Saturday night Mama and Papa Johnson arrived in Port Angeles from Minnesota.
I had worked my last day in Kalaloch for the year on Wednesday before, and moved all my gear and 7 months of living stuff back to our new home in Port Angeles. I was Blessed that my work weekend was Thurs. Fri. and Sat. So those days still counted in my work week. These days helped Janelle and I clean and prepare to host our first Thanksgiving. I spent a lot of time in the attack preparing a nice warm cozy room for my newest sister Meredith. You have to take care of family!
Saturday after they arrived we went to my Olympic Park Christmas party, it was nice to introduce my family to my new work-mates. (though I am still getting to know everyone here in Port Angeles)
Sunday morning Leslie, Marlene, J and I went to church, the early service. We had to get home in time for the Seahawks game, they lost ☹ but everyone of us wore a Seahawk Jersey, I am proud of parent Johnsons because the game was against Minnesota. (someone has the picture I have not seen it yet) I continued watching football while Janelle took the parents to see her garden, work and Sequim.
Monday – We met in the morning at J and I’s favorite breakfast place, “Haven”. A place with good size portions, tasty food, coffee cake, scones, muffins and even gluten-free bread. They have great combination plates, my favorite is there Mediterranean omelet. The restaurant has a real homey small town feel to it. It’s also a small place, long room that is very narrow, like a hallway. After breakfast we went to drive to Kalaloch where I spent my summer. We stopped at Lake Crescent, A beautiful long (11 miles) lake that was dug by a glaciers many many years ago, 8000 years ago a mud-slide from the mountain above blocked the valley and it filled with water, it is around 624 feet deep. This summer my dive buddy Morgan and I dove it. We only went around 100 feet deep. It is beautiful clear blue and you can see forever underwater. It has straight down rock wall cliffs, it feels like you are flying along a mountain. Anyways, we took a few pictures and continued on our trip. We arrived at Kalaloch 2 hours later. I showed them my living quarters for the summer and the ranger station. We then went to the Lodge enjoyed lunch while looking out over the ocean. It had been a slightly windy rainy day so the view from inside was warm and pleasant. On our way out we stopped by Big Cedar tree one of the largest cedars in the U.S.A, snapped a few photos and went to Ruby Beach, we didn’t walk the trail down to the beach it was raining pretty hard, but you could see the rock formations in the water just off the beach. A beautiful view! Our next stop was a detour off HWY 101, we went to the Hoh Rain forest, a beautiful rain forest where the trees are covered by a gorgeous green moss, the woods are thick and the trees are all huge. It is one of the few temperate rain forests in the U.S and also one of the largest. It receives around 140-165 inches of rain per year. We were blessed with a herd of Elk that slowly crossed the road right as we were entering the park. I would say there was about 50 plus of them. A few of the elk had antlers, which is a good thing after hunting season. The Hoh River ran right next to the road and campground. What a wonderful diverse area! On our way back we stopped in Forks, J and Marlene looked around the Twilight store as Leslie and I sat on the bench in the front of the store. I bet that bench gets used a lot by all the husbands, boyfriends and dads that make the trip to Forks to satisfy the Twilight groupies. As we got back into Port Angeles we stopped at a Mexican restaurant where the group enjoyed some Kiwi Margaritas, I did have a traditional one on the rocks but the Kiwi ones tasted pretty good too.Tuesday – Janelle had to work and so I played tourist guide. It was really nice to spend some time with Mama and Papa Johnson. We went out onto Ediz Hook, a large spit that protects the shores of Port Angeles. The Coast Guard has a base out at the tip. We ate lunch at a little dive seafood place at the harbor, great clam chowder and fish and chips! We continued to Sequim, a town about 20 minutes away and went down to Dungeness Spit. It was a spit type of day. We got some coffee in Sequim where Marlene disappeared into her new favorite little shop called Doodle-bugs. After that we headed to the Park Visitor Center where we schmoozed and learned park facts. We sat down and watched a 20 minute movie on the Olympic National Park. What a great day, we finished off with a great chili dinner made by Marlene.
dungeness spit, Sequim
Wednesday – Was a morning of rest. Janelle and I slept in, Mama and Papa Johnson came over just before lunch. After lunch, I went to do the grocery shopping for Thanksgiving day. I was gone for about 2 hours trying to make sure I didn’t forget a item. I believe Leslie found a cozy spot on the couch and kept the couch warm. Janelle and Marlene baked pumpkin and Apple Pie as well as made a wonderful Pork Butte for dinner. Janelle here on the left gives a smile as she gets in a pie making frame of mind. Here is a picture of me preparing some stuff the night before, cutting onions with my scuba diving googles on. Later Leslie and I went out to buy a Thanksgiving table and a extra pie plate. I ended up getting a nice piece of 4 by 8 plywood. I cut the corners off making it a nice oval shape and added some 2 by 4’s to the bottom so it would fit over our small dining room table. It turned out great! Late that night my parents and Meredith arrived. Mama and Papa Doo picked Meredith up at the airport and made great time in getting to P.A. (Port Angeles). I believe they drove straight onto the ferry. We saved them some Pork Butte and we quickly called it a night. Oh yeah, of course the day was filled with Pork Butte jokes.
Leslie straightening out the table after single handedly carrying it into the house.
Meredith adds some Turkey Spirit
Moms prepare to set the table
Nothing like a smile and a swig of olive oil!
Thursday – I got up all by myself at 7am while everyone slept in. I needed to prep the Turkey, my first Turkey and I wanted it to turn out not just good but great. (thank you Uncle Craig for the pre-help with the Turkey, great game-plan) That was my goal for the whole meal. I love to cook and I don’t like to follow recipe’s. For me, I feel food should be part of a mood or feeling so to follow a recipe may fit your mood but to make something without a recipe on feeling and food is to adapt it perfect for that day and meal. I have to be honest I was pretty nervous about the whole meal, cooking for all your loved ones is a big deal to me and I wanted everything to turn out great. I pretty much told all the parents that Janelle and I were cooking this first Thanksgiving dinner and we did not want any help ☺ We really wanted to host and take care of the family. To give all the parents credit they did a good job of letting us cook. You know, that is hard for a parent to do, for them to just relax and enjoy the day. They and Meredith did help set up the living room for the big feast. I was excited to see that the dining room table I put together the night before worked out well. Leslie later said that he was impressed with Janelle and my ability to team work in the kitchen. (That made us feel pretty good.) Janelle and Meredith got up around 9 am when the first football game started. It was nice to have a view of the TV from the kitchen. The rest of the family showed up soon after as well as a new friend of J and I’s, Matt who also works for the park. He was away from family for Thanksgiving so we adopted him in. The Turkey came out a nice and golden brown and it finished about 2pm, right on schedule. Janelle was in charge of a Brussels sprout dish, she sautéed them in garlic and scallions and topped them with melted parmesan. She also made a beautiful Spinach and glazed pecan salad with raisons and a balsamic vinaigrette. We started dinner with a nice gentle amuse bouche. It was a vegetarian broth with some smoked salmon, a chanterelle, a half cut cherry tomato and a drop or two of truffle oil. It was a nice warm up for the palate. It reminded me of my Canlis days. The other courses were the stuffing, which for the life of me I can not remember all the ingredients, but I do remember more chanterelles and raisons. The gravy, (which also doesn’t come to mind) I know both sets of parents are cringing right now because they love to lecture me on writing down my creations. I do know it had a pound of chanterelles that I had picked this summer 
and the perfect amount of truffle oil. I had substituted a Cauliflower mash instead of mashed potatoes. It was cauliflower cooked and mixed with butter, cream cheese, sour cream, roasted garlic and chives. MMMM MMMMM GOOD! The truffle oil and Chanterelle Gravy went perfect with it.
In a substitute for the can of cranberry, shaped as the can, my family is traditionally all for, I made a beet, cranberry and carrot sauce with honey and clover, the texture turned out beautiful and it was the perfect
match with the turkey. I was in creative mood so I decided I would try to make my first mushroom duxelle. I used mostly boletes (porcini mushrooms) king, queen and admiral boletes, all I had picked from the summer/fall but I also mixed in some chanterelles. You first chop them up into tiny pieces (aka duxelle) I sautéed them up in butter to where a few were getting crispy I also added in scallions, bacon, green olives, roasted garlic and port. It had a nice consistent texture and it was full of flavor, boletes are amazing mushrooms. Finally we made some garlic bread with homemade roasted garlic and butter. 
While we were cooking we passed around the Port bottle, everyone at the house took at least one swig, I think we created a new tradition for this Doolittle family Thanksgiving. We had a few different wines to compliment the meal (all of course in there correct glass). A buttery Chardonnay, a light Pinot Noir were the main two we had with the meal. 
After a hour or two of hibernation on the floor and couch and where ever you could find the space to lye down we enjoyed Janelle/Marlenes pumpkin and apple pie with vanilla ice cream. HEAVEN. 
We finished a puzzle everyone had taken turns working on throughout the day and of course the Packers won! A Blissful beautiful day that Janelle and I truly enjoyed spending time with all the family. I did really miss Mike, Carrie, Mary Jean and Alex but they had other family they had to attend too. It’s hard to get everyone together now-adays. It was a day Janelle and I will never forget! Thank you!
puzzlen
Victoria, B.C
Friday – On Friday we all got up by 7AM, yes you read that correctly 7AM so we could get ready and catch a ferry to Victoria BC , Canada at 8am. Janelle and I had a hot dog at 8:15 for breakfast mmm mmm nutritious. The ferry takes about an hour and drops you off in downtown Victoria.
We walked onto the ferry because there is no need for a car because everything is so close to the waterfront. It was a beautiful day as you can tell from the pictures. It wasn’t very busy either. You see it was black Friday and any city in the U.S was probably a zoo, but in Canada they have a different day for there “Thanksgiving”. 
Can you believe they let this crew through the border check
No Comment!
Awwwwww
The whole Crew!
Saturday – I know Mama and Papa Doo had breakfast at Havens and Mama and Papa Johnson joined them for coffee. Meredith, Janelle and I slept in, we can’t keep up with those kids! We met up with all of them in downtown P.A where we did some more looking around and Christmas shopping. The Johnsons including Janelle had lunch at Ricks Restaurant while I drove back with my parent to our place to grab some stuff. My parents took off for Seattle and the Johnsons met back at our place. The Johnson and I went to the top of Hurricane Ridge so they could see the beautiful view. It is where I am working this winter, unfortunately there was low clouds so they didn't get to see the view but we enjoyed the snow. The rest of the day was just hanging out and playing games Sunday- Not to much to tell sadly. Meredith, Mama and Papa Johnson left for the airport and Janelle and I vegged and watched football all day.
It was a very special week for Janelle and I, we had so much fun hosting Thanksgiving. It was nice to take care of family and spend so much time with all of them. It is to bad we all live so far apart ☹ We love you all and we very much missed all the family who couldn’t come that week. We are thankful for all our family and friends! God Bless!
P.S sorry for all the typo’s it was a long quick “write” specially since I am so behind! ☺
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