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Most likely I'll post some pics as part of whatever update I give, and given that there is no way all three of my daughters will think that they look good in the same photo at the same time, pics will likely be pulled and right there is your incentive to check back every day to see how things actually went before something gets taken down.This section will contain the running commentary from the trip, in regards to the most recent country we have been in. But once I'm able to start the next country, I'll put the historical posts in the "Old Updates - XYZ" tab above. This all assumes I (or one of my kids) will be able to figure out how to make this website work.

If you want to read about the first 28 days and our time in Italy, then click here.

If you want to read about our time in Turkiye, then click here.

If you want to read about our safari in Kenya, then click here.

If you want to read about our beach vacation in Tanzania, then click here.

If you want to read about our amusement park/desert experience in the U.A.E, then click here.

If you want to read about our desert/beach experience in Oman, then click here.

If you want to read about our jungle ruins experience in Cambodia, then click here.

If you want to read about our elephant/beach experience in Thailand, then click here.

If you want to read about our beach/city experience in Australia, then click here.

If you want to read about our adventure/beach experience in New Zealand, then click here.

If you want to read about our under water adventure in the Maldives, then click here.

If you want to read about our Taj Mahal adventure in India, then click here.

If you want to read about our Disney adventure in Hong Kong, then click here.

If you want to read about our Disney adventure in China, then click here.

If you want to read about our Political/girlie adventure in Seoul, then click here.

If you want to read about our Adventure with friends in Japan, then click here.

If you want to read about our Disney Adventure in France, then click here.

If you want to read about our World School Prom Adventure in Hungary, then click here.

If you want to read about our Sound of Music/Kid Friendly Adventure in Austria, then click here.

If you want to read about our tour that left our family in ruins in Peru, then click here.

If you want to read about our tour that left our animal adventure in Ecuador, then click here.

The Journey Continues - Greece

San Cristobal to Skiathos (via Guayaquil, Quito, Houston, Toronto, Athens)

To jump directly to one of our days in Greece, click here:

Skiathos to Athens

Athens to Santorini

Day 268

The rest of the trip happened pretty quickly, and wasn’t as painful as I might have thought. Of course, I flew in business class from Quito to Houston, Houston to Toronto and Toronto to Athens (so did Megan, but we only had 2 extra seat upgrades so Lily flew business to Houston and Elenna flew business to Toronto). It was pretty much a series of flight, lounge, flight, lounge, etc.

A couple of weird things happened - first, our luggage went from Quito to Toronto, but we still had to go through customs in Houston, which I thought was weird. We have Global Entry, but the system wasn’t recognizing it, so we had to go through an extra line. We think that we got it fixed with new pictures being taken of us and linked to our Global Entry, but we will see (Elenna and I got through fine into Newark, and this time only Megan got through fine).

Another was that the family that we got along well with on the cruise, not only was on our flight to Quito, but also was on our flight to Houston and was staying at the hotel that we booked for the 8 hour layover in Quito. So we kept running into them, which was a nice happy coincidence (the dad even had a problem with his Global Entry in Houston, so we sat on the same line with him to get new pictures).

During our 8 hour layover in Quito, we watched Mama Mia! and its sequel, since Mama Mia! at least, was the reason we were going to Greece. Its a fun movie, but we all agreed that the second movie didn’t have to be made.

When we landed in Toronto, we had to get our bags and then check our bags again and go through customs and do everything all over. Luckily, we had 4 hour layovers, so we had plenty of time and weren’t in a rush. When we landed in Athens, we had to do that again - pick up our bags, go through customs and then check our bags. So within a 2 day period, we went through 4 countries’ customs and checked our bags 4 times across 6 flights.

Liam gave two thumbs up to the 48 hours of traveling.

Our only flight delay was our last flight, so it didn’t particularly matter that we landed an hour late in Skiathos. It was one of those flights where we got onto a bus, that took us to the airplane, and Keira said that she would rather wait in the airport for several more hours than take a flight where we have to take a bus on the tarmac to the plane. I still can’t figure out why.

This happened a couple of times at the airports.

Lily started a stop watch when we left the cruise ship and it took 48 hours to get to our hotel in Skiathos.

Megan and I had a room in the adults-only side of the resort, while the kids had a 2 bedroom suite in the main building. I said we should have dinner at 6:30, but predictably, the kids wanted room service, so Megan and I had a nice meal by ourselves.

Megan and I thought some fresh air outside was a good change of pace after 48 hours traveling.

The next day was supposed to be a lazy day at the resort. The hotel told us they had laundry services, and it seemed like it might be reasonably priced, until we brought it all down to the front desk, and they told us that we had to itemize it (we had 6 bags of dirty laundry, so it was probably going to cost us $400-$500 to do it that way). They directed us to a laundromat we could go to, but I wasn’t going to spend a day doing laundry, so we found a place that would pick up and deliver it, but we had to call the next morning.

When it was time to get for breakfast, Megan said she would skip breakfast (10:15am was too early, and I kind of felt the same, but my innate need to have three meals a day forced me up), and I met Keira, Elenna and Liam - Lily had gotten up at 8am to work out and she already ate breakfast, and was going to do work all day.

At breakfast, Keira told me that her friend Kaelyn was coming to join us today, instead of tomorrow like we thought, which was a nice surprise. I was calling the laundry people and arranging that, when she showed up at noon. Elenna wasn’t feeling well, so she went back to her room. Megan was still sleeping at 1pm so I snuck into the room to get Elenna a portable wifi device so she could do some schoolwork. Then at 2pm I woke Megan up because I had made a massage appointment for her at 4 and figured she would want to eat before that.

We hung out by the pool. Kaelyn made the mistake of saying that she played Pokemon Go, so Liam talked to her about that until I wrestled him away with a card game. By 5:15, I took him back to his room and showered him, before going back to the room to get ready for dinner.

Day 271

I was awoken at 10am by the front desk saying that our laundry was delivered. I ran over to pay the guy, wondering what the cost would be - 68 euros, or about 20% of what I guessed it might be if we used the hotel. Then we went to breakfast, and once again, Lily had already gotten up and out.

We went down to the beach, which had brown sand, but crystal clear water. Liam didn’t want to go in the ocean, so we built sand castles for a while and then played Uno Flip. He wanted to go back to the pool, so I brought him back up to the pool area and he played in the pool for a couple of hours. We ate some lunch and then went back down to meet with everyone who had stayed at the beach around 3:30. By this time, I had a headache and was tired, so I took a nap. When I woke up, I still had a headache, so I went back to the room for a bit before dinner.

At dinners, Liam would run around outside the restaurants where we could see him, which gave me a little break to participate in the conversations. Dinners took a long time, as the restaurants are in no rush to get you your food or get you out. The Chocolate Souffle was quite good.

One of the areas where Liam would run around during dinner.

The next day was more of the same. After what seemed like non stop traveling and tours, we were happy to hang out at the resort. We went to the pool because that is where Liam wanted to go. We decided to go into the town of Skiathos that night to do a little shopping and eat dinner, so we left the pool around 3:30 so I could get Liam and then myself ready in time to catch the 5pm water taxi into town.

Liam enjoying the pool lifestyle.

When we arrived, we went out to find the pier that was in Mama Mia! It wasn’t terribly impressive, but then again, it wasn’t that impressive in Mama Mia! either. Lily had work to do and stayed home.

The pier from Mama Mia!

The girls went shopping while Liam and I went Pokemon hunting. My batter was only at 45%, but it lasted the two hours until dinner time.

We walked up and down the pier catching Pokemon.

As we were walking around, a giant cruise ship came up blaring “YMCA” and people were dancing on the deck. As it pulled in, the music changed to “Mama Mia!” and then “Dancing Queen”. Liam turned to me and said, “That is Keira’s dream”. So I guess we had reached the point where he has heard enough of the music to recognize it.

The restaurant that we went to had good food, and it was a cute place that felt Greek.

The restaurant was cute.

We had an hour to kill so we walked around the streets. The town of Skiathos was pretty neat - with lots of restaurants and bars, and shops open until late at night. Megan and I wondered if we went to town at 5pm if the shops would still be open, but I didn’t see any shops closed at 10pm.

Skiathos seemed like a pretty cool place to hang out at night.

We took a water taxi back to the hotel, and Megan and I wondered why Keira and Kaelyn didn’t stay out later and have a drink, but again, its probably an issue of “be careful what you wish for”.

Liam was ready to go home.

The next day we left to catch a ferry for Skopelos. There was a bit of worry on my end because the taxi to pick us up was 10 minutes late, but luckily, I had built an extra 10 minutes into our pick up time in case of some issue. We got to the ferry landing and the boat was about 20 minutes late. The trip to Glossa (on the island of Skopelos) only took 15 minutes, so we were on and off pretty quickly.

Our taxi was waiting for us and we got to the hotel around 1pm and our room was ready. We checked in and then went down to the beach. We saw a playground and walked over to it, and then a woman who worked there got up and walked over to us and kind of hung around. It turns out that the place had a kids club, so Liam stayed there for a while, while the rest of us went to the beach.

We got Liam when our lunch arrived and then he played with Keira and Kaelyn for a while, even going back to kids club with them to play “Snakes and Ladders”. Megan and I stayed on the beach until the last possible second, and then came back to get ready for dinner. The restaurant at the hotel had good food, but it was an outside restaurant. As we were leaving the room, I went back in and got some bug spray, and everyone was complaining that I was holding people up. But then at dinner, everyone used the bug spray, and about half of the dinner conversation was about how their bug bites were already showing up on their arms.

Liam noticed another playground, and he and I walked over there for a while, while we waited for our food. It was made for kids a year or two younger than him, but he still enjoyed it. Then we explored the area by the water for a little before going back to the restaurant. Dinner was good and although the plan was to get dessert, we couldn’t stand the bugs and went back to the room).

Liam never turns down a playground.

After enjoying the town of Skiathos so much on our last day on the island, we decided that the next day we would go into the town of Skopelos. It was going to be Kaelyn’s last day on the island (beyond a day we had already booked a Mama Mia! tour), so we decided to rent a boat for half a day to take it around and see some islands. As made those plans, Elenna came to us saying that she could track her airpod, and it was still at the restaurant, so I walked back there with here. Then about 25 minutes later, she said that she could track her air pod case and it was somewhere else, maybe near reception. At this point we were frustrated with her and made her call the front desk. They checked and 5 minutes later found the case and had someone deliver it to the room. Hopefully, Elenna learns something from this, but somehow I doubt it.

DAY 274

The next day we went on the boat. Lily was staying home and Liam wanted to stay and go to the kids club, so the four of us and Kaelyn went out. The captain and the first mate were really nice and the boat was great.

A pretty cool boat to take around the islands.

We spent 4 hours going around Skopelos and the island of Alonnissos. We stopped at a cove and jumped off of the boat. They had blow up paddle boards and Megan and Elenna went on them, while I was a bit too afraid of falling off and then trying to get back on.

They did a better job on the paddle boards than I would have.

The beach itself wasn’t that great - the beaches on Skopelos were largely small pebbles and rocks and this made the water beautifully clear, but not terribly fun to walk on. So we swam around but didn’t spend any time on the beach.

Then we stopped at a blue cave. I had seen it on the itinerary and wanted to check it out, because the blue cave in Croatia was pretty cool.

Entrance to the blue cave.

But as we pulled up to it, I realized that the one in Croatia had a special ticket counter and access, so if this was was going to be any good, someone would have set that up and made money off of it. Instead, it was kind of neat, but more of an opening than a real cave.

One part of the cave was blue.

That said, I was impressed that our boat was able to get us inside it.

The cave was a bit of a tight fit.

The coolest place was a little narrow passage that lead to a small beach. At this point, only Megan and I went in, Megan on the paddle board and me in a snorkel mask. The water was so crystal clear, you could see everything. The bad news was that there really wasn’t anything to see. I saw a bunch of minnow sized fish and a couple of real fish, but that was it. But the rock walls were cool, as was the secluded nature of the little beach.

Only a couple of us saw this view.

We ate lunch on the boat and then headed home.

Heading home after a nice boat trip.

That night we went into the town of Skopelos. The girls walked around and went to shops while Liam and I went Pokemon hunting. Then we ate at a restaurant that had tables on the pier and had a good dinner.

A table right on the beach, although these tables were on the sidewalk, then there was a street and then the restaurant, a setup I found a little weird.

The next day we went on the Mama Mia! Tour. This was the reason that we were in Greece, and on this island - Keira’s love of all things Mama Mia! Everyone went on this tour and we went into the town of Skopelos to meet up with the tour bus. The description said that it was a van, but we boarded a bus, and it was filled to the brim, with the bus folding down two seats in the front next to the driver to make room.

The first place that we went was the church where Sofie and Skye were supposed to get married - 199 steps up to a small church on a rock outcropping.

My girls, where Sofie's wedding procession began the climb up the steps.

We heard about how Pierce Brosnan was afraid to walk up the steps, so he didn’t go up (you only see him at the bottom and then in the church, with the church scenes filmed in a Hollywood studio).

I could see why you might not want to run up these steps. Especially because the handrails at the top seemed kind of new...

At the top there was a tree with a bell on in, and the legend was that if you ring the bell, you will find your true love in the next 24 hours. Our girls did it, but I don’t think that it came true for them.

I kept an eye out, but didn't see any boys magically appear.

The film crew changed the outside of the church for the movie, but it looked more or less the same to me. The guide said that they covered up the entrance, so in the movie, there isn't a way to get into the church.

We made it to the top, and the church looked more or less the same (to me).

The site was very interesting, but the problem was that it was a narrow winding road with switchbacks, which was Megan’s worst nightmare. On the way in, the driver said that our driver was the only one allowed to take a bus in, which I thought was a fun fact, but I think that it ended up scaring Megan more (as in, why are other people not allowed to drive busses here?). The way out was worse for Megan, because she had to consciously make the decision to board the bus, knowing what the roads were like. Although she was clearly worried, she boarded and we all got through it unscathed.

The next stop was at an olive oil factory, which as far as we could tell had nothing to do with the movie and was just a tourist trap.

The next stop was Kastani beach, where they filmed three scenes - the scene where Sofie tells Skye that she invited her potential dads, “Does Your Mother Know?” and “Lay Your Love on Me”. The beach itself was nice and we decided to try to go back some day and just stay on the beach there.

The next stop was Agnontas beach, which was near a spot where they filmed a scene where Sofie and her dads jump off the cliff into the water. We ate some food there, and had 75 minutes to eat, and based on how long it takes to get service at restaurants, I was sweating the whole time that the bus would leave without us, but we finished just in time.

We were dropped off in town with enough time to quickly do a little Pokemon before going back to the hotel. We ate dinner at another restaurant at the hotel, which was only slightly less buggy than the first one. We at least got our dessert this time, but then rushed to leave as the bugs continued to come.

Day 276

Kaelyn left early in the morning and we spent the rest of the day at the hotel.

It was sad to say goodbye to Kaelyn.

Liam liked the kids club well enough and spent most of the day there except for lunch and a half an hour we spent in the pool. That night, we ordered room service, in part to get around the bugs and in part to watch “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. Megan had booked us on a Greek wedding event later in our trip, so we figured that we needed to get some experience. Overall, the kids liked the movie, and even Liam watched it.x`

The next couple of days we just hung out in the hotel, splitting our time at the pool and beach, with Liam spending a decent amount of time at the kids club. I needed a haircut, so one day we went back into Skopelos and I got a haircut while Megan and Liam caught Pokemon and the girls walked around and shopped.

Liam playing in the pool with Huxley, a 2.5 year old friend he made in the kids club.

Megan asked me if I needed her there to give advice to the barber, but I told her no, and I gave Liam my phone so they could both catch Pokemon together. However, after they left, I realized that there was a potential that the barber wouldn’t speak English, or at least wouldn’t speak English enough for me to tell him exactly what I wanted for a haircut. I don’t like my hair cut shaved short, and as I watched the two people in front of me getting severe buzz cuts, I started to worry. Eventually it was my turn, and I found that the barber spoke English quite well (they had only been speaking Greek to the customers until then). At the end of the day, I think that I got a pretty good haircut. I had now gotten my haircut in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia (and New Zealand), and I was starting to wish that I had gotten my haircut in South America and Africa too, just to say that I did.

Megan hadn’t been happy with Liam’s last two haircuts, so she cut his hair in the hotel, letting it grow out while also cleaning it up. I think that she does a pretty good job with Liam’s hair, and during COVID did a good job with my hair, but she didn’t want to cut my hair, since she didn’t like the last haircut I got (at least in the back) and was more confident in keeping a haircut going, than in trying to change one.

We also got some laundry done in the hotel, but it was so expensive that we only got a few things cleaned, that would let us last until Mykonos. Luckily, we pretty much wore the same bathing suits every day, so there wasn’t much laundry to do from that part of the stay.

After 7 nights in Skopelos, it was time to go to Athens. It was bittersweet, since no one wanted to pack and get on another flight, and knowing that the next week was going to be filled with more tours than the past week had been. However, we were going to meet some good friends, and we were all looking forward to catching up with them.

We got up and out of the hotel at 8:20 and went to the ferry. The tickets to the ferry said 9:15, but I got an email a few days earlier saying that it was now going to be 9am. I went online the night before, and it still said it was 9:15, but we decided to get to the pier by 9 anyway just in case. Megan had been reading that the seas can get a little choppy, so I checked on-line and it said that our boat accommodated cars, so it seemed big enough to weather any rough seas.

We got there and there was a smaller boat that said it went to Skiathos-Skopelos-Alonnissos. On the bow of the boat, it said the name of the ship company that our ferry was supposed to be. I asked our driver if that was the boat we were supposed to be on (since it was supposed to be bigger I assumed it wasn’t), and he said it wasn’t. Megan took Liam to a nearby playground while we waited - it was 8:50am, so we had either 10 or 25 minutes to wait. At about 8:55, the guy standing by the boat came over to us and asked which boat we were waiting for, and I showed him the tickets and he said it was his boat. So I had the girls load the bags while I ran over to where Megan and Liam were to get them to come out board. We boarded and I felt bad about holding up the boat, but the boat left at 9:02, which wasn’t too bad.

We got to Skiathos and had a couple of hours until we wanted to leave for the airport, so we went to a cafe and had some breakfast. We still had an hour to kill when we were done and Lily and Elenna stayed a the cafe with our bags while Liam and I went Pokemon hunting and Megan and Keira went shopping (Keira bought some post cards, replacing the cards that she had previously bought, but somehow got lost in bringing them back to the hotel).

The van we ordered to pick us up was 15 minutes late and we were about to go get into the normal taxi line when it showed up and brought us to the airport. We were at the airport about 2 hours before it was scheduled, but the checkin hadn’t opened yet. After about a 10 minute wait, they started checking our bags and we waited at the gate. The flight was delayed about an hour, giving me time to write this post.

The flight itself was uneventful, and we got our bags and Ubered to the hotel (needing 2 Ubers since Uber in Athens only links up with local taxi drivers). We met up with the Sherry’s in hotel lobby and then went out to dinner. The hotel recommended a place that had a view of the Acropolis.

A beautiful place for our first dinner together.

DAY 282

We got up early to grab some breakfast at the bakery around the corner before heading to our tour of the Acropolis. We got there at 7 and I think that they were just opening because by the time we left at 7:30, their shelves were more full than when we got there. We had found that Greece eats a lot later than we are used to. Room service on our last day in Skopelos didn’t start taking orders until 8pm, and the breakfast didn’t open until 8am.

We took the subway to the Acropolis, which was just a 5 minute train ride. We met up with our guides who took us around. I have to admit that I didn’t really know anything about the Acropolis or the Parthenon, besides the fact that they were in Athens. I saw that we had booked a tour of the Acropolis and didn’t see any mention of the Parthenon on the calendar, so I googled how far away they were from each other and they seemed quite close, so I felt that if we didn’t see it on the tour, we could see it ourselves. (Technically I didn’t have to admit that, and I am still debating deleting this section, but if you are reading this, then I left it in).

The Acropolis is the hill in the back.

Well, it turns out that the Acropolis is a bill fortified hill, and there are lost of acropolis with lowercase “a”s around. This one is the Acropolis with a capital A, because the Parthenon is on top.

At the base of the hill we saw a number of ruins including The Temple of Dionysus, Dionysus’s Amphitheater and the remains of an old Athens hospital (where prayer was a big part of the medicine you received).

Dionysus's Amphitheater, where concerts still happen (Elton John, Cold Play, etc.).

Then we walked to the top of the hill and saw the temple of Athena Nike (two gods in one), built around 400 BC.

The Nike Athena temple.

It also included the Parthenon. The ruins were impressive. Apparently, what we were able to see was the third version of the Acropolis after the first two were destroyed. The Parthenon as we saw it started out as a temple fo the Greek gods, then the Romans turned it into a Catholic church, and then the Ottomans turned it into a Mosque. Then the Venetians came and bombarded the city, and when they heard that the Ottomans held their arsenal in the Parthenon, they shot cannons at it until it exploded, which is why its in ruins today.

The Parthenon was getting a facelift after 2,000 years.

Our tour guide also told the story of how a British explorer came here in the 1800s and then took a lot of the more preserved marble carvings and even a column from the temple. He didn’t bother trying to hide how he felt about a lot of the most interesting pieces being “owned” by England. The place started to get renovated in the 1970s, with reconstruction continuing to this day.

We had booked a "Percy Jackson Tour" of the Acropolis, and really it was a normal tour, with a separate guide who had an ipad and periodically would have us answer questions about Greek Gods. It wasn't as good as the one in Italy, but it did keep Liam engaged.

The Percy Jackson part of the tour.

Then we went to the Parthenon Museum, touring the artifacts that they found in the area. It included many of the statues and even some of the carvings that would have gone on the walls (but were brought inside for better preservation). Meanwhile, they also excavated below the museum and you could look through the floor at the underground town there.

It always amazes my how there is a city for hundreds of years, and as they start new construction, they realize that there is another city underneath it.

After that, we went to a restaurant outside the Acropolis and then took the metro back. We had a few hours before our night time walking tour, so the girls did some shopping while I largely napped. We took the metro to the tour and began walking around an area that was halfway in between the hotel and the Acropolis, walking towards the Acropollis.

We started with a visit to the Parliament building, where we saw a changing of the guard ceremony. I would say that there was a lot of unnecessary leg movements in this switch.

These guys would do high kicks almost every step.

We walked through the National Gardens, which was a park planted with over 500 different species of plants from the queen in the 1800s. Our guide noted that although Greece was old, as a country in its current form, it only gained independence in the 1830s, from the Ottomans.

The palm trees weren't indigenous to the area, but brought in in the 1800s.

Then we walked over to the original Olympic Stadium (where the 1896 Olympics were held), which was the largest all marble stadium in the world, holding 70k people. I was on the lookout for any potential Beer Olympics medals.

Someday the Beer Olympics will have a stadium like this.

Then we walked up near the walls of the Acropolis, to where there was a great view of the city.

Then we walked back through the old section of town which was very cool.

A view over the city - you can only see about 40% of Athens from there.

Then we stopped for some Greek Yogurt (Liam had some oreo ice cream).

A nice stop at a real Greek Yogurt place.

One thing about Athens was that there was A LOT of graffiti on the walls. Much more than I had seen in other cities. Some of it was normal “tagging” where people spray painted the walls with their initials which made the place look run down. But sometimes there were beautiful street art on the walls.

Some of the better street art we saw.

We walked over to our restaurant, and got to see the Temple of Zeus, which had been picked apart over the years.

It always saddens me when people took the marble from one temple to build another, leaving behind a ruin.

And our restaurant was right next to the the temple of Hephestus which was pretty cool to see at night.

Our restaurant was in a neat little section with outdoor seatings on one side and old temples on the other.

Day 283

The next day we got up and got two ubers at 5:30am to take us to the airport. We boarded a flight to Santorini. PJ had arranged transport for both of our families to the hotel and we arrived at 10am, where we each had one room ready, so we were able to drop our bags. They said we could have breakfast, and although we grabbed something at the airport, I wasn’t in the habit of turning down free meals, so we had breakfast there, which was pretty good.

We layed out on the beach for a while, then Liam and I went Pokemon hunting for an hour and half. I didn’t have my hat, and although I had sunscreen on my face, I didn’t have it anywhere else, and about half way through the walk, I was worrying about how much sun I was getting (Liam had sunscreen all over and his hat). By the end of the walk, I was feeling run down, and we checked to see if Megan and my room was ready (it was), and we we there and hung out for 30 minutes while I recharged Megan’s battery (figuring that she would appreciate it if we didn’t run down her battery catching Pokemon). I was having a hard time staying awake, feeling chills as I dozed and Liam played on my phone. Eventually I got us up and back to the beach, because I needed a real nap, if I was going to the Greek Wedding event tonight that started at 9:30pm.

I dropped Liam at the beach, and Megan had ordered him pizza which had just arrived, so I took a slice and told them I didn’t feel well and was going to crash in the room. Megan came in a couple hours later and I took my temperature and it was 102, so I took some medicine. I slept a few more hours and it was still 102, so I took more medicine and realized that I wasn't going to be able to go to the show that night. We had debated leaving Liam with me (since he fought the idea of going), and I was going in and out of sleep and (thankfully) Megan decided I wasn't in any shape to watch Liam. So everyone went to the Greek Wedding show while I stayed home.

My understanding is that the Greek Wedding show was a performance as if you were attending someone else’s wedding, sitting in the bride or groom’s side. There was a little show and Keira was brought on stage to dance with one of the actors and it became a plot point because he later hit on a different girl and she turned him down because he danced with Keira. Jeff was also pulled up on stage to dance. Everyone said that I would have enjoyed it and been up on stage, and I guess I probably would have.

Apparently Keira was breaking up romances while I was sleeping.

At the end of the wedding, everyone smashed plates on the floor. As expected, Liam slept through it all.

When Liam is out, even breaking dishes won't wake him up.

When Megan came home a little after midnight, my fever had broken.

Day 284

The next day we spent the day at the beach. Liam and I went Pokemon hunting for a little bit, but since I still wasn’t sure if the prior day was an extension of a cough that had been building for the prior 5 days, or heat stroke, we just went for about 30 minutes. We also played in the pool for a bit.

It was Father’s Day, so my kids gave me some presents before we headed off to dinner and to watch Mama Mia! on an outdoor screen. We had good seats, with our table largely in front of the screen. The location of the restaurant and movie theater couldn’t have been more picturesque.

An amazing place to watch a movie.,m

There was a few moments of tension as the place had some difficulty getting the movie going - it was unclear if they were trying to stream it, or having connections problems with a USB, but eventually they got it going. They had handed out headphones to everyone, so we could hear it well, without them having to blast the music.

You can see the headphones around Lily's neck.

This turned out to be a good set up because it was a bit windy, which would hav made listening to it a bit difficult. The wind also made it cold, but they handed out blankets to share for 2 people which largely worked, although some of the people at our table sat in front of others, so that was a little tricky.

The movie was good, and even though we had just seen it 2 weeks earlier we all enjoyed it again. There were a few drunk people who took the sing along aspect of the movie to the extreme, but besides that it was a lot of fun.

When we got back to town, we ordered gelato. Megan was worried that I would keep her up coughing, so I slept in the other room, and Liam slept in our bed.

The next day we relaxed again at the resort all day. I finished another book (I had read 5 and a half books so far in the 2 weeks in Greece which is a good pace for me on this trip). We did more Pokemon hunting and then got ready for dinner.

We had dinner in Oia, the town on the water cliffside that you think of if you think about what Santorini looks like. We had dinner on a rooftop restaurant, and then walked around the town including going to a spot where we could see the three domes. We did a little window shopping and got some gelato.

We saw the iconic white buildings with the blue domes.

DAY 285

We got up and did a little shopping (girls), Pokemon hunting (boys) and beaching until noon, when we had to check out of the hotel, and headed to the ferry. We had a 1:15 ferry, and the hotel was trying to get us to take a taxi at 11:15 for a trip that should only take about 20 minutes, but we decided to leave at 12. The hotel told us that if they told us a later time and we missed the ferry, then they would have to put us up, so we felt confident that we would have plenty of time, since boarding the ferry takes about 3 minutes.

We bid farewell to the Sherrys, it was good to have some more company on the trip, and headed to the ferry. We got there at around 12:35, and then decided to get some food (since we had breakfast early for us - around 9am). We decided to go to a gelato place, since that seemed like it would be quick, but it was incredibly disorganized (they served some food to your table, and others you had to get yourself at the ice cream counter) and after trying to order a couple of things and them being out, we just ordered some ice cream cones and walked to the ferry.

By now, we were used to the somewhat random looking baggage storage area, and were more comfortable just leaving our bags for anyone to steal if they were getting off at the stop before ours. Then we went to our seats (this was a large boat with assigned seating) and Keira and I watched Tires on the way.

We had been worried about rough seas, and everyone but me took some seasick medicine (we were running low and since I generally don’t get seasick, I figured we should save it for the people who are more likely to have a problem), but it was smooth sailing there. We got off and found our taxi (it was actually two vans, one for us and one for our luggage). We got to the Naxos Luxury Apartments, which was on a hill with a beautiful view. The description said that the beach was right across the street, but it was more like a 10-15 minutes walk, when you took into account the winding driveway down to the street and the fact that you had to walk a bit along the street to get to the path to the beach.

We were a little worried about the setup - it was more like an apartment complex than the resorts we had been staying at recently - there was no restaurant, and we didn’t have a car. But it ended up being fine - the 15 minute walk each way was a nice little bit of exercise and not too strenuous, they brought breakfast each morning, and there were restaurants in walking distance.

We spent the next four days going to the beach - it was the first in Greece that we went to that had actual sand. It was quite windy on the beach, and it was known for windsurfing and kite surfing, but it wasn’t too bad to lay out. Despite the wind and the sand, the water was crystal clear - there weren’t any waves to stir up the sand and ruin the view. Overall, a beautiful place to spend a few days.

A sunset by our apartment.

We got into a routine of me going down and reserving a few chairs ($20 euros for 1 umbrella and two loungers) then coming back and eating breakfast at 10:30. Then going down to the beach for an hour or two, then I would take Liam to a restaurant where we would hunt Pokemon and eat, then get some takeaway for the rest of the family to eat on the beach. Then when it was time to leave, Keira was take Liam back and give him a swim lesson, then Megan and I would come up at the last minute.

Elenna inside a 3-person heart.

The one day we deviated from that, was the day that we got a family photo shoot. We had ordered a van to take us into Naxos town. The photographer took us to the old area of town and we took a bunch of photos.

A shot of our photo shoot.

The shoot started at 7pm, and by 8 the girls were starving (Megan had gotten Liam a banana at the beginning of the shoot, so he was full of energy). We wrapped it up by 8:30pm on the pier and there was a pizza place there and the girls demanded that we eat there since there were seats available. The food was subpar, but what we needed.

A beautiful place to end a photoshoot.

Then we went to get some gelato at the Waffle House - the best Waffle House I have ever been to, since it wasn’t part of the Waffle House chain.Great gelato, and the Wafflins were great.

I would be remiss if I didn't tell the story of how I messed up the dishwasher. I did one load correctly, but then the second load I ran, Keira pointed and said, "It looks like the dishwasher is broken, there are suds coming out." So it turns out that I accidentally put the dish soap into the dishwasher, instead of the dishwasher soap, leading it to sud up and overflow. It reminded me of the Brady Bunch episode where Cindy overflowed the dishwasher. So I spent the next hour cleaning it out and running the dishwasher until I got all the excess soap.

Me scooping out the excess soap with a dish and throwing it into the sink.

DAY 290

We left Naxos and took a ferry to Mykonos. It was another large ferry and despite concerns of seasickness, no one had any trouble. Once again we dealt with the craziness of the ferrry boarding process - its pretty amazing - the ferry starts to lower the boarding gate before the ship docks and pulls away while people are still putting away their baggage. Given that bags are basically all piled up together, when its time to get off, people have to step over bags and move things around to get to their bags and its a big mess. I make sure that I keep my laptop with me at all times, to avoid it being thrown around.

We had a van take us to the hotel. We were meeting up with our friends and as we got there, they had just finished checking in and were about to go to their rooms. We had a nice greeting, and then checked in and went to the pool for the afternoon. It was incredibly windy, which made going to the beach a near impossibility, but the pool was fine.

Liam took advantage of the pool right away.

It was Ryan’s birthday, so we went out to dinner in the town of Mykonos. Our hotel was right on a beach, and was a 10 minute walk into town. Unfortunately, that walk was along the main road into town that was pretty narrow by US standards and had virtually no shoulder to walk on, so when two cars were passing at the same time, it was a bit concerning.

But we got there without incident and the town of Mykonos was pretty neat, with all of these white buildings, close together with narrow winding side paths. At first I was afraid that it would be a labyrinth where we would get lost, but there were essentially no dead ends, so if you just kept walking in one direction long enough, you would eventually run into water, which would allow you to get your bearings.

A toast to Ryan on his birthday.

After dinner, Megan had gotten the hotel to get Ryan a piece of birthday cake (the restaurant also gave himn a free dessert when it found out it was his birthday). Then we gave him a present, which was a shirt from an Australian winery - which we had carried around for 6 months and over 52,000 miles.

The next day it was just was windy, but we stayed by the pool again and hung out. Our other friends were coming in around 3pm, so it was a nice relaxing day waiting for them. After they came and we all had a nice reunion, we got ready for dinner and walked into town again. Having a group of 15 people is awesome in a lot of ways, but Megan and I have done large groups enough where we knew that we needed reservations or else we would walk around town all night trying to find a place. Luckily, our hotel was good at giving recommedations, and we were looking to go out to eat early (7:30pm is early by Greek standards), so we always had a great place to eat. Usually, Liam and I would go into town an hour before everyone else and we would hunt Pokemon, since that was where all the Pokestops and gyms were.

The next day, we decided to go to another beach, which was supposed to be out of the wind. In general, it was, and the wind that was there was actually nice and refreshing. We rented chairs and umbrellas and spend the day there. Liam was the youngest person in our group, followed by Elenna, and the other kids were 16-21, but all of the kids (and adults were great with Liam. They would play cards with him and listen to him talk about Pokemon. After generally being in charge of watching him, it was great to have a bit of a rest.

The beach was beautiful.

DAY 293

The next day, the wind had died down, so we went to the beach in front of our hotel, which was quite nice. Megan, Lily, Elenna and Alivia went horseback riding for a couple of hours.

Horseback riding looked fun.

At the beach, Christine introduced Liam to her favorite pass time, which was looking for sea glass. Throughout the day, he got Christine, me, Ava, Lexi and Julia all to go for walks with him to collect glass, and by the end of the day, we had a quart sized ziplock pretty full of glass. Liam is always interested in things that are rare, so when he found that red and orange sea glass was rare, he went on a mission to find some

The water in Mykonos was gorgeous and clear, and the beaches were sandy, which made them perfect for me. There wasn’t much in the way of waves, which was fine by us, espeically with Liam walking along the water looking for seaglass.

Liam doesn't look confident that I could get Keira standing on my shoulders, but I did.

We went into town again for dinner (with Liam and I going in early again, but this time he had talked Alivia into coming). Alivia came largely because she liked to do things, and wanted a walk, but after constant pestering from Liam, by the time we got to town, she had downloaded PokemonGo and was joining us in playing. The one problem is that when Liam tries to help people who are new to the game, he usually ends up taking their phone and playing rather than teaching them how to play. But Alivia got the hang of it and did well.

We went to dinner at a restaurant that was supposed to have a Greek dance show at 10pm and plate breaking, so I picked the place since I wasn’t able to go to the Greek Wedding show.

The restaurant was almost as pretty as our daughters.

We went to dinner at 8, and service was so slow (its slow at all of the restaurants in Greece), that we didn’t really need to stretch anything out to get to 10:30. There was a dance that three of the staff came out and did, but they didn’t do any plate breaking (unless they did that later in the night). It was getting late, and Keira and Megan both felt a little light headed, so the four of us walked back while Lily and Elenna did some shopping with the younger teenagers before coming home.

The next day, Megan, Keira and Lily got massages during the day, so I took Liam into town to catch Pokemon. Later that afternoon, Christina and Ryan had rented a catamaran for the 15 of us to go around for 5 hours to celebrate their daughter Ava’s birthday. It was a little windy, so the captain gave us the choice of seeing a smaller island, or just staying in calmer waters, but Ava chose the island, since the captain said it was better.

Our catamaran for the trip.

We docked a the first beach area and it was amazing. The water was so crystal clear, that the pictures you will see below look like they were taken in a pool. The boat had two sea scooters, which were these devices with two fans on them, and you held onto what was like a large video game remote control, and the fans would propel you through the water. It was incredibly cool.

The water was so clear.

And now, for a video demonstration of the scooters.

The sea scooters were really cool, although they were a bit heavy, which made them a little difficult to maneuver, and required some good treading water skills when they weren't on.

We hung out in the water for about an hour, using the sea scooter and floating around on pool noodles. But then the water started to get a little cold and we came in.

Just hanging out.

Then we went over to the second cove. The boat had “free” wine and beer and soda, and everyone was a bit cool, so no one tried to jump in, but once again it was a beautiful location. They cooked us a delicious meal that we ate in the cove.

What an amazing setting for dinner.

Then we sailed back as the sun was setting. Everyone agreed that it was an amazing day - clearly the highlight of the trip.

Day 295

The next day we left Mykonos and returned to Athens. Our trip was coming to an end and we couldn’t believe it. Everyone was going back to Athens, but the other two families were going to stay an extra day do the Acropolis (which we had done earlier in the month). We introduced the Hackneys to the joys of boarding and deboarding the ferry, which was just as hectic as ever.

There was incredible traffic to the hotel, as certain streets were being closed for protests. It was 100 degrees, so we were happy to be in a van and not walking. I asked the hotel to make us a dinner reservation with a view of the Parthenon, and they gave us a place that was basically a 15 minute cab or an 18 minute walk, but since it was still 95 degrees at 7pm, we ordered Ubers. I had reserved an Uber at 5 for 7pm, then used Megan’s phone to order another one. By 6:55, Uber still hadn’t found me a car, but Megan’s was coming at 7:10. The Hackneys got one at 7:20, and I had one that was supposed to be there at 7:22, but was going to pick us up around the corner.

So Keira, Alivia and I walked over there to wait. The Stenekens got into a taxi around 7:25, but by 7:26, our car still hadn’t come, because it was stuck in traffic a few blocks away. A few times I considered canceling the Uber and just walking, but then thought about how the driver appeared to be valiantly trying to get to our hotel. Apparently, they were closing more streets, and it might be hard to get an Uber back. Then all of a sudden, the Uber said it was “here” which was a few blocks from us, and then 20 seconds later was canceled.

As we debated what to do, an Uber taxi pulled up, and I asked if he was free, and he asked if we were Georgina, and I said no. So we decided to walk. About 5 minutes into the walk, I was wishing that I had told them I was Georgina. We got to the restaurant around 7:45 and immediate drank a bottle of watter.

As we walked over to the restaurant, we realized that we were walking right past it, so we stopped for a quick photo. The food was solid and we had a great time on our last dinner together.

So the walk wasn't all bad.

The good news was that the view of the Parthenon was amazing from the restaurant, so the walk was probably worth it.

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You couldn't beat the view.

It had cooled down a little by the time dinner was over, and the Uber situation was unclear, so we decided to walk back to the hotel. As we walked past the Acropolis, we heard music playing from the old theather at the bottom of the Acropolis, which was pretty cool that there was a concert,

We got to teh hotel and said our goodbyes. It was sad to say goodbye, and it was sad that it was our last full day of our trip. But it was such a great way to end it - surrounded by good friends.

The next morning we left for the airport. They had arranged a transfer for 7:30 to bring us to the airport for a 10:25 flight, but we moved it to 7am to be safe. I got up at 6 and had no water pressure, with alternating hot and cold water depending on how high I held the hand shower. We got to the airport at 7:45, but didn’t finish getting through customs and security until 8:45, so the extra cushion wasn’t needed, but certainly made it less stressful. Megan and I were upgraded, so we and Liam went to the lounge while the girls got Starbucks at the gate.

When we landed, we got through customs quickly (apparently our Global Entry pictures were fixed when we were in Houston), but then it took a while for our bags to come out. Finally we started to get the bags, and we could see my bag (the last one) coming down the conveyor belt, and then it stopped for about 5 minutes while we debated climbing up there to get the bag and get going, before it started working again.

As we drove back to our house, we drove down the familiar roads and somehow it felt like we hadn’t been gone for very long. Or that somehow, the 10 month trip was more of a dream. We were sad to end our trip, but were happy to be home as we were greeted by our neighbors right when we got home, as well as some of our friends popping in when they heard that we had landed.

10 months later, we were back where we started from, but 4 suitcases were different.

A few stats on the trip:

55 Flights.

Flew 85, 916 miles.

That is enough to fly around the world 3.5x.

23 countries (not counting the US).

6 continents.

4 replacement suitcases.

1 missed flight (which was the snafu on my part where I didn't realize that there were 2 airports in Bangkok).

0 canceled flights.

181 taxis, ubers and cars.

75 days of car rental.

40 ferries/water taxis.

22 tuk tuks.

27 metro trips

8 haircuts on 3 different continents (4 each for me and Liam, none for the girls).

4 Disneylands.

9 non-Disney amusement/water parks.

4 trips to the doctor.

Countless amazing adventures.

Check back in a few days. I'm going to try to get a top 10 list of places from everyone.

Thanks for reading!