First Thanksgiving

Tradition. The Macy's parade, football games, autumny colors, and of course, turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy; these are what we didn't do this year for Thanksgiving. We did, however, decide to take the day off and go to the beach. 


Santo Domingo doesn't apparently have any proper beaches, just a lot of rocky shore. Since we hadn't seen a sandy beach yet, we followed the advice of several other senior missionaries and drove about 40 miles east to Juan Dolio. 

Having faith in our instructions, we parked on the street and walked through this little covered walkway. The local hotels try to control access to the beach, but someone thoughtfully provided this little path.

 

And there we found a nice quiet little stretch of Caribbean beach. You may peruse the following photo essay at your convenience.

 

We did not elect to go swimming, but we did manage to walk up and down the beach and at least one of us got wet feet. Sherrie found some sea shells.

There were several beach salesmen (pirates of the Caribbean) trying to sell us various trinkets, but we successfully avoided them.

On the way home from the beach, a billboard advertised Denny's located in the third floor food court at the airport. Since it was on our way, we imagined that a Thanksgiving dinner at a nice, comfortable, sit-down Denny's restaurant might be just the right thing to do. 

The airport parking lot was not too expensive, so we decided to head on in. This was the first time we'd seen the airport in the daylight. It seemed quite different when we arrived a month ago. 







 

At first we thought these were fake trees, sort of like the cell towers in Provo, but they're real enough. Just a point of interest. Nothing to do with Denny's.

And this also has nothing to do with Denny's. I just couldn't figure where else to put it. These Christmas decoration things are all over town. Don't know what they are, but you see them alongside the roads.

 It turns out that Denny's at the airport was not quite the sit-down cozy familiar venue we had imagined for our Thanksgiving dinner.

 There was no turkey dinner on the menu.

However, there were a couple of things that appealed to us, so I had a surprisingly good Bacon Slamburger and Sherrie went with the more traditional Super Bird. And, ever adventurous and desirous to "go native", Sherrie ordered a side of Plátanos Maduros.

After a quite acceptable Thanksgiving meal, we continued our drive home and stopped at PriceSmart, the local equivalent of Costco. We got a cup of ice cream (vanilla only because the chocolate wasn't working -- why is the chocolate never working?) and a box of a dozen really good frosted raised donuts. 

Eventually we got home, assembled our Christmas tree (purchased at La Sirena), Skyped with Monica and Kathryn, ate donuts and watched Miracle on 34th Street (the old one with Natalie Wood).

It was an odd sort of Thanksgiving day, but quite enjoyable and now that we've done it, it is tradition.