Thanksgiving in Cleveland

We had a nice visit to Cleveland this Thanksgiving to see Amy's mom; thought I would post some photos. [ NB:  this is my first blog post in almost a year -- I hadn't intended to take so much time off, but somehow I just never managed to find the time to post.  I will try make it more of a regular event... ]

We flew United through Chicago on the way there (Wednesday), which made me a wee bit nervous (O'Hare has a reputation) but the travel gods were smiling and benevolent this time around -- no delays or issues. Photo of the sunrise from inside the terminal at Logan:

Frances picked us up at the airport and we had an uneventful drive back, yay. For dinner Frances made her fabulous ribs recipe (especially favored by the kids), yum. A good start mealwise...

For Thanksgiving this time around it was partially a "guest chef" arrangement: Frances bought all of the ingredients, and then everyone teamed up to do the cooking. For the main meal Frances prepared and cooked the turkey, Reed did the stuffing (with cornbread and things from Frances), I made an apple pie, Amy made a chocolate pecan pie, Reed made twice-baked sweet potatoes, and various people contributed to cook the green beans, cranberry sauce, and gravy.  For me the standouts were the pecan pie (a truly awesome recipe) and the sweet potatoes -- Frances had noticed the recipe in an Ina Garten cookbook (we used brie instead of taleggio)... very yummy.

Reed made the sweet potatoes Wednesday night, and I did the crusts for the pies. On Thursday morning we did pie assembly and baking, and the kids started in on a very tricky 1000-piece puzzle, a painted picture of a Paris street scene.

I went for a run in the afternoon on the Cleveland/Bradley County Greenway ; the city recently added a new spur, accessibly maybe a third of a mile from where Frances lives.  This route goes past the city dog park, which is set up in an interesting way: there are two separate sections, partitioned by dog size (makes sense, fewer small dogs flattened by larger rough-housing playmates).

We didn't do much after the meal, everyone was tired from the cooking and traveling and eating.

Friday morning we went for a hike in the Cherokee National Forest out near Parksville -- we did an out-and-back on Clemmer bike trail, which we've been to before. We tried for the Clemmer Spur Trail, but about a half mile up the trail it crossed over a creek that was so full we weren't able to get over it (just sneakers, no waterproof boots).  The bike trail was fine, though-- nice views.

Some mistletoe that I found on the trail:

Looking south from the trail:

We also did a visit that same day to the family cemetery to visit Paul's grave, New Friendship Cemetery.  Frances had been telling Ethan in the car about her childhood and her parents, so she showed us their gravestones and those of a few other family folks.

In the afternoon Amy and the kids and I headed off to the local bowling alley where we met up with EB and Karen; we bowled a couple of games and had a good time chatting. Karen actually knows something about bowling, and taught us a few new terms (ex: Brooklyn ).

 



Everyone had very distinct and different bowling styles: Ethan's delivery was ultra-smooth, Reed more short and compact, Karen very direct but with a quick finish.

We had dinner that night at Tony and Jeannette's, along with Karen, EB, Brant + Susan and their family. Very nice get-together; good to see everyone and get caught up.

On Saturday we took it easy; I watched a soccer game on the tube, the kids went to the movies, and they finally finished the puzzle they had been working on all this time. Completed puzzle:

We had an early dinner, then headed off to the airport. Alas, the travel gods were no longer in a good mood... one of our flights was canceled, leaving us having to spend Sat night in a hotel, but we did eventually make it back around lunchtime to Boston, yay.

Bingo was very glad to see us when we picked him up that afternoon :-).