Fulfilling Promises

I vividly remember the last morning I spent with Emily. It was sunday morning after her graduation. My family stayed in the VT dorms for the weekend, so we packed up the car for our trip back to our respective homes. In Specchio family tradition, we went out to breakfast together before going our separate ways. Emily's favorite place to get breakfast at Tech is Gillie's - a vegetarian hippy sortof place with AMAZING hash browns :) Unfortunately since this was the morning after graduation, Gillie's was packed and had over an hour wait. So instead we opted for Joe's Diner, around the corner. Since Joe's Diner only has small booths, my parents and my Aunt Mary Beth sat in one booth, while Joe, Emily, and I sat in another. We were all in a pretty upbeat mood and the conversation was fun with much laughter. Em had her eggs easy over with sausage and biscuits. After breakfast we all walked together around the corner, past Gillie's and Top of the Stairs to our cars. We stood on the sidewalk and talked for a good 5-10 minutes or so before heading on our way. During this short time Emily remarked that Joe and I had been to most of the major bars at Blacksburg except one of her favorites - Top of the Stairs (or TOTS). We decided that next time we were in "the burg" we would DEFINITELY have to go there with her for some "Rails" (their signature drink). We also made plans for Em to come visit Joe and I in Raleigh this summer and maybe take a trip to the beach together. Em couldn't wait to start helping me pick out wedding sites this summer, then we planned to meet up in Switzerland this spring when she studied abroad in Lugano. Many, many plans and ideas of fun times together...

Well it feels good to say I've started to work on this list of promises to Em. This past weekend Joe and I took a trip over to Blacksburg to visit some of Emily's amazing VT friends and, of course, go to TOTS! We had a fantastic time and accomplished a lot of great things while we were there - went to dinner at The Cellar (one of Em's fav places to eat - she's taken us there before), visit the duck pond and scout out places for her memorial bench, lounge out by the New River watching the tubers float along (also something Em loved), hike Wind Rock for sunset (one of Em's biggest PASSIONS!), and of course GILLIE'S for breakfast!

In true Emily fashion, I took lots of pictures of our amazing trip.

The group at the Duck pond:

Hanging out at the New River:

Watching the Sunset at Wind Rock:
We even found DAISYS (Em's FAV flower) on the path down!!!
Gettin' "Railed" at TOTS:
GILLIE'S (!!) for breakfast:
MANY more pics of our fun fun weekend can be found here - http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbOGjRi1aN2Gt


A few promises down, more to come. Next stop - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC to participate in the same mission trip that Emily was so so proud to be a part of. More updates to come... more livin' for two.

-Kate