Thanksgiving 2021
October 11, 2021
It was a beautiful, sunset, Sunday evening ferry trip across from Hatteras as we headed to Ocracoke to join the Williams family for Thanksgiving. We were really looking forward to a week together in person!
Monday, we took advantage of the weather to spend time on the beach. A bit cold for getting in the water but sandcastles were a lot of fun.
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Well... we enjoyed the weather until a front blew in and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Then we started to worry about rain and packed up our sand supplies.
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That gave Robert time to make his (actually Lee Hubbard's) Texas sheet cake. David sauteed sausages and veggies while the Catan game played out. Helen came from behind to win that one.
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The next day some folks went to the beach, some went shopping and we all enjoyed ribs Steve and Helen made (along with Helen's cranberry pumpkin bread) before we introduced most of the family to Codenames (Aaron had played online before).
We went back to the beach Wednesday to build more castles. This time, Robert was going for height on his pyramid. David continued to strive for permanence in his fortress by the sea...
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We met up with Michael, Paula, Maddie, Cliff, Eliza and Anne at the brewery for dinner that night.
For Thanksgiving, Sarah was on tap for her mom's sausage stuffing and Robert was lined up to make duchess potatoes (after doing that once in his culinary class). Everyone contributed to a fantastic meal we were able to enjoy at the Flying Melon (thank you again Paula and Michael).
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With tummies full of cheese, charcuterie, turkey (roasted by Michael, confit by Steve), stuffing, gravy, cranberries, rolls, brussel sprouts, potatoes, salad, pecan and pumpkin pie we retired after dinner. What a great evening with extended family! It's been much too long since we were all together like that to share a meal, much less a week's worth of meals.
Friday brought more great beach weather. Sunny but still too cool to get wet (or so most of us thought). The big news of the day: Gwendolyn Cait Williams was born at about 2:00am Flagstaff time! Loren and Susan have a new Grand!
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Gwendolyn was celebrated in sand writing (much as Robert was 17 years ago). But the waves gave Loren a bit of early trouble.
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Then Sarah couldn't take being that close to the ocean and not going in. Everyone cheered on her surprising decision. And she succeeded in luring Robert in as well. They pronounced it fine!
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While the Pelicans looked on they came out (after a surprisingly long time) and took up the sand castle building again as the sun was warming and drying them out. We had a great pork stew dinner at Loren and Susan's that night (after the swimmers took hot showers).
We enjoyed one more group lunch from Eduardo's before we got on the road to head back home. But with one final surprise: dolphins playing in the ferry's bow wave for a little while.
October 17, 2021

Vacation notes: