Pavo en El Paraíso

Happy Thanksgiving from the Half Cast First Cast staff from the Happiest Place on Earth – Anglers Inn Lake El Salto in Mexico!

We were scheduled to be here through Saturday the 21st, then we were going to work Monday and Tuesday, and drive to Chicago on the Wednesday immediately preceding Thanksgiving. After consulting with family members in Illinois, we decided that it would not be wise to enter their home so shortly after our travels. For the same reasons, we decided that it didn’t make sense to celebrate with my near-80-year-old parents. My brother’s family has decamped to Colorado for a few months. That would have left us home alone.

We went through every possible reason NOT to stay in Mexico in our heads, and realized that there were none: Both workplaces signed off; American Airlines waived change fees (although the new itinerary was slightly more expensive, so we had to pay about $125 each); there was a room available at the lodge. Finally, the combination of COVID and my obsessive husbanding of vacation days meant that for the first time in my life I have to burn some of these days before the end of the year or I’ll lose them forever.

The result: 12 straight days of fishing. Yes, we miss our families, and we know that others are suffering as the result of the pandemic. We’re not making light of anyone else’s misfortune — we are ridiculously fortunate to have this opportunity and we know it.

Wishing you a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving wherever you are, and we hope next year at this time things are back to “normal.”