I love hearing about friends who have very non-traditional holiday celebrations.  And I’ve always personally dreamed of taking a holiday completely to myself {silent cabin retreat anyone?}.

But the best Thanksgiving of all for me was a few years ago when I was visiting my parent’s farm.  My mom and I completely forgot that most, if not all, stores were closed on the day-of holidays.  So, we found ourselves food-less on Thanksgiving Day in the middle of no-where Wisconsin. Not to be deterred, we jumped in the car and had extreme faith that we would find something. You can imagine our excitement when we came across a huge sign on a back-country road promoting a “Full Thanksgiving Buffet, only $9.99!”.  We gleefully pulled into the establishment, burst through the doors, and saw gorgeous home-cooked goodies laid out for customers in the back room.  We made a bee-line for the buffet, filled our to-go containers to the brim, and chatted-up the owner’s wife who had lovingly cooked all the food from scratch.  And then, at some point, we looked-up, looked-around and took-in our surroundings… “Why are there a bunch of naked ladies on stage over there?” my mom asks.  Um, mom, yep, I’m pretty certain we’re delighting in a “Strip Club Thanksgiving Dinner”.  Somehow, in all of our excitement, we managed to miss the fact that we were in a nuddy bar. But you know what? It was, by far, one of the best “cooked with love” meals that we’ve ever shared.

According to The Huffington Post, 14 million people are expected to “dine-out” in the US for Thanksgiving this year {with the top reason being “convenience: not having to clean up!”}. So, if I a} didn’t have to visit family, b} was fabulously wealthy, c} didn’t have a day job {wait, if we were filthy rich, it goes without saying that we would travel for a living, duh}, and d} there wasn’t an amazing strip club meal waiting for me, then here are a few peculiar places I would choose to eat my Turkey din-din this year, or Christmas, or New Year’s for that matter….

1} Dinner in the Sky:  Acrophobiacs beware, this one is for the seriously adventurous. “Dinner in the Sky” is basically a table suspended 164 feet above ground for up to eight hours, where you can dine, drink, chat or sing to your heart’s content.  You can even play Poker. Or have a business meeting to strategize taking over the world. Oh, and yes, they have Wifi to help you do that!  This hanging platform can accommodate up to 22 guests and is currently in more than 35 countries with exotic locations like {Lebanon, Holland, Turkey, Cyprus, Mallorca, and Bulgaria} to name a few.

2} Ithaa, Undersea Restaurant:  If you’re not feeling heights, then I doubt you’ll be any less intimidated by dinning 16 feet below sea level! Ithaa, the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island’s unique undersea restaurant, promises 180° view of reef and marine life while you sip champagne and nosh on Maldivian-Western fusion cuisine.  This is in fact the world’s first all-glass undersea restaurant and of course they feature mainly seafood entrees like “Rock lobster with leeks etuvé, snow peas salad and a sauvignon blanc cream sauce”. Yum.

3} The Redwoods Treehouse:  Above all, I want to go here.  Could there be anything better than dinning among redwoods?  The Redwoods Treehouse is a private venue commissioned in 2008 – a striking pod-shaped structure near Warkworth, Auckland, New Zealand. Its made of aminated pine, redwood and plantation poplar woods and is entered using a 120 foot high treetop walkway.
Up to 18 diners can savor a  multicourse menu that includes “pan-fried lamb loins with baby beetroot and mandarin salad with caramelized garlic”.

4} Dolce & Gabbana “Gold”:  In Milan you’ll find posh velvet chairs, hand-carved precious metal utensils and some of the most expensive yellow-rimmed china in the world… yep, “D&G Gold” serves up glamour with shimmering gold accents everywhere {a bit ironic given the current state of Italy, no?}.  Their Sicilian traditional cuisine sounds absolutely divine though – their menu totes dishes like “Crispy egg milanese style, porcini mushroom pie, parmesan fondue and black truffle” and “Black pork loin in bread crust, chicory heart salad, venus rice and dry broad bean cream” – say no more, I’m in!  {well, that is, after I save up for about 10 years}.