Football Weekend

We spent this past weekend in southwestern Virginia visiting friends and enjoying some college football. Both Kirk and I went to ASU and he went to undergrad at Virginia Tech, so when we heard about an Appalachian State University vs. Virginia Tech football game a few years ago we marked on our calendar. So this was the big weekend!

Hotels in Blacksburg were booked as far back as February of this year, so we chose to stay in nearby Roanoke, VA. We stayed at the brand new Cambria Suites, just outside of downtown. I highly recommend staying there, especially with kids. We shared a suite with another couple and there was plenty of room for everyone. The bedrooms had plenty of space, the bathroom was very spacious, we had a living room, and a small kitchen area. It's very close to the historic South Roanoke area which has a great little selection of local restaurants. Thanks to recommendations on Urban Spoon we had dinner at Fork in Alley, which was fantastic. They have delicious brick oven pizza and a fantastic wine and beer selection...perfect for dinner after a long day on the road with a toddler!

Conveniently, the place where I was planning to get cupcakes for our tailgating the next day, Bubblecake Bake Shop was located next door to Fork in Alley. OMG! These were the best cupcakes I've had in a LOOONG time. They had a great variety of flavors and the ones I selected were out of this world. The flavors were delicate and not overwhelming. The cake was the perfect consistency.  If I remember correctly, I selected:  Snickerdoodle, French Toast, Tiffany (the signature flavor), Triple Chocolate, Humble Pie, and Blueberry.

Saturday morning, we rolled into Blacksburg around 9am to get set up to tailgate before the game. We lucked out with awesome parking just a few blocks from the stadium (which totally blew away the parking options we were faced with which included parking miles away and having to take a shuttle to the game...not exactly fun with a toddler or with getting back to the truck after the game to get the stroller so we could walk around downtown Blacksburg and get an early dinner). So thanks to the random woman who charges $20 to park in her yard on game day!!!!!

Our tailgating brunch.

We kept the little guy entertained in the back of the truck with a supply of new cars and trucks.

Henry made a few new friends in Blacksburg.

Thanks to our great parking location, the walk to the stadium wasn't bad at all.

The Cadets.

With the Hokie Bird (Henry wasn't too sure about this photo op).

I know too little about VT football to comment on this one. :)

Our seats were way up there, but we still had a good view. There's the ASU Mountaineer Yosef, on the sidelines.

Those are some unfortunate overalls.

It was a fun game, even if ASU took a pretty big beating by VT 66 to 13!!!!!

Sunday morning, before we all headed out, we went to brunch at Star City Coffee House in Roanoke. Henry enjoyed his french toast.

We took a quick stroll around downtown Roanoke before heading back home. They've put quite a bit of effort into revitalizing the area downtown around the market. Unfortunately, as I've seen time and time again, it looks like these areas are hopping on Friday and Saturday nights but the rest of the time they're pretty desolate. Some of the storefronts were vacant, and as many were closed because it was Sunday. Businesses that close on Monday are bad enough for the health of a commercial district, but Sunday seems especially harmful since you lose weekend patrons. And it's especially frustrating to a visitor!

Interior of the newly remodeled market. The vendors haven't filled spaces yet. 

Exterior of the market.

Time to head home!