Nana and Baba graciously invited us out to their cozy home near the coast for a lovely feast and convivial time with family Thanksgiving this year. Meanwhile Michael held down the urban fort with the cats, the Airbnb guests and the first-line work at the inpatient hospital. Whilst he worked, we played.

We played hard! We visited Bowerman, Westport Lighthouse, Kalaloch, Olympic National Park, admired the resident wild deer, and spent loads of time by Nana’s bountiful table and Baba’s warm hearth. The weather was crisp and cold with sunny blue skies during the day and thick frost during the night, magically transforming our surroundings into a sparkling white world.

Thursday was a lovely Thanksgiving prepared by Nana including a handsome organic free-range turkey. All was delicious! We were joyous to be able to share the American tradition with Theresa from Innsbruck, Austria. We bowed our heads in thanks and reflected on our lives full of blessings and challenges. Much discussion turned toward climate change, climate action, and what we could contribute towards steering our planet in the direction of the healthiest, most stable present and future.

On Friday, we all abstained from shopping, instead heading out to the ocean. During the drive out to Kalaloch and the wild Pacific coast my dad and I were able to have a long and meandering conversation. He was so kind to ask me about my favorite hikes, which inspired me to finalize the edits on my next post, the bulk of which had been written in 2020 or earlier. In return, I got to hear the stories of him hiking alone, which included once hiking solo out to Hoh Head, hearing a critter rustling with his backpack in the night, which resulted in him impulsively throwing his hiking boot in that direction only to discover it was unfortunately a skunk. The resulting stench was unbearable, and he had to move camp for the next night.

Baba’s favorite event was Lady Kitty waking up at 5 am on Saturday and coming downstairs to be with him.

The kids have a longstanding morning tradition they share with Baba whenever they visit— whilst Nana famously sleeps later— whereby they join him in eating toast and call it a toast party. During this particular Thanksgiving visit Lake remarked, “Baba is the gem— diamond— at the center of the toast party. Without Baba it’s not a party it’s just eating toast.”

Later on Saturday I took the kids out to Westport so NanaBaba could have a small reprieve, and we could take some photographs and have a roll in the sand. I just love the grass-tufted dunes there near the edge of the sea.

As a holdover from the days when Lake was three and four, and immersed in marmots, where he was The Marmot General, and had a marmot army, he and Nana Baba would migrate on these dunes. So we went migrating and even rolled, crawled and played a bit in the sand. The kids say jubilantly, “it’s not a trip to the beach if we don’t roll in the sand!”

Sunday included some time in Nana Baba‘s wheelbarrow. Some of us had a giggle and a trip to the Christmas tree farm. We brought home a Nordman tree that Lake had proudly selected.

What a wonderful Thanksgiving 2023, with much gratitude to Nana Baba for hosting us!

A perfect holiday. I’m glad I spent it with you.

We are so thankful for our wonderful friends and readers as well, and hope you all truly enjoyed your holiday.