Thanksgiving Part I

The fun has begun. We've gone someplace new and are seeing old friends (well, they're not old) - Yahoo!

But first we'd have to take the ferry to Ft. Myers. Michael & I always get sick on ferries. Always. And every time I've been on one, it's been freezing (well, except once when I took a huge catamaran ferry from St. Martin to Saba). When I was a kid, we used to go from NYC to Block Island for Thanksgiving and it would be rough and cold. People and their pets would be upchucking all over the place and I'd be trying to sleep it off in the cargo hold or have my face in the icy wind willing it to take away my nausea. When Michael & I lived in CA, we took a ferry to Catalina Island and had people throwing jackets and blankets on us as we shivered outside – Michael was throwing up for 3 days afterwards. This time, I had on long johns under jeans, a sweatshirt with hoodie, under a wind-breaker lined coat my mother sent me, and a pair of gloves I found in the pocket. We also took our sea sickness pills (which work on waves, but not throw-up smell from others who didn't take any).

Amen for my wardrobe, because the ferry ride was at night and it was incredibly cold. And not wimpy cold, cold cold. And it was rough. The ferry actually left 20 minutes early knowing the high seas were going to slow us down – LIAT airlines used to do that all the time. I always picture people showing up 5 minutes before the allotted departure time wondering what happened to their ride. We tucked ourselves up behind the pilot house near the front, which just barely gave us shelter. We used our suitcases to block the wind from slamming into the unprotected lower half of our bodies. Michael opening his mouth as if we're skydiving - it wasn't quite that windy, but close.

By ½ hour into the ride, we could look inside and see people throwing up. That alone would have sent me over the edge. The ride was supposed to be 3 ½ hours long. We'd be at our destination by 9:30pm. I could handle that...Except that the captain took us out of the way, trying to avoid directly bashing into the high waves that dogged us for half the trip. The poor people that had come outside to get away from the vomit fumes were actually getting doused from occasional waves splattering anyone in the back of the boat. Many were forced to go back inside. One girl inside had stuck tissues up her nose. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore my stomach dropping from the roller coaster ride we were on.

Thankfully, about midway through the trip, the seas evened out, which meant that the captain floored it. Meaning the winds went up even more. It was in the low 50s, so add sea spray and whatever knots he was doing and it got darn right icy. Michael couldn't take it anymore and went inside. So did everyone else. I stayed frozen in place like a statue. The trick is not to move. If you never let your hot air out, you just might pull it off. But then it was 10pm...Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, I heard the announcement that we were 17 miles out. I calculated that out in my head and moaned – we still had about 40-45 minutes to go. Oy. I started playing mind games with myself, singing to the music I had on my iPod Shuffle, and pretending I could see the lights of Ft. Myers. Until finally I did see the city. Oh, thank God. We pulled up to the dock at 11pm (we had left at 5:40pm).

There was no way for Tina & Ron to know what was going on (there's no up-to-date tracking info available) and people were getting worried because it's rare for the ferry to be that late. I was not taking the phone out to text anyone and didn't know what was going on anyway. Oh well. We were together once again. Yay. Now for the hour + drive. Once home, we were all quite happy to go to bed, and Tina was her usual resourceful self and threw a blanket into a dryer to heat it up before throwing it over us. Heaven...

We were supposed to take part in a short, neighborhood turkey trot the next morning at 7:30am, but the thermostat said 57 degrees. Michael & I decided to skip it and let Ron & Tina represent.

Let the cooking begin (the wine is already open - it's 10:30am)