a very modern looking Art Museum. We didn't have time to visit the museum but I will if I ever get back to Roanoke.  Here is a link with a nice picture and info. Taubman Museum of Art 

There were also a number of other art type galleries and shops in the same vicinity. It was time for Mary to head back to Philadelphia so we said our goodbyes and checked out. 

St. Andrew's Catholic Church

Christi's flight was late afternoon so we decided we had time to go to mass at St. Andrew's Catholic Church. The church is a National and State Historic Landmark. We saw the very interesting looking church towers from our Airbnb. It was impressive both inside and out.

Here is a link to a very interesting history about the church. I noticed the architect was from Akron, Ohio. The link includes a description of the stained glass windows that I appreciated. History of St. Andrew's Catholic Church

 After mass we still had plenty of time so we decided to visit the Roanoke Star Park. It was after all deemed the Roanoke icon!

Christi in front of the Roanoke Star

The park was quite nice and I was surprised that the star was lit by neon tubing. I asked Christi to stand in front of it for a size perspective. Here is a link that shows the star lit up and gives some additional information. History of Roanoke Star

The view from  the top of the mountain was impressive. 

 

We went back downtown for lunch to a Thai restaurant I had spotted earlier. They were very short handed and the wait time was considerable but we weren't in a hurry. I enjoyed having more time with Christi. After lunch I dropped Christi at the airport and drove back to Durham. The Bambics were very gracious to have dinner waiting for me and we enjoyed the evening. I flew back to Florida the next morning.