Thanksgiving at Sea Forever

Woke up and went upstairs to see the beginning of another gorgeous day. Dave went for a short walk out to the beach and we discovered another benefit of this house – from upstairs you can only see the top of the dune and the ocean, so it feels very secluded (especially with the empty lot next door) even though it’s right on the street that everybody walks on. Dave went down to the beach and said it was full of people, all invisible from the house.

We had a quiet day that somehow felt busy, maybe because it had many small and necessary but unexceptional activities. I did a lot of blogging and knitting, and we took quite a few short walks. Before lunch Dave and I walked into town and got a bag of salad at the Mariner market (get two) and on the way back discovered that Ocean Road doesn’t go all the way through between downtown and midtown – 2 blocks north of here it is blocked by giant boulders and there is only a footpath. Jen made the traditional stromboli, which was delicious as usual but needed hot sauce or mama lil’s mixed in with the roasted peppers.

My childhood friend Page and her cousin were on a road trip up the coast, so we took a short walk with them down to the beach to see the King Tide, which was disappointing to say the least. I had visions of waves coming up to the base of the dunes, or coming up the ramp by the Wayfarer. The Surfsand Resort clearly had the same visions, and had boarded up the windows on the lower floor. The tide was high, yes, but didn’t seem all that kingly to me.

One thing that didn’t disappoint was the weather, which was mild and sunny. Once Dave had gotten the turkey in he and I went for a walk to the north, around Necus’ Park and through town. It’s always fun and a little strange to walk through town on Thanksgiving and have the sidewalks empty. When we were here at the end of August they were building a new standalone shop across from the gas station at the north end of town; I am unenthusiastically reporting that it is a weed store. On the plus side, the one in the building with Mi Corazon has closed, so we will check out what has replaced it later.

Jen and Josh and I played some Tenzi while Dave had his last relaxing-before-cooking time. I am not good at Tenzi and like to tell myself it’s because I’m twice as old as Josh and Jen, so I like that Dave wasn’t playing because if he was good at it my story wouldn’t hold up. Jen also has a pack cards of alternate ways to play and I did much better at that.

Then it was full on cooking mode until dinner for Dave and Josh and Jen. I helped when called on but was mostly working on socks – I finished the ribbing and got through turning the heel before dinner. Dinner was delicious as always, and we had fun talking about Thanksgiving food traditions, which we don’t have a lot of. In there are only two - grandma salad, a salad of apple, banana, mini marshmallows and just a tiny bit of mayonnaise that apparently originally came from Dave’s first grandmother Sandage but which is now attached to his mama and of which Josh is the official arbiter of the recipe – and homemade cranberry sauce, which is notable because while it is homemade it doesn’t contain any offensive flavorings such as orange peel, cinnamon, or raisins. We had a 13.5 lb turkey which is plenty for 4 people and/but doesn’t make a lot of leftovers. I will leave it to the reader to decide which of those conjunctions is correct.

After dinner and cleanup we were stuffed. Dave, Josh and I went for a walk over to see if the EVOO people were still eating (they weren’t), and Josh headed back to the house while Dave and I went for a short walk on the beach. The tides aren’t just unusually high, they’re also unusually low in the evenings. It’s nothing like the great minus tides of summer, but they are special. We walked way out but it’s very close to full moon and it was pretty dark out there, so we didn’t walk all the way down to haystack.

When we got back we did some prep work for tomorrow’s trip to the Coaster Theater by watching the 1970 Albert Finney version of a Christmas Carol. It is called Scrooge, music and book by Leslie Bricusse, and it may be Dave’s favorite version. I don’t want to give away what makes it so special, but Sir Alec Guinness channeling Jack Sparrow as Marley’s ghost is memorable, to say the least. And yes, I do know that Jack Sparrow is after 1970, but the spirits can do anything they want.

We had dessert during the movie, and I was disappointed in the pecan pie I made – while it was certainly pecan-y enough (maybe even too pecan-y, if possible) I had deliberately made the crust thicker on the top which I don’t think I like, but mostly I did not like the custardy part – it was either underbaked or just wrong, and it wasn’t rich enough. Is buttery a thing? I will have to try again.

By the end of the movie it was certainly bedtime. The beds here are very comfortable which is a good thing when you’ve eaten as much as we had. Also the downstairs is much cooler than the upstairs where the thermostat is, making for excellent sleeping.