Ebey's Landing

The day after Thanksgiving, I had little interest in shopping and a great deal of interest in getting outside in the beautiful fall weather. M had some other commitments, so I headed off in search of ferry boats and beaches.  I wound up on Whidbey Island, where I spent several hours hiking both south and then north from Ebey's Landing along the beach.

The hike north is the wonderful loop out along the edge of the bluff and then back around Perego's Lagoon on the beach - which I last did in its entirety with D on the weekend after Thanksgiving back in 2008 - in a thick fog (Whidbey Island 2008).

Seattle

I think this is the smallest Thanksgiving we've ever done! There were only eight of us for dinner this year, although several others joined us later for games. The 20-somethings are out of college and on their own in Madison WI (our first Thanksgiving without D) and Brooklyn NY. Our aging parents don't travel as well as they used to, even across town. But smaller is a little less crazy in the dining room - we can actually all sit comfortably around the table. And smaller means the bird was less than 18lbs - not counting stuffing.

D joined the games via text, which I hope was as fun for him as for us. J shared her Apples to Apples cards with him and gave him some of the credit for her occasional small victories. At the same time, A set up a chess board on the floor and spent a couple of hours texting moves back and forth with D.