Posted on 08/18/2014 5:16:06 PM PDT by Chickensoup
After years and years of hosting Thanksgiving for friends and family, I am on my own this year. My friends are either overseas or have moved out of the area, or have moved to live near their children, and my children are scattered. I have no family. So I am on my own.
I am looking for ideas for something to do on Thanksgiving, some place to go. I am considering Montreal, Asheville, etc. I live in the Northeast, and would have about 2K to spend. I am not fond of large cities, would love to do something fun, and something that would not be considered unusual when done alone. I also realize the issue of how difficult Thanksgiving travel is.
I have been wracking my brain for a couple of weeks. Does anyone one have any ideas? I could use some help here.
Thanks.
Your favorite soup.
The Best 10 days of my life,,,
walking thru the old city of ,
JERUSALEM!
Wherever you go, look backward with forgiveness, forward without fear and around you with a thankful heart.
I like going where it’s warm just before Thanksgiving. It is just prior to the official start of the tourist season so prices are slightly cheaper and the locals are glad to see you come. (Later in the season they want you to go home.) You can extend your stay a day or two into the holiday and fly back Saturday and airfare will be cheaper.
A cruise could put you at sea in the tail end of hurricane season. Hit or miss on calm seas, but a three or four day cruise could be done on budget.
I like the British countries best because they are more civil and speak English well. Barbados is below most of the hurricanes. Belize is grand. The US or British Virgin Islands are wonderful.
There are many websites for vacation rentals by owners (rather than hotels) and that will save you a few bucks. Atlantis Paradise resort in the Bahamas is great for an opulent stay in a classy joint but not cheap.
I’d go with you but, Mrs. OOS would disapprove.
Especially after dark. There’s free stuff for everyone.
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Good shot!
Wow! I bet. I’d love to go there, but at this point in my life, I doubt I’ll ever get to go overseas again.
You must be about a half hour from me.
I’ve done Halloween on Ocracoke several times. Gulf Stream’s still warm so the weather is too, more often than not. It’s a functioning fishing village so everything doesn’t close up shop for the winter, but a lot of the “better” establishments serving the summer people are closed. One of the prettiest beaches on the east coast, but protected with national seashore so you won’t get a house or hotel on it. Bike, hike, rent a golf cart or 4x4. Beach driving is permitted other than sea turtle nesting season. Drive down to the point, excellent shelling, feels like the end of the earth. Much of the OBX has that feel. The wind, the pounding surf, the dunes, the sand. Ocracoke only being accessible by ferry adds to the sense of remove. Palmetto trees, spanish moss, live oaks, old old family cemeteries, history. Pirates! Go out to Teach’s Hole under a full moon. Legend has it that slapping the water three times with an oar will have Blackbeard’s headless body swimming around your boat, lol.
I put on ex-Pats thanksgiving.
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I have put on many of those, and have incorporated many into our family holidays. But that is now over and I am not at a place where I want to beat bushes to provide a meal for people.
We are going down on Sept 6-13. Frat Bro week.
I’d go with you but, Mrs. OOS would disapprove.
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Listen to your wife. lol
Dear Soup,
You say that you like the Gulf.
Might I suggest some place in Louisiana, outside of New Orleans.
The ‘other’ major towns are Alexandria, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, and Shreveport.
Lafayette and Lake Charles have a lot to offer, as well as other foods for Thanksgiving, if not turkey and it’s accompanying fare. They are both in the heart of Cajun country, so i can assure you that there is something you might wish to eat. Lake Charles is different, with the entire town built around the huge lake.
Alexandria has some things, and is at the edge of Cajun territory. It is not ‘large’, but can be seen as a pass through, to either the two northernmost towns, or to Lafayette and Lake Charles.
Shreveport (river)Boosier City, or Monroe, are supposed to be major towns. Shreveport I have been to, albeit, to get to the larger V.A. facility there.
All the cities, including New Orleans, do not equate to any city in size, along the Washinton, D.C. to Boston megalopolis, with Alexandria boasting, at last count 80,000 people.
I lived in the NYC Tri-State Metro area, so I base my findings on that.
I did not include New Orleans, because lately, more folks have been getting hurt there, than when I lived there, prior to Hurricane Katrina. I do not wish to read your obit, and have the thought that -I- might have been that last impetus, to get you to travel there.
It will be cool weather, then, but I do not think you need your ‘stadium coat’.
Come and get ya a crawfish boil, enjoy a little different music, and have a nice stay.
.......yes, but St. John’s is a tiny island. You can ride from one end to the other in less than 30 minutes. The extreme eastern end has a neat bar on a cove with lots of sailboats. We pulled in there after getting caught out in 25’ waves in Hurricane Maria in Sept 2011.
Also, you can ride a free bus from one end to the other. Hold on! The drivers are crazy. On the western end it’s got lots of nice shops and a small boat rental business right on the water. Restaurants are good to very good and during the daytime there are hundreds of people out so you will be safe. You will see though that very few are out very long after dark. After midnight is practically unheard of anymore for thinking tourists.
As you get off the ferry on St. Johns, walk straight ahead across the little shaded public plaza and at the back is a Texas Restaurant owned by a Texan. He’s cool and has good food and prices.
And, yes, St. John has the big park that I think Rockefeller or someone like him gave to the government. I never went in it. You need to say where the people are. Indeed, you need to “be aware of your surroundings at all times”.
Whatever you do, don’t go to Fredericksted on St. Croix even for a visit. Ok to go escorted by Locals but only in the daytime. Go to Christiansted in the center of the island. Lots and lots of shops and bars and generally safe in daylight hours. The old 300 year old Fort is interesting. I spent a lot of hours there.
I have a buddy who will take you out on his boat (with a group of about 8-10 others) and he is completely reliable!!! He will take you to Buck Island which is the largest underwater National Park in the US. That little day trip is really worth the effort. I think his normal charge for the day including some drinks is 75 bucks.
I also have a buddy on St. Maarten that would take you out as well. Probably for free. He’s cool.
relax and stay home. avoid the unnecessary travel.
I have never really been down south and this sound intriguing!
relax and stay home. avoid the unnecessary travel.
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I have been in my kitchen at home for thanksgiving for 40+ years!
Even St John is unsafe at night! I have an acquaintance who bought a condo there. I was under the impression that it was a paradise.
Ocracoke Village has a Halloween Parade, they’ve been doing it for a long time, starts out at the elementary school. Generally not that into Halloween anymore, but there’s something very sweet, family centered and old-fashioned about their way of observing the whole thing. Then, there’s Howard’s Pub, big costume wingding. Pirates galore as you might imagine. I find it amusing. Pretty cheap for a long weekend that time of year, too. First time out there I was a little surprised to leave sight of land on the Swan Quarter ferry, though. You look at those sounds on a map and the scale of them just doesn’t quite register.
You can always host a local college student who can’t get home if you feel domestic.
You can always host a local college student who can’t get home if you feel domestic.
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Unfortunately, I don’t have a domestic bone in my body this thanksgiving.
Howards Pub is a definite. We plan a subsequent trip later. I am a state worker so I have 7 weeks of vacation that I am not using right now. I want to do lots of Ocracoke trips.
Traveling alone is the only way to go! You’re spending your money to go somewhere, and you need to spend it on what you want to and where you want to go. Someone else will always drag you down.
Just thinking, though, why do you have to go anywhere far away? Isn’t there just a really nice restaurant in your area that does a special Thanksgiving dinner? Maybe someplace that wouldn’t normally be in your budget, but you can splurge on it?
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