Over The River And Through The Woods

Before 2012, the only traveling my family did for Thanksgiving was over the river and down the freeway to Grandma's house - twenty minutes away.

But then my parents retired to Arizona, and my father made it clear that if we wanted to see them for the holiday, we'd have to go to Phoenix.  Which isn't exactly terrible - compared to rainy and cold in Seattle, sunny and 80 degrees is pretty nice.

As I searched for tickets, I found that the cheapest alternative was to fly out Thanksgiving afternoon.  We all agreed that we could celebrate the holiday on Friday.  I was very apprehensive that traveling on Thursday was going to be a nightmare, but it was actually quite pleasant.

We stayed in Arizona for five days, and had a great time.  We hung out by the lake, and the guys did tons of golfing.

We drove to Tucson and visited Colossal Cave Mountain Park, where we toured the largest dry cavern in the world.

It was so much fun, we decided to go back in 2013.  Lots more golfing and fishing, and this time we visited Saguaro National Park and Tortilla Flat, an authentic old west town along the Historic Apache Trail.

Earlier this year my hubby asked if we were going back for a third visit this Thanksgiving.  I called my mom to run our plans by her.  Guess what?  They're driving over the river and through the woods to her father's house this year.  Well fine.  I'm not offended or anything :)!

Except now I kind of like traveling on Thanksgiving.  There's a built in four days off, so we only have to take two vacation days.  We don't have a reason to stay here - my sister and brother have plans with their in-laws, and G's family is busy too.  The boys wanted to go to Hawaii, but I almost had a heart attack when I priced airfare.

So instead, guess where we're headed?

If I can't have turkey with mom and dad, I guess Mickey will have to do!