Greece

Monday morning brought our special wave rider time at 9:00. It’s so fun to try and also fun to get thrown clear off. 

Tom

Jeanne

Lanes

And then Delaney was all like, check me out!

And obviously Matt was so good at it. 

Frankie G

At 10 they let the advanced riders on the surf boards. 



Amy announced a highest steps for a single day contest winner, and I wanted to go for a run one day anyway so figured that was a great day to do it. Best. Run. Ever. 

It was kind of a weird day because we were going to Santorini on small tender boats starting at 2, so I had a low key feeling of anxiety wanting to be ready by then, but also not wanting to waste any of the day. And then we got there early and they announced the tenders early and we couldn’t find Delaney and it was a full blown mess. Thankfully Matt and Delaney were doing a volcano excursion instead of the tour the rest of us did, and Matt wasn’t feeling as anxious as me, so he happily waited for her and she turned up pretty quickly. They made the same tender we made. 

The water was choppy and the tender was hot hot hot. And when we got to the Fira Port they let a few people off and then had to wait because the water got too rough for them to let people off. 

We got to the port and met our tour guide Akees. One of the YouTube videos I watched took a tour with The Golden Ibex so I reached out to them and arranged a tour for the 14 of us. We had a private water taxi, which ended up being the same size as the tenders we’d taken from the cruise ship, it was crazy!

They drove us up the steep switchbacks which was a little scary. We started in Megalochori and started our walking tour. 

What a dream. I don’t know how to say how special it is to be in these amazing cities with my family. We are so blessed.  

Akees was great, he took lots of pictures for us and shared a million stories. 

It was hot, but not unbearable. Wait till Athens for that. 

I love cute mosaic sidewalks. I’d love to make something mosaic-like. I don’t know what, just something cute. 

We walked up to this little lookout point, you can see everyone behind us going up the stairs with no rail. 😬

So many pictures and iterations of pictures. This is my crew. 

It was windy up there! 🤣



I had to walk all around the rooftop and get shots. 

I take so many pictures because I love the way a picture can jog a memory like nothing else. 

These two were doing titanic 2 second before I got the shot. 

I was surprised how deserty the island was. I imagined it being lush and tropical. 

Akers walked us through some villages and showed us the way the make grape bush barrel things. They twist some of the vines from each season and build these basket kind of things and then when they pick the grapes they can throw them inside. 

Teeny tiny green grapes! 

And a sad abandoned home, with the toilet and couch still inside. It has been very difficult to live there for a long time, but thankfully is getting better. They finally have an airport and clean water and greater access to modern conveniences. 

This is the only picture I have of the volcano tour so far. It’s hard to blog when everyone is taking good pictures and I don’t have them all yet. Somehow I’ll manage. 😜 



Who knew we were traveling with Mr. Scoop?!

Love love love the flowers on the shops. 😍 And this cute daughter-in-law. 

I made them pose for me. 

We have so few individual pictures. 



We got lots of pictures for our photo scavenger hunt, like this ladder. Also, there were so many unfinished homes. How sad to start building and then have to stop. 

We spent 30 minutes at this black sand beach. 

Frey brought some of our mom’s ashes and spread them there. She always wanted to go to Greece and never made it, so we made sure she did and then after we had a sibling hug. It was special. 

The Golden Ibex!

We drove all across the island in our nice big van. 

I think this was Oia, the most popular spot on the island. 

We got there just before sunset. 

It was soooo crowded.

And Akees really wanted us to stay together, but it was hard!

Cousins!

Tom takes such fun pictures!

We went into the prettiest little church where they were very serious about not taking pictures. I wasn’t going to, but Jeanne mentioned something and Akees was going to take one for her and they flipped. They had watchers all over the church!





Why did she put her hand on my tummy like I’m pregnant?! 🤣

That’s better. 

There were seriously so many people dressed to the nines all in blue and white to coordinate with the views. 

We missed bubba, but the good news is that he’s finally passed all his physicals and will be starting his training this week! It’s been since Valentine’s Day and they’ve been so patient. I’m so excited for him!

Oia is so pretty but also I don’t think I’d ever go back to Santorini. Or maybe I’d go back in the winter when it’s not wall to wall people, I don’t know. Or maybe a less popular Greek island. 

It was really really lovely and surreal to see a place I’ve seen in so many pictures. 







Akees took us to the best gelato on the island and it was v v good! I got Tahitian vanilla and hazelnut. 

No words. 

Frankie shots. 

We had a 6 hour tour that was really good, but could have been better. It was a personalized tour, but we didn’t have a good plan and thought it would be more relaxed. Akees was great, but also very on schedule. Like, you have 30 minutes at the beach and stay together. We thought we’d stop and eat and maybe shop, but we didn’t really do either of those things. 

So I’d say that was mostly our fault, but it was still a great day. 



Once we got back to Fira where we could catch our cable car it was 8:45 and the last tender left for the boat at 10:30. Akees took us to the best authentic Greek quick food place and we all got delicious gyros. 

So yummy!

We ate them and window shopped and then everyone was pretty anxious to make it back to the boat, so we got in line for the tram, but that line was very long and a few of us wanted to walk down and then one thing lead to another and then all of us decided to walk down. 

Only it was pretty dark and donkeys take people up and down that path every day so there was *tons* of donkey poo and it was pretty smelly. 

Our ship!

And then we came upon a section where they were watering the path to clean the poop, which is great, except it made it slick. 

No one fell, but a lot of us slipped. 

It was a long way down - 600 steps - and our knees were shaking by the time we made it! But we did it and I am so happy we did. So much better than a cable car. 

The boat trip in the afternoon had been so tumultuous that we were all a little nervous to go back. Tom had forgotten he’d brought these seasick glasses, so Lexi tried them out for the way home. We didn’t need to though, because on the way home we sat up top and the air was fresh and we he water so calm. 

We made it back to the ship with time to spare, but it is a little stressful. I’m not sure if I love excursions. Two down and the jury’s still out. When we got back we found Matt and D had already showered so D and Max enjoyed an 11:00 snack. They’re getting our moneys worth on their drink packages!

Matt and I did a few more laps around the ship to really solidify my win. I really wanted 25,000, but I still needed a shower and I was sooo tired. So this is it. Ps - my watch is no longer linked to my phone and I don’t know how to fix it so the time is still Maryland time. That’s why it says 5:21.