<p>FYI For all of the new families coming in... VT has scheduled Family Day for the weekend of October 15, 2011. From past experience, hotels do fill up quickly. They usually plan some nice events. We really enjoyed watching the Corp of Cadets parade on the Drillfield and going to the Hahn Horticulture Garden was nice as well. Enjoy yourselves! :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. Is this something that many parents attend? I ask this since many of my friends( not from tech, mostly from uva) say that they specifically choose not to visit on the parent weekend since it is so busy and crowded.</p>
<p>Lynn, I think if you polled who attends, the majority would be parents/families of freshmen, but I am sure that there are older students parents who also go. It is a beautiful time of year to be in SW Virginia, so it doesn’t take much of an excuse to spend a day or two there. </p>
<p>Your friends may feel “they specifically choose not to visit on the parent weekend since it is so busy and crowded”…but I think many of the VT parents feel just the opposite, especially since so many are alums! They love Blacksburg when it is busy and crowded…seems like they revel in so many Hokies being in the same place :)</p>
<p>Thank you for the reminder about Parents Weekend…we just booked our room! We love VT and have been to many many football games there w/ friends whose children were/are there. Now it may be our turn, as son was accepted mid-Feb for Engineering. Unless he gets an accept from USAFA, we’ll “officially” be Hokies!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info about the date for family weekend. I plan to attend this year. I missed last year, plus my daughter would have been gone with her friends on some Halloween events, etc… I enjoyed family weekend her freshman year and attended as much as possible/desired. The Corp of Cadets parade was very nice. I didn’t find family weekend to be too crowded. I love being a Hokie Mom and have been thrilled with my daughters experience thus far. She works hard and does extremely well with her Civil Engineering curriculum.</p>
<p>I checked the schedule that is posted, and really there is practically nothing there. I am going, but I imagine that we will spend most of our weekend riding our bikes and perhaps some shopping. I really thought there would be more “activities” planned.</p>
<p>There’s a play going on on campus on the 15th. No clue if it is good or not, but the one play that I went to put on by VT (Lysistrata) was fantastic. Well, maybe not fantastic to bring your family to, but reading the description makes me think this one will have considerably fewer giant pink dildos.</p>
<p>I just realized that this is the Fall Open House weekend as well. Good grief. No wonder there aren’t any special activities. They’ll be swamped with prospective students all over the campus! Drat.</p>
<p>It asppears that this was actually a full weekend of activities last year. I was just talking with parents of students at Radford and Longwood, and their fall family weekends are chock full of activities planned by the schools - all sorts of things. This VT Family “day” is pretty lame, comparatively. I wonder if they have completely switched focus to the spring weekend now…since that is new this year. What a shame…as there is a home game that weekend and the place will be packed.</p>
<p>We ended up deciding this summer to go up when there was a game. My son and husband are big sports fans and we thought that would be fun. We will go back over on Sun. to spend time with our son and see some of his studio workl.
We are staying in Smith Mountain Lake with some friends who also have a student at Tech. We still have hotel reservations at the Microtel (we went cheaper this time) that we have not canceled. If anyone needs a reservation PM me and we could try to coordinate that.</p>
<p>LynnVB, My son is a junior but we did the same-will skip Family Day. Went to the football game last weekend instead and really enjoyed it. Missed Family Day when son was a freshman because his club team was at an out of town tournament then so saw him at the tournament that weekend instead. We have stayed at the Microtel in Christiansburg a few times -clean, friendly, and very resonably priced (you have to ask the front desk for shampoo though-but if it keeps down the cost, I don’t mind). Couldn’t get a reservation there last weekend so we stayed at the LaQuinta in Salem-much cheaper than any of the Blacksburg or Christiansburg hotels. For those of you going to Family Day, have fun!</p>
<p>We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express right across from the campus for orientation and move-in, but it is really pretty pricey, but convenient.
Good to know about the LaQuinta in Salem-how far is that from Tech?</p>
<p>Salem is 30-45 minutes from VT with no traffic, considerably longer if it’s a high travel day (forget about it on gameday.) That Holiday Inn is awesome though.</p>
<p>LynnVB, It is about 40 minutes to Salem. Wasn’t a big deal,even on game day. There are back roads if you don’t want to get on the highway. There is a Holiday Inn Express in Salem (right by the LaQuinta) if you prefer HIE. Had a nice meal at The Homeplace, in Catawba(near Salem).</p>
<p>Thanks Chuy and Sevmom-good ideas for future trips. Staying in SML this time, time of game has not been announced yet, but will plan on extra time for traffic.</p>
<p>There is a really nice restaurant on Main Street in Salem that we had lunch at-the Blue Apron Restaurant and Red Rooster Bar. There are also a couple of nice shops on Main Street. For Blacksburg hotels, Inn at Virginia Tech and Main Street Inn are nice. Blacksburg is such a nice place to visit. Hope everyone enjoys their visits this fall!</p>
<p>Any suggestoins on where to take my daughter and her friends to dinner? I am assuming The Cellar (the only place we’ve tried in Blacksburg) will be mobbed.</p>
<p>Hi,Bennnie, I love Blacksburg but haven’t really found a great restaurant yet that I would really like to return to that is actually in Blacksburg. Older son went to UVa and the restaurant scene there was definitely better. I’m hoping someone will have an idea too of somewhere I haven’t heard about yet in Blacksburg that might be worth trying. Some of the ones I’ve tried-all okay but nothing special-Sal’s Italian, Bull and Bones,Backstreets. There’s a Buffalo Wild Wings that we’ve been to and son and his friends seem to like it (but it’s a chain). In the same parking lot area as Buffalo Wild Wings, there’s a Mexican restaurant that’s not bad(where Bud Foster’s used to be). Mike’s Grill is supposed to have good burgers but it was packed earlier this month when we were there. I’ve wanted to try Cabo Fish Taco but haven’t gotten there yet. Had a good breakfast at Inn at Virginia Tech (Preston’s) but would probably be pretty expensive for dinner. Tripadvisor might give you some ideas. I hope somebody posts some good ideas we can try next time we visit. Have a great visit with your daughter!</p>
<p>Hi sevmom - We’ve been to Wild Buffalo - not impressed, might be better if there was a good game on. Have heard good things about Cabo’s but haven’t tried it yet. There’s a ton of chain restaurants in Christiansburg - that may be the way to go for a diverse group of girls. Do try The Cellar - its very casual, the beer is cold and the food is pretty darn good.</p>
<p>Hi, Bennnie, I 've been past The Cellar but never went in. I’ll try to get there next time we visit. The menu looks good and anytime you can get a cold beer it is a big plus!
We went to Outback Steakhouse in Christiansburg and it was fine. I try to avoid chains if I can find good local places so glad to know about The Cellar. I agree, though, for a group of diverse girls, a chain could be the way to go. Good luck with finding a good place to take the girls and have fun!</p>