a warm thanksgiving

Thanksgiving break was wonderful and filled with sand and food, but not at the same time.  Ok, some of it was at the same time, but there wasn't any sand in the food.  I'm saying we went to the beach and ate a lot.  

 It was a traditional Thanksgiving break for us, which means we started off with the Gobble Your Gibblets 5K Race at USC Upstate.  This is a tough course with lots of hills but I've gotten a little faster each year.  This year was my best time yet.  G had me at 20:45 but the official time was 20:48.  That was good enough for me to be 4th place overall and 1st in my age group.  

Violet held the turkey trophy while we posed in front of my sculpture on the Upstate campus.

 The tradition also takes us to my mom's for superb home cooked food.

 This was the aftermath.

 Later that afternoon we arrived at the edge of the country to see this perfect view.  Then we headed out to our annual Thanksgiving night meal out.

 The day after Thanksgiving was beautiful and unseasonably warm.  As the temperatures rose to the low 70s we hit the sand in our bathing suits.  We played for a bit before going for our next tradition, the McAbee Polar Plunge.

Beach Friday isn't complete without a stop by the Lazy Gator and dinner at Russell's.  We haven't seen the resident gator in a while so the kids got a little complacent.

 And that's how people get eaten.

 Violet was the appetizer and Blue was the main course.

 The inlet is stunning.  The broad horizon, the sky reflecting on the water, the salt hanging in the air...it's a highlight of every trip to the beach.

 The enormous amount of food we consumed made each morning run a bit tough.  But running at the beach is so nice.  There's so much beauty that it's easy to forget that you're running.  And when you're out on the beach early, you get to find the cool treasures that wash up overnight.

 Just like Charlie Brown says each year, consumerism is doing it's best to destroy Christmas.  This year, the consumerist greed moved the official arrival of Santa at The Market Common a week before Thanksgiving weekend.  This meant Blue didn't get to tell Santa what he wanted in person.  It also meant Violet didn't have to be terrified of the nice bearded man in the red suit.  Still we enjoyed the decorations.

 And the weather on Saturday was just as nice.  We spent even more time on the beach and I think I got a little sun on my head.

In the absence of Santa, we hijacked his sleigh and ate more food before returning home to prepare for the last week of classes.