Newsflash! Last Thursday was kind-of a big deal in America. It was Thanksgiving, that oh-so-loved day in celebration of gluttony and gratitude A day when food is the centerpiece, we all proclaim what we’re thankful for and millions feel the need to shop at ridiculous hours of the day and night.

It’s a holiday steeped in tradition. And while I dig traditions in general and I adore my family – I called BS this year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-Thanksgiving. I just decided to celebrate the inverse of Thanksgiving, or rather, the antithesis of it(?); an experiment I dubbed, UnThanksgiving.

I spent the whole holiday doing the opposite of what Thanksgiving is traditionally about – and all while still being thankful (who knew that was possible?).

Travel

Thanksgiving and the days surrounding it are notorious for being horrible travel days. They are some of the busiest of year to begin with, add to that unpredictable late-November weather and it can be a literal nightmare to travel for the holiday.

Usually, I suck it up and join the masses at the airport to fly west, across the country to California to be with my lovely family.

This year I headed east, grabbing a Zipcar and hitting the road. I left early in the day hoping to avoid the rush, but after sitting in DC traffic for 20 minutes and only moving 6 blocks (I kid you not), I started to think that maybe my plan was an awful one.

Luckily after getting out of the city, things opened up and by the time I hit the Delaware border, I was nearly the lone car on the road.

My destination? The seaside community of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Family

Thanksgiving is usually filled with family and considering mine is Irish-Catholic, there are a lot of us. It’s always a packed house.

Rehoboth Beach on the other hand is a town of fewer than 1,400 people and on this holiday, it was empty. It was devoid of tourists or anything resembling a crowd.

Rather than being surround by people, I had near solitude.

Turkey Trot

In recent years, participating in a Thanksgiving morning Turkey Trot run has become wildly popular (at least among my family and friends).

They’re a lot of fun, I love that they encourage people to be active (before gorging on endless holiday grub) and usually part of registration fee goes to feeding those in need. All great things.

But they often require fighting early morning traffic to run 5 or 10k with about 20,000 other people. You end up stuck in a pack and have little room to maneuver among the crowd.

This year, I hit the beach. In six miles I saw exactly four other people. It was about 35 degrees with a biting wind, so while I might have been freezing, the coast was mine.

Dinner Prep

Most people celebrating the holiday spend hour after hour in the kitchen preparing enough food to feed a small army. The whole day is dedicating to cooking.

I didn’t cook a thing.

So what did I do with all that free time? I wandered around the almost abandoned Rehoboth boardwalk. Nearly every business was closed and I actually struggled to find a restaurant that was open for lunch.

And I read a book – as in, cover-to-cover, in a day. It was so nice to read in bed for a few hours and then at a bakery, on a bench in the sun, on the beach. I honestly can’t remember the last time I had the time to actually do that.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. All staples of a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

I had avocado, eggplant and sweet potato tempura sushi and mushroom dumplings. It was all delicious.

Shopping

I’ve never really understood the whole concept or reasoning behind the Black Friday trend. It’s the day after Thanksgiving, so let’s all go out before the sun rises, stand in long lines and fight crowds to get a deal on who knows what piece of crap retail item?

I don’t get it. (And what the eff is Brown Thursday? America has lost its mind.)

I avoided retail outlets like the plague Friday-Sunday. Well, aside from Goodwill where I dropped a few things off.

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So what did I think of UnThanksgiving? I pretty much loved everything about it! Of course I missed my family, but knowing that they were all together was enough to make me smile.

I’ve always loved solo travel and this little trip was no exception. Thanks to Thanksgiving, I had probably the most relaxing few days of the past several years.

At the end of the day, I’ve got so much to be thankful for.  I just don’t need a specific day or holiday to know or be reminded of that.

So however you celebrated the day or if you didn’t celebrate at all, I wish you all a very Merry UnThanksgiving!

All photos taken with iPhone 4s.