Where to go for Thanksgiving?

Half Fast said:
Tarpon Springs. Not as far as Ft Myers, warm gulf waters. Take the kids out on a sponge boat and let them watch a diver. Take them to nearby Weeki Wachi and watch the mermaid show. Lots of great seafood.
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You forgot "give a couple locals a ride on the mu-2"
 
OkieFlyer said:
Come spend your Thanksgiving in sunny Lindsay, OK and have Thanksgiving with us. I smoke a mean turkey-lurkey.
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That's a wonderful offer, Andrew. We ended up booking our hotel last night for Branson going Thursday through Sunday so I'm afraid we'll have to pass. We settled on a resort down there that has an indoor water park plus a bunch of outdoor activities, and other stuff in the Branson area. End result should be a fun long weekend.

Stewartb said:
We always go to Grandmother’s house in Hawaii. Lucky for me I’m married to Grandmother, so I’m invited. I do enjoy playing with my grandson at the beach. Bottom line for us? It’s about who we spend it with, not where we spend it.
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I certainly agree with you on the takeaway. One thing for us with all our projects at home is that if we're at home, we tend to work on some of those projects. It's not a bad thing, but in this case we (my wife especially) want to go someplace and just unplug for a few days. Last year my wife had to work on the Thursday/Friday of Thanksgiving and that may happen again next year (the realities of a job in aviation), so we want to do something fun and memorable this year. Growing up, neither of us had any real traditions for the holiday so we're working on figuring out what our traditions for our family will be. Our Christmas traditions have also been in flux.

By being gone over the weekend, one thing we will miss is decorating our Christmas tree that weekend. We might get one the weekend before to do, or else the weekend after. Have to see. I like having a Christmas tree up for all of December, but with Thanksgiving being as early as it is this year, if we did the weekend after we'd still have all of December.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
That's the time DHS and you had a nice chat at gunpoint isn't it?

Maybe not such a family destination.
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They never had me at gunpoint, but they did search my plane because "You fly too much." Technically it was the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (they ain't too bright) but they'd gotten a tip from DHS/TSA/whatever alphabet organization looks for "suspicious activity."

In those days there was a flurry of that sort of thing going on, and a lot of stories of people getting harassed and searched illegally on those suspicions. I haven't heard as much about it recently so my guess is they improved their algorithms.
 
A couple of thoughts...Chattanooga has the aquarium and so does Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge which also has all of Dollywood. Both places are along the Smokey Mountains so you may get to see some fall colors if they linger that long.
 
timwinters said:
Austin is fun,...plenty of opportunities for the kids to "burn off energy"
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Not really. Grew up just outside there and I would not suggest Austin for this trip.

San Antonio is a different story. Both Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Sea World will be open. As will the Alamo and the Doseum (kids museum). Tourist city so getting a meal on Turkey day won’t be hard to do.

Side trip to Port Aransas to see Jay and Mary’s place is 2.5 hrs by car or 30 mins by MU2
 
Fly to Colorado and go skiing!!
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That's a wonderful offer, Andrew. We ended up booking our hotel last night for Branson going Thursday through Sunday
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Best Restaurants: Chateau on the Lake and The Keeter Center. Top of the Rock has nice views but food is only ok for the price. Big Cedar has some good food if you’re staying there but probably isn’t worth the drive if you’re up in Branson. The Landing has chain restaurants but is better for the kids. The Fish House is where we usually eat The Landing. The kids like the crawfish tails.
 
Cooter said:
Best Restaurants: Chateau on the Lake and The Keeter Center. Top of the Rock has nice views but food is only ok for the price. Big Cedar has some good food if you’re staying there but probably isn’t worth the drive if you’re up in Branson. The Landing has chain restaurants but is better for the kids. The Fish House is where we usually eat The Landing. The kids like the crawfish tails.
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We ate at the Buffalo Bar at Top of the Rock near sunset and thought it was pretty good food, just a tad expensive but nothing too outrageous. Wife had the rotisserie chicken and I had the salmon, both were in the mid-$20 range per plate I think. The view explains the slight surcharge on the meals, besides it's a great place to do the self-guided golf cart cave tour with the family. We ate at White River Fish House as well, but it's not the same quality of food as ToTR, but better for children and lots more to do at the Landing.
 
SoonerAviator said:
We ate at the Buffalo Bar at Top of the Rock near sunset and thought it was pretty good food, just a tad expensive but nothing too outrageous. Wife had the rotisserie chicken and I had the salmon, both were in the mid-$20 range per plate I think. The view explains the slight surcharge on the meals, besides it's a great place to do the self-guided golf cart cave tour with the family. We ate at White River Fish House as well, but it's not the same quality of food as ToTR, but better for children and lots more to do at the Landing.
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Chateau has a chef from N.O. that came up after Katrina, and the best food we’ve had in Sgf/Branson has come from him. If he’s still there, it’s worth a visit. My only gripe is that they periodically change the menu, and I’m a creature of habit.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That's a wonderful offer, Andrew. We ended up booking our hotel last night for Branson going Thursday through Sunday so I'm afraid we'll have to pass. We settled on a resort down there that has an indoor water park plus a bunch of outdoor activities, and other stuff in the Branson area. End result should be a fun long weekend.



I certainly agree with you on the takeaway. One thing for us with all our projects at home is that if we're at home, we tend to work on some of those projects. It's not a bad thing, but in this case we (my wife especially) want to go someplace and just unplug for a few days. Last year my wife had to work on the Thursday/Friday of Thanksgiving and that may happen again next year (the realities of a job in aviation), so we want to do something fun and memorable this year. Growing up, neither of us had any real traditions for the holiday so we're working on figuring out what our traditions for our family will be. Our Christmas traditions have also been in flux.

By being gone over the weekend, one thing we will miss is decorating our Christmas tree that weekend. We might get one the weekend before to do, or else the weekend after. Have to see. I like having a Christmas tree up for all of December, but with Thanksgiving being as early as it is this year, if we did the weekend after we'd still have all of December.
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Good idea on the water park. The kids will have a blast and wear themselves out.


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Disney World. We went many years ago with all of my wife's family; total of 19 people. Early in the week the crowds were very light. By Thanksgiving day they had picked up, but early in the week it was great to not be so crowded.
 
wayne said:
Disney World. We went many years ago with all of my wife's family; total of 19 people. Early in the week the crowds were very light. By Thanksgiving day they had picked up, but early in the week it was great to not be so crowded.
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We had the same experience a long time ago. The early week crowds were light enough that we felt like we could do things other than wait in lines. I can't remember how many days we were there, but might have been 4 days total. We left before Thanksgiving (maybe even that morning?) and headed to the Tampa area to a beach hotel for the rest of the week. It was a great trip.
 
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We have avoided the mouse thus far and aren't particularly interested in giving the mouse a bunch of money. That said, maybe one day.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
We have avoided the mouse thus far and aren't particularly interested in giving the mouse a bunch of money. That said, maybe one day.
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I think our kids were 10-12 years old. Big enough to walk on their own without getting tired out too quickly.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
We have avoided the mouse thus far and aren't particularly interested in giving the mouse a bunch of money. That said, maybe one day.
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Once the kids are older and you decide you want to cruise, go with the Mouse.
 
The Mouse probably doesn't have much allure once the kids are over 12 years old.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That's a wonderful offer, Andrew. We ended up booking our hotel last night for Branson going Thursday through Sunday so I'm afraid we'll have to pass. We settled on a resort down there that has an indoor water park plus a bunch of outdoor activities, and other stuff in the Branson area. End result should be a fun long weekend.
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Well, that'll be fun. Despite the opinion of @timwinters , I think Branson is a fun town. We go at least once a year ourselves.
 
OkieFlyer said:
Well, that'll be fun. Despite the opinion of @timwinters , I think Branson is a fun town. We go at least once a year ourselves.
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And the best part is, there's a Lambert's on the way!!

Seriously...

Branson just leaves a very bad taste in my mouth on numerous fronts:

In the late 80s and early 90s I was with a large contractor in Springfield that did a lot of work in Branson. It was fun in the really early years but once it got a national reputation "bad money" started coming in from the east and west coasts. By '92 or '93 almost all the developers were the type who did everything they could to screw everyone they dealt with. The company I worked for was finally bankrupted by Dancing Bear Entertaininment who built the Charley Pride Theatre. DBE screwed them out of millions over a minor paperwork error. This was about 4 years after I left so, thankfully, I didn't have to personally live thru it, but it hurt many friends.

The entire time We were building down there, both the city and county were so far behind the "boon curve" that, on numerous projects, we'd pick up our building permit and occupancy permit on the same day. Inspections? What inspections? As a legitimate contractor we covered our ass and constructed things properly but the boon attracted many fly-by-night contractors to the area and I watched quite a few buildings go up that you won't catch me stepping foot in. And they've had a few problems over the years with shoddy construction. No catastrophes thank god, but...

In '80 when I first moved down here Tablerock had visibility to 40'...even 50' in some areas. I didn't dive but had college buddies that did. By 2000 IIRC it was 10'.

I could go on for days...but I'll stop.

Oh, except to say the Eagles obviously wrote one song about Branson:

And they called it paradise
I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high

(break)

Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes,
and Jesus people bought 'em
'nd they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea

(break)

They call it paradise
I don't know why
call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye

F*** Branson.
 
EppyGA said:
Once the kids are older and you decide you want to cruise, go with the Mouse.
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I would consider Disney cruises as amazingly overpriced.

I've been to the House of Mouse twice, my daughters are well past that age and I intend never to darken Disney's doorstep again. It's a lovely place, provided you like making dinner reservations three months in advance and crowds.

https://www.dadsguidetowdw.com/best-time-to-visit-disney.html
 
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