Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2016 - 62

Courtesy roanoke City Library Virginia room

The Hotel Roanoke on a girl's first visit was "a magnificent, Swiss-looking castle,"
with the fountain sounding like "diamond pendants dropping into the water."

The first-time visitor was escorted by a tuxedoed waiter with a napkin draped over his
arm to a crisp, white, perfectly pressed tablecloth and utensils "too pretty to eat with."

worthy of this? I didn't have time to
think about it because I had already
blurted out an exuberant, "Yes!"
As we pulled up to the grand roundabout with the 100-year-old pine
tree in the center greeting us with
open arms, I gazed up at the magnificent Swiss-looking castle and
listened to the fountain. It sounded
as if individual diamond pendants
were being dropped into the water, a
thousand per second.
There's no way he would use
valet, I thought. Surely we would
have to park and walk as it must
cost $50 or more.
But instead of continuing around
the roundabout, he stopped in front
of the red carpet leading up to the
front doors, the giant HR monogram
highlighted in the noon sun. A man
with white gloves opened the car
door for me and I slid out. He shut
the door and I stood there, not sure
what to do. Then Fearless appeared
by my side, offering me his arm and
guiding me in as we made the ascent
up the stairs to the front door.
It was Christmastime and everything looked huge to me. The
Christmas tree in the foyer looked
to me to be 200 feet tall, and each
individual Christmas ball was as
62 BlueRidgeCountry.com

big as my head. I could have stayed
and stared at that Christmas tree all
day, but Fearless gently led me past
the estate-sized fireplace and into
the grand dining room.
This is what it must be like to
live in a castle, I thought to myself
as a tuxedoed waiter with a napkin
draped over his arm escorted us to
our table. A crisp, white, perfectly
pressed tablecloth awaited us, with
green crystal water glasses that cast
little rainbows across the table. Dogwood flowers adorned the plates, and
the silver utensils were perfectly polished-too pretty to eat with.
I don't remember what all we
talked about that day at lunch, but
I know I looked around the restaurant at all the people and thought I
was the luckiest girl in the world. I
had a dad and he made me feel like
the princess I had always wanted to
be from the time I knew what princesses were.
After brunch, we took a tour of the
Christmas trees. Each one was a work
of art, one more beautiful than the
next. Each had a theme. Fearless
loved trains. He had since he was
a boy so when we came upon the
train-themed tree his eyes lit up like
a school-boy, and he even started to

clap and point. Train tracks stuck out
of the tree in every direction and one
solid track looped around from the
bottom to the top, with an electronic train that went round and round.
Each ornament represented part of
a town-a house, a butcher shop,
a school, a park-all frosted with a
light coating of snow and lit up with
Christmas lights, giving each ornament its own soft glow. I could see
memories from Fearless's childhood
flash in his old eyes and it made me
love the tree too, almost as much as
he did. I guess that's how dads teach
their daughters to love things.
Now that I'm older and working in the real estate business, I get
to see that excited look in people's
eyes all the time. It always takes me
back to that day at the Hotel Roanoke with Fearless. There are lots of
one-of-a-kind places in these mountains, and they are what makes living here so nice. If you have someone you care for, especially a kid,
make a date and take him or her
some special place, because even if
it seems like the norm to you-as
sometimes moments can be lost on
us as we grow older-it may mean
the world to that child, and create
memories as beautiful and timeless
as the morning sun. 

http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com

Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2016