Thanksgiving 2022

We struggled a bit finding somewhere to put the RV for Thanksgiving.  Since my sister and her kids were working/in school until Wednesday of the week, my original plan was to stay in Thousand Trails in the RV until Tuesday, then put the RV in storage and head to my sister's place.  However, in the first of what I was soon to find out was a long series of Thousand Trails booking difficulties, I couldn't find a place to park the RV into Thanksgiving week, so instead we decided to put the RV in storage on the Friday before Thanksgiving and spend over a week at my sister's (which all parties involved were excited about, so it ended up being a great thing!).  However, once we decided that, we could not find storage at any of the reasonably priced commercial storage locations in the area.  We finally thought to check the park where we'd be staying right before - Sunshine Holiday Daytona - and thankfully they had a mostly empty storage lot (most people who store with them are snowbirds who stay with them and store their RVs over the summer).  So come moving day all we had to do was pull the RV out of its camping spot and around the corner to the storage lot - nice!  Especially with gas prices these days!

We spent a fun week+ with my sister and her family, and my parents and aunt joined us after a few days.  We arrived in time to attend two of our nephews' belt promotion ceremony at their karate school, volunteer at a native American education event for the same two nephews, and attend a performance for our niece.

Belt promotion board kicking!

Belt promotion board kicking!

Aaron at his table with one of our nephews - 
the hostess introduced Aaron as an 'animal 
expert' with 'years of experience' ... which 
cracked us up as he only learned the names of the
animals associated with the pelts on his table
about 10 minutes earlier!

At our niece's performance, with my sister
and her husband and my parents

My sister and I went on a huge shopping trip for the week, determined that we weren't going back...all told I think we went back 9 more times that week 🤦... so much for that plan!

You'd think that would be enough groceries!

We made one big trip with everyone to Castillo de San Marcos, where two of the kids completed the Junior Ranger program.  It was fun!

Aaron with the boys inside the magazine-turned-dump at the fort

The kids with staff in uniform

Thanksgiving Day was so gorgeous we were able to have dinner out on my sister's lanai!  Short sleeves for everyone!

All in attendance at our Thanksgiving meal (including my 
sister's family, my parents, and my aunt)!

We stayed into the weekend after my parents and aunt left, and wrapped up the week with Christmas cookies, Christmas decorations, and a shark tooth hunting trip to nearby Mickler's Landing.  I found two shark teeth!  

With my sister's family at Mickler's Landing

The kids attempted to outweigh Aaron on the see-saw at one of 
the playgrounds in the neighborhood

We had a great week with family!  We picked up the RV from storage the Monday after Thanksgiving - it survived just fine in storage, and no signs of mice infestation this time!

Thanksgiving in Florida

It finally came...Thanksgiving in Florida!  Ever since I moved farther south than the rest of my family (when we moved to Charlotte in 2012), I've been begging the rest of my family to come south for Thanksgiving, rather than have us go to the frigid north.  Of course, what with us living in small spaces and not having kids, my pleas fell on deaf ears.  Finally, this year, with my sister now living in Florida, my wish was granted!  My sister hosted Thanksgiving at her townhouse in St. Augustine this year, and for once I didn't have to leave the warmth to celebrate with my family!

Since my sister does still live in a townhouse while they wait for their GIANT house to be built nearby, we stayed nights in our RV for the week.  We stayed at the Clay County Fairgrounds RV park, which actually exceeded my expectations.  Although the reservation system was a little worrisome (I didn't get a proper confirmation, just an email saying they received my request and would be in touch if they had questions/concerns), as the day approached things actually went great.  The camp host emailed the night before with our site number and a map of the campground (this is an unusual perk!); when we got there, the camp host came over to welcome us; the small park had secure access, level and wide sites, and good water pressure.  The night before we left the camp host sent another email reminding us of our departure the next day.  Overall I was quite pleased with the campground for what it was (somewhere to sleep - we're not talking a resort here), and it had pretty easy access to my sister's place.  The biggest downside to this park is that they close for months on end for actual events that happen at the fairgrounds...but it worked great for Thanksgiving week!

Our campsite at Clay County Fairgrounds

Though the weather was a little chilly for the area, it was still much better than anywhere to the north!  The Florida Thanksgiving did not disappoint :-).  We spent 3 days with the larger family cooking, eating, and having fun.  Friday after Thanksgiving my aunt, my sister, and I continued the family tradition of fall apple butter making - something I've been doing with my aunt since I was a teenager.

The 'formal' photo of my family across the street from the townhouse

Ready to eat!

With my aunt and my sister and the fruits of our labor

Williamsburg & Thanksgiving

We just finished up 2 weeks at the Williamsburg Thousand Trails resort.  Although like any RV 'resort' all the RVs were piled on top of each other, the park was heavily wooded and implied a sense of privacy despite the closeness.  It was a great place to stay while we explored the area.

The staff at the park were friendly and we met some nice neighbors - including another Fleetwood owner who told us where we could find replacement switch plates for our lights on eBay.  

While we were in Williamsburg we visited the Yorktown Battlefield and Historic Jamestowne - free and almost free with our America the Beautiful pass.

We caught a ranger tour at the battlefield and learned a lot of neat stuff from the ranger.  It is absolutely amazing how many small things had to go right for Washington to defeat Cornwallis there...including a last minute retreat Cornwallis attempted that was foiled by a sudden tropical storm that sank many of his rowboats.  After the ranger tour we took the driving tour of the battlefield and were impressed at how expansive the camps were - without a car to go between them, it would have taken some serious effort to communicate between the American and French camps.

Sample cannons from the mostly cannon-driven fight.

Earthworks

Ranger tour

Redoubt

We self-guided at Jamestowne and didn't learn nearly as much there.  Still we enjoyed learning the history and viewing the recreated remains of the settlement.  It is interesting that most of the remains are subterranean now, and what you actually see is a recreation, so that the original structures remain protected underground.  The site is still an active archeological dig - they were working on the area around the church while we were there.

John Smith monument

Our final - and rainy day - activity was a tour and tasting at a meadery.  The reserve tasting at the Silver Hand Meadery included an overview of honey and mead making, a honey tasting, and a mead tasting.  Turns out I don't really like mead!  The different honeys they had were VERY tasty though.  The meads were quite creative and ranged from slightly sweet to slightly savory (we tried one that tasted a bit like rosemary!) - but none were sweet enough for my taste.  Still, overall lots of fun, our host was quite friendly & informative.

They showed us a sample wheel of potential honey flavors...zoom in close on that one and you'll be disgusted!  Fortunately we didn't try anything in the 'Animal' category.

We had a chance to have dinner with our college friend Heather and her son while we were in the area - it was great to catch up!

Once we were done in Williamsburg we headed to Springfield, VA to spend Thanksgiving week with my sister and her family.  My parents and aunt and uncle came to town as well.  It was a busy and fun week!

We didn't have a single problem with our refrigerator during this stop - hooray!  High hopes that that was indeed just some sort of freezing weather fluke.

We had a few more issues with the one furnace though.  It would try to start, blow the fan for a second, then quit.  Aaron took it apart and cleaned all the components and that kept it happy for a while, but it seemed a little flakey the last night, so we'll continue to keep an eye on that.  Pretty soon though we won't need it - we're finally heading south!  Next stop: Raleigh!