A Festive Roanoke Weekend

It was a busy, festive weekend in Roanoke. On Saturday, what felt like the hottest day of the year, my daughter and I headed downtown. We strolled around checking out the sidewalk art show. There were some very nice pieces I would mind hanging on my walls, that is if I had any extra walls, but they were way too expensive. I would have taken some shots but there were a couple of "no photo" signs so didn't bother. Luckily Di from Blue Ridge Gal took some great ones you can check out.



We walked around for about an hour before we felt faint. On our way to get something to eat in an air conditioned restaurant we passed some square dancers.



One boy ran out as we were passing by and asked my daughter to be his partner. Oh what I would have given to see that! She politely declined.



We ended up at Wasabi's where I had my favorite, the Sumo Roll. Yummmmm...



Later on that night my husband and I went to 419 West where I had a very tasty chicken and shrimp dish over mashed potatoes and smothered in a hazelnut sauce. I figure I better get my shrimp fixes in now while there are still shrimp to be had. There was an acoustic guitar player, Will Henson, probably most noted as the lead singer/guitarist in the Pink Floyd cover band the Darkside Project, who entertained us with a nice selection of tunes including some Stones, Hendrix, Young. Sorry, no photos here. By the way 419 West has a Saturday Night special == Bloody Mary's or Mimosas for only $3.00 each. I think I went a little overboard on the Bloody Mary's because I awoke with a splitting headache on Sunday morning.

My aching brain didn't stop me from heading out to the Lebanese Festival at St. Elias Catholic Church. Once I ate some delicious spinach rolls, hummus and green beans over rice my headache went away. Unfortunately I forgot to put the SD card in my camera so I have no photos to show. I took some great ones of the inside of the church. As we were leaving I asked my daughter what the little "IN" that was showing up on my screen meant and she informed me that the photos were going to internal memory where they will forever remain because I have no way to get them off. Oh well, at least I finally found out the difference between Roman Catholics and Maronite Catholics.

The RC's, that's me, can take the host in our hands, whereas the Maronite's only take it directly in their mouth. When I do go to church on that rare occasion I still only take the host in my mouth as well which probably stems from going to Catholic school and having it drilled in my head that it's "A SIN!" to touch it. Another difference is that we mostly kneel during the "important" part of the services and they don't, they stand instead. Our priests say the blessing before the Eucharist in Latin, well, not any more but they used to, and theirs say it in Aramaic, Jesus' language. Other than the perception that RC's like to "suffer" (which is probably true based on my experience) and the Maronite's are more "joyous" there really isn't anything else. Both sects revere the Blessed Mother and Saints as well. In fact I bought my daughter a cool black & white bracelet filled with pics of Saints and Mary. Padre Pio caught my attention and since we have a special relationship with him I thought it won't hurt to have my daughter bring it with her when she goes for her surgery. Hey, We'll take all the help we can get!

All in all, it was a busy weekend in Roanoke and over the next couple of weeks it's going to get even busier. Since today's the kids' last official day (yay to them for being exempt from all their finals) that means I no longer have to make lunches or get up at 6:00am. My whole routine is going to be going bye-bye, which means this blog may not be as updated as often as it usually is. Enjoy my official start of the summer!