Thanksgiving 2010

I thought I would share with everyone the really nice Thanksgiving I spent with Nancy and her family.

On Tuesday, the 23rd, I drove to Mark’s house and he and Jessica drove me to the airport. My flight left at 1:20 p.m. I didn’t have to go through the full body screening or pat down, I don’t know how I lucked out but I was grateful. Since the plane is one of the smaller one, my luggage was taken as I got on and retrieved after landing. I landed in Redmond, just 16 miles from Bend. Kirk picked me up as he was off work that week. We drove to their home, a really nice one with three bedrooms and two baths upstairs and a half bath, living room, dining area and kitchen on the ground floor. The house has a very large pantry which Nancy loves. There is also a deep closet that the two little girls, Maddie 5 and Reagan 2, use for their toys. There is a laundry room as you go out to the garage. The back yard is fenced and good sized. The girls are darling. Maddie very smart and reading quite well and Reagan just a little bundle of joy. She looks just like Nancy did at that age.

Wednesday morning early, Kirk drove to Portland to pick up his parents, Kirk and Polly and Nancy, the girls and I drove to Pacific City where the Flannigans had rented a beach cottage for the holidays. Our drive over the Santiam Pass, 4,817 ft., was a little scary. Though the elevation is lower than Mt. Pleasant, about 6,000 ft. there were mountains, pine trees and LOTS of SNOW. We probably should have had chains on but Nancy drove very carefully in their 4-wheel drive car. The scenery was beautiful. We arrived in Pacific City about the same time and Kirk and his parents.

The cottage was very comfortable. It had two bedrooms upstairs with bath, kitchen, large living room and dining area. The kitchen was very well equipped. . Downstairs was a very large room with two bunkbeds with game table and another bathroom. The Flannigans slept downstairs. The cottage is right on the beach; one goes down some steps to a trail over the sand dunes and down to the beach. The water looked lovely. We saw some seals and a man in a wet suit riding his surf board. The water is really too cold to swim in, even in summer. A seagull visited our porch frequently, sitting on the railing.

I made pumpkin pies that night but the oven did not heat at the selected temperature and it took another half hour for them to get done. I don’t think the bottom crust got quite done enough. Next morning, when I put in the turkey, I upped the temperature by 25 degrees and the turkey turned out fine. We had tons of food. We had mashed potatoes, yams, two stuffings: corn bread and sausage, turkey, gravy, a great jello salad, green bean casserole and pie. We also had spinach dip and clam dip to snack on. We were stuffed, very happily so.

Friday, we drove south , in two cars, to Newport seeing beautiful vistas of the ocean: pine trees, rocks and, of course, the ocean. We visited a nature exhibit, I can’t remember what it is called. but we saw an octopus in a glass tank. He was right up against the side so one could see him so well. So fascinating. There were tide pools with anenomes that you could touch. We saw a film about whales and were told they could be seen frequently along the coast but I didn’t see any. We ate a seafood restaurant and I tried little clams, two of them. I also had clam chowder and a salad. It was very windy and cold. On the docks, behind the restaurant, were a big group of sea lions barking away. The little kids loved seeing them. The ocean was much more rough these last days but beautiful to see. We stopped at a light house, which was closed for the season, but walked down the trail to it. The vistas from the lighthouse were fantastic. It was about a quarter of a mile long down to the lighthouse, which was fine going down, but coming back uphill, I wasn’t sure I would make it, but I persisted and made it! That night we watched “Letters to Juliet” I enjoyed it.

Saturday, we drove north to the Tillamook Cheese factory. It was a fascinating place to visit. We looked through large windows down below where three conveyors belts brought out large block of cheese. Right in front of us we could see three different people cutting the blocks of cheese then placing them on other conveyor belts where they were covered in plastic, then taken to a thing that looked like an octopus that vacuum sealed the blocks. Then the belts took them back out of sight. We had nice little samples of their cheddar cheese. We all bought some little blocks of cheese to take home.

We then drove to the town of Oceanside where we ate lunch. The restaurant was right on the beach and I had a beautiful view of the water while eating. Oceanside was a nice little town. It reminded me of Lagoon. I ordered a hamburger that time. That night, after arriving, Nancy and Kirk had some time to themselves and they visited a place in town recommended by friends. The girls were put in bed and, Kirk senior went to bed, then Polly, and I wound up watching part of the Wizard of OZ but then I too went to bed.

Sunday morning, we packed up, picked up, and went our separate ways. The Flannigans and Kirk to Portland and Nancy, girls and I, back to Bend. The drive was much different than coming out. No snow; only a very small patch, which was really nice.

Monday, Nancy and I, after dropping Maddie off to Kindergarten, visited a Goodwill store. Nancy likes to buy me sweaters and I got a beautiful light blue one. I bought two videos: Jurassic Park and Pajama Game. Leon had played for that in Phoenix when we lived there. The movie features Doris Day and John Raitt. The female lead was different in Phoenix but John Raitt played the lead. We went to the library and printed out my boarding pass for the next day. We also went to Fred Meyer for Nancy to do some shopping.

Tuesday we took Maddie to Kindergarten, then picked her up and took her and Reagan to Day Care and then Nan drove me to the airport in Redmond. My flight was fine, no body scans or pat downs, and arrived in SLC a little before 4 p.m. Mark and Jessica picked me up. I left them at their home and drove on home arriving a little after 7 p.m. Glad to be home but I had had a very wonderful week.