Durham Thanksgiving

It had been about a year and half since we last were in Durham. A trip back "home" to visit old friends was being talked about for months, and we finally made good on this plan.

For the U.S. Thanksgiving long weekend we took to the road to Tobacco Road. It was so good to be back in Durham (NC). With so many memories in this city - our first home, wedding, Ethan's birth, Kelly's residency at Duke (to name a few) - being back felt more like home than our current place of residence.

We left on Wednesday night (11/26) and split the road trip in two, staying overnight in Asheville, NC before continuing the next morning to Durham. The entire trip takes about 6 1/2 - 7 hours, which we felt would be too much for Ethan if driven continously.

Jessica offered her place for us to stay, even though she would be out of town visiting her family for Turkey Day in Baton Rouge, LA. Jessica would come back Friday evening and we spent all of Saturday together, which was great fun.

The average American consumes about 4,030 calories on Thanksgiving Day. I certainly managed that, if not the first evening, most definitely after the second, as we were treated to two Thanksgiving dinners! On Thursday we were hosted by the Kugler family (Eileen, Gary, and sons Jason and Jeff). Dinner was traditional - turkey, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy. On Friday, we were at the Mostaghimis residence for a Persian-American fusion dinner combining favorites such as khoresh-e-bademjan (persian eggplant stew dish) and oven-roasted turkey, and tadik (crispy persian rice) with sweet potatoes. Yuuuuuuuuuum! For the record I had seconds both evenings. Heaven! Oh did I mention there was shohlezard (persian yellow rice pudding)... darn, I want some right now.

Saturday with Jessica included breakfast at home (bacon and egg McJessica muffins, pancakes, Earl Grey, left-over shohlezard). We then went to the science museum, butterfly conservatory and insectarium where Ethan had a lot of fun roaming around and exploring. We were not alone, as it seemed every family in the area thought it was a good Saturday-after-Thanksgiving thing to do to take the kids to the science museum. We had to park across the street it was so packed.

Saturday evening we dined at Merlion. We ate Char Kway Teoh (Singaporean noodle dish), ginger beef, a tofu dish and honey glazed prawns. After Ethan was put to bed, Kelly, Jessica and I ended up talking until 2am, bringing back fond memories of our time at Duke/Durham.

But sadly our trip had to come to an end eventually. On Sunday, again Jessica made us some egg and bacon breakfast muffins. Kelly, Ethan and I went to the Baha'i Center while Jessica went to her church for Sunday service. The program at the Baha'i Center in Durham was on the topic of marriage and chastity. The discussions were lively, and the selected readings very thought provoking -- I know several friends of mine that would benefit from these Baha'i writings.

Some usual suspects were at the Center - Catherine Davis, Dilsey, Angelica, Parvaneh, Anyema and Sherlock, Shegund, Ayla, Lee Moavenzadeh, Daria, etc.. It was nice to see everyone, and so comforting to be the in the company of our former community members. Several other friends we knew ahead of time would be away this weekend which was a pity - including (but not limited to) Amani, Elyse, Nahal and others.

Lunch was had back at Jessica's (left-over Merlion food, left-over Thanksgiving meals Persian-Chinese-American fusion, and STILL left-over shohlezard :-D). Our truck fully loaded (with recent purchases for the baby's arrival) and Ethan showing signs of napping, we took to the long road back home, under pouring conditions, making our way, slowly, back to Blue Ridge.

10 pm Sunday evening, and a truck full of things to unload, we were "home" at last. A very worthwhile trip.