THANKFUL ON THE RIVER

[HostDave]

Thanksgiving is a time when people all over the United States sit down with their friends and families and not only share a meal, but also their gratitude for the blessings they have in their lives. In many ways, it’s a shame that we only take time to reflect on all that is positive only once a year when, of course, we should be exercising that same introspection each and every day. Because we express our thankfulness to one another only once a year, it makes sense that we choose to acknowledge only life’s grander gifts instead of the many small presents that brighten our lives on a daily basis.

Onboard the grand American Queen this week, our guests are no different than any of you reading this blog at home. They are sitting down to meals that are an embarrassment of riches and giving thanks for health, happiness, success, friends and family just like millions of others are doing in their homes from Alaska to Alabama and from Hawaii to Florida. Of course, the specific meals might be a bit different. For example, the Cajun stuffing on the menu in the American Queen’s soaring two-deck, window-lined J.M. White Dining Room might be oyster stuffing in a Cape Cod-style home outside Boston or poi at a surfside home in Honolulu. Our cola-glazed ham served alongside our crisp, golden-roasted turkey might consist of fresh salmon at a hillside townhouse in Seattle or mahi mahi at a tidy cinder block home in Hialeah just west of Miami. But no matter the menu, the focus is still one the great blessings in our lives.

It’s important to set aside time once a year to step back and see the beauty, grace and wonder of our life. However, it is also at this time of year that all of us at the American Queen Steamboat Company vow that we won’t limit such an observance to just once a year. Instead, we try to take a moment out of each day to not just look at the big picture, but all the little things that fill our existence with such richness, warmth and love. And if all of us really could put even more effort into it, we would find multiple times during each day when we would be overcome with gratitude and feelings of thanksgiving.

Interestingly, it is often a vacation that forces us to feel such joy several times each day. When was the last time you were overwhelmed with nature’s beauty, the kindness of strangers or the wonder of exploration? When was the last time you felt gratitude welling up inside you and thanked your lucky stars you were where you were, doing what you were doing, at the exact moment you were doing it? If you’re on the American Queen as you read these words, then you know exactly the feeling we’re describing and can probably think back no more than a few hours to the last time you felt it. If you’re reading this blog from home, it’s likely been weeks, if not months, since you lost yourself in a feeling of contentment and gratitude at life’s smallest gifts.

It’s easy to see why a voyage on the American Queen, especially one during the holidays, engenders such happiness. Each morning, we wake to an alarm, hit the snooze button, shower, dress, prepare for a day and dive into the tasks at hand. This morning on the American Queen, guests arose when they felt like it but those whose natural internal alarms brought them to their feet before sunrise were treated to a gift. Sitting on a rocking chair on the Front Porch of America, the banks of the river were just barely visible in the early morning purple mist. Imagine yourself there right now. A warm cup of chicory coffee in hand and plate of beignets by your side, you watch as the sun slowly creeps above the horizon, the mist melting away and long shadows of the new day’s promise extending across the landscape. The river glides by below almost silently thanks to the mighty paddlewheel located more than 400 feet away at the stern. It is moments like these that we all want to thank our deity that we are alive and that we have been blessed with yet one more day on this glorious planet.

Later that morning, you might be enjoying a game of cards in the wood-paneled mahogany splendor of the Mark Twain Gallery with a couple you just met last night during pre-dinner cocktails in the Captain’s Bar. Though your hand might not be the best, you know you’ve already won; these people are sure to be lifelong friends. Your gratitude at having met kindred spirits makes you reflect what a blessing all your friends, both those from the past and those that you have yet to meet, truly are in a world where many people barely acknowledge each other’s existence. There’s just something about the atmosphere on the American Queen that brings out the best in everyone.

As the day on the world’s largest and last authentic steam-powered paddlewheel riverboat unfolds, you find more and more reasons to give thanks. Perhaps it’s because your favorite family staple, bourbon and chocolate pecan pie, is available at lunch. Maybe the immaculate manner in which your attendant has made up your stateroom causes you to gush with praise as she gives you a hearty smile as you pass in the hallway. It could be the fortunate feeling you have as you receive a massage in the AQ Spa, listen to a tale by one of our onboard Riverlorians in the Chart Room, or take your turn at the keyboard of the mighty calliope. Joyous childhood memories return in a flood of thankfulness as you fly kites off the stern of the American Queen. And Thanksgiving dinner in the J.M. White, while the social highlight of the day, is really nothing more than yet another moment to feel gratitude for the multitude of moments of happiness that life has bestowed upon you.

As you quickly learn, every day on the American Queen is Thanksgiving Day.