Weekend in Roanoke

We spent the weekend in Roanoke, VA in an extended celebration of my 54th birthday. My dad and Michelle’s mom both didn’t survive their 54th years on this planet, so it’s been a long-running joke / not really a joke that we need to tread carefully in our 54th years. While driving to Roanoke, I had the rather morbid realization that I’m about a month from outliving my father. In the spirit of living carefully, on Friday night we went out at 9:45 PM to a show starting at a bar at 10 PM, something we have not done since our 20s. We even stayed out past midnight, barely.

The band we saw was Abby Bryant & The Echoes. You probably need to live in the NC/VA Appalachian region to catch them live, but if you have the opportunity, don’t miss them.

While in town we did a 3.5 hour food / history tour of Roanoke, visited several bars, had two wonderful meals, and of course went up to the viewing platform at the star. Roanoke fits us, we both feel very comfortable there. It’s a small city, but I don’t feel like I’m missing any big-city amenities there. That does not mean we are moving there. That said, if I had to move due to my landlord selling this place or something like that we’d probably give a move up (in elevation) very serious consideration to places with a mountain view. In the short term, I expect we’ll visit annually.