Merry Christmas as well from a Delta ex-Pat now in North Carolina. And ditto the extra good wishes to Liz for keeping us up to date. We are coming out for the holiday to see my 92 year old dad and a mini family reunion, up in Jenner.
We used to like chartering a boat from Club Nautique and taking it up the Delta the week after Christmas. A memorable one was our first when we were given a guest pass to Tinsley Island, it was just us (wife and two kids) and the Basque caretaker and his family. I wanted to go anchor out for a night or two, but the weather was lousy and the family said no way. so we just did a few day trips from Tinsley and back. The caretaker (Gus, I think his name was) was a super friendly guy, and they had nice lights and decorations up. He invited us to use any of the facilities, when he was going off to Costco for supplies, we had him get some ribs, he got out a big bag of mesquite charcoal and fired up one of their huge pits and everyone had a fine time, the two families. A great Delta Christmas memory.
Another fond holiday season memory is duck hunting on Grizzly Island, and goose and pheasant hunting on a great-uncle's farm on Ryer Island, and my mom cooking them up for wonderful holiday meals, especially her pheasant dishes. My dad's family has a long history in the Delta; they also had a farm on Sherman Island for a long time where he spent many happy days back in the late 20's and the 30's, filled with lots of great stories about the mail boats, river steamers (he was raised in Sacramento) , ferries and of course, characters.
