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In case there is anyone who doesn't know -- we made it back to the USA safely. We are a little jetlagged and confused about the time zones but will adjust soon. We spent our first day catching up on sleep and getting a new cell phone. We joined Nextel so our phone number should work in 1 day again. Whew, we have missed having one. If anyone has Nextel let us know because we have the walkie talkie feature which I can't wait to try out. I am going to visit my Papa Whitey and Mama Sue tomorrow and am excited to see him. My papa has cancer, and I didn't think I would see him again when I left in March. He is still here though and holding on pretty well ! Anyway, it is late so I am heading to bed now. Feel free to comment . That is a hint :)

Happy Birthday

My sister will kill me if I put pics up of Maggie's Happy Birthday Party before her. She made a great cake. It was beautiful so I will wait to let her show it off. We just thought we would show a little sneak preview for the family. Tres and I decorated for a solid 2 hours and were quite proud of the princess chair we came up with. We decorated the whole room in the theme of her party -- Disney princesses and Princess Maggie-- so we wanted to brag on our creativity. Our favorite moments were when Maggie took a small bite out of the cake before it was cut, and O enjoying being a princess for a day. Cute, huh? Ok. I will leave the rest to Meg's blog. We have loved being with them so much. It was hard to say goodnight because we are leaving early in the morning. I love them so much. I love the whole family so much, and I really loved being with my sister. She is one of my favorite people in the world to be with. What a good way to end our vacation. Luckily, my sister is a huge Tres fan. Her kids are too which made it a little hard for Uncle Tres to say goodnight. Ok. USA here we come.

The Universal Fast-Food

We gave Meg a break from cooking last night and decided to go into Kiel and grab something. Tres was in heaven because they have this neat little stand with every kind of nut you could possibly imagine. He really loved the chocolate covered cashews. We also found the barbecued-flavored cashew! Mmm! Maggie and I fell in love with the chocolate covered coffee beans. Dried fruit was another speciality. What a great store. After snacking on nuts all night, we weren't starving for dinner so we all agreed on Subway. I guess fast food is somewhat universal. You know what you are getting despite cultural and language barriers. It tasted great in Germany. We have been having fun being an aunt and uncle here and part of those duties is the babysitting while Meg goes out. I got to be present when my niece "poop on the potty" for the first time. We were babysitting that day. It also makes things much easier. Poor Tres doesn't get that luxury yet with O so it is still diaper changing for him which Tres does very well :) We have been having a blast hear and are getting geared up for Maggie's "happy birthday" on Saturday.

Germany

We are now at my sister's house in Germany. It has been nice to just relax and not have to do anything except play. We have been eating well and playing -- that's about all. Maggie and Owen are adorable and personality plus. They love us. Maggie is like my little shadow, and O is Tres'. I think they like the loud, constant playing. Meg and Joe are glad to have a break. I am really enjoying getting this time with my sister too. I have missed her! We have had so much to catch up on. We've had fun hanging out with Meg and Joe -- we stayed up playing games until after 1 the other night. Poor Joe had to work the next day too. Anway, Tres and I have taken Maggie on one bike ride that she loved. We ended up getting to pet a sheep which thrilled her so I think there are more bike rides in the future. O hasn't got to go on one with us yet, but I think we will force Meghan to let him go next time. Tres has also kept the kids entertained being silly, such as riding in the car. They loved it. Well, we are keeping Maggie, and i hear her up from her nap. Until later.

A night in the airport

We were really sad to leave Greece. This had been the trip of a lifetime for us. We were definitely ready to get back to showers and clean bathrooms though. We had a 12-hour layover in the Zurich airport so we made ourselves at home in Terminal B. We did the sleep overnight there along with a few other people. At least these chairs were comfortable unlike Athens airport. We also laughed alot that night, specifically because we had and ate so many grapes. We had aimed to buy one kilo of grapes before leaving athens. Instead the man gave us two kiles. I guess he really wanted the two euros. Anyway, we had grapes in three different places. It was hilarious. We ended up eating them all though by the time we got to my sister's house. Also, Zurich is one of the most expensive places we have ever been. We paid 18 dollars for this nice meal of small fries, sprites, and hamburgers! It's a good thing we had a credit card. Also, we really liked the chocolate Swiss Airlines gave out so Tres went and asked the stewardess for two more bars for our niece and nephew. She gave him a bagfull of bars!!! We were in heaven. Our night was actually fun, and we laughed the whole time. Greece was one of the best time we have had together so far. We only had one major fight -- Tres was running behind, and we almost missed the ferry and got stuck on an island for another week. We made up quickly though. Other than that, we had a blast together and got to really enjoy each other. I'm sure we will have many more of those times in the years to come.

Last Day in Greece

We decided to end our vacation in style -- with a real room. We were a bit tired of sleeping on the ground, so we rented a room where we could have our own private bathroom too!!! It was our last day, and we just relaxed around Methoni. We also went to the store and bought tons of food in order to eat on our balcony which had a great view. It was a great last day, even though we ate too much that night and had to take a late night walk to walk it off. We also took some pics of the best purchase we made for this trip -- our shoes. They were last minute -- we found them in Germany the day before we left for Greece. The white flip-flops were a steal. We found them in Greece for 2 euros. They were our shower shoes with beads on them!!! LOL! We shared them and put them to good use. We were sad to part with them but left them for some other backpackers who may find them desirable. Guess who is modeling the shoes?

The Castle

We ended up meeting up with our American friends for day two. I think Tres just wanted to eat with them again :) We went to the castle and fortress, but not before we had a big, fat, Greek lunch which was delicious again. The castle was pretty, and they knew so much about it that it made it very interesting. Afterward, we hit the beach for an evening swim. We parted ways after that and just hung around the campsite for the rest of the night. We were getting a little sad because we knew we only had two more days left in Greece.

Change of Plans

Our original plan had been to head east on the Peloppenese and hit some other ruin sites but after Olympia we changed our mind. We had seen enough ruins in the last six months to last us a lifetime so we decided to head south to nice beaches and relax for the end of our trip. Methoni, Greece was where we stayed. It was a long and hot train ride there (no air conditioning), but we made it. The beaches were great and very calm. There was also a fort and castle there which was ruins enough for us. We enjoyed a relaxing day at the beach and then headed to see the castle that evening which was turned out to be closed. We met two Americans there though which we ended up spending the evening with. Vince lived in Colorado and Alexandra in New Jersey. We agreed that they were two of the most intelligent people we have ever met. They knew a little bit about everything and were so interesting. It was good to be back with some Americans. Tres' loved eating with them because she is originally Greek born so she just went in the kitchen and ordered tons of different foods for us to try. Tres said it was the best meal he had the hole trip, possibly, one of the best his whole life :) We had a great night and were very full on real Greek cuisine.

Let the Games Begin

Our next stop was Olympia. We thought it would be cool to see where athletic competition really started. The travel day to get there was pretty long, but luckily, all our bus connections worked out perfectly. By now, we had gotten pretty good at deciphering Greek and spoke it well enough to get around. We hit the ruins the next day. They were pretty well preserved. We really liked the track and field section. We did actually run it. Why not? The pic of me at the square roped-off section is where the torch is lit every year to start off the Olympics. I am pretending to light it. The visual didn't work well. The arch is the entry way to the stadium. Just a cool shot. Tres is sitting at the top of the steps leading to Zeus' temple. We have tons more pics of Olympia but couldn't post them all. It was a great day.

Last Day in Lefkada

This was our last day in Lefkada and since we had stayed busy we decided to take it somewhat easy. We woke up late and then did a hike to the waterfalls there. It was an easy hike and short. The waterfalls were a little disappointing -- ok, very disappointing. It was less than when you run bathwater fullforce. I guess we have been spoiled because the British people around us enjoyed it. We did think a good swim in the small pool would be nice so we took our clothes off and got ready to jump in.... UNTIL we saw the snake curled up on the rock beside us. I didn't freak but decided wasn't that keen on swimming. We did meet a nice Welsh couple who we ended up driving back to their hotel and then having some drinks with. We stayed and talked with them for two hours!!! We dropped off our rent-a- car that night, headed to our campsite, and got to bed ready for our next destination.

The Love Boat

We woke up early and headed for the "supermarket" which means a small room someone has stocked with the necessities and veggies. It is similar to my Uncle Jim's garage. :) After the grocery store, we headed back to the campground for another adventure at sea. Today, we would be renting a small boat and taking it out for the whole day. Tres would be the captain and I the first mate. We had our lunch,waters, and nutella to provide nourishment, and our map to guide us. Tres loved driving the boat and was an excellent captain, I might add. We did alot of loops jumping waves which I loved. We drove around so many little islands, stopping off for the occasional swim. Check out the water. It looked like a pool. We stopped off, dropped anchor and had lunch but were cut short by an attack of bees. I guess they are fans of salami and cheese too. We also stopped off and took a short nap in the middle of the ocean. What a great day. We were beat when we got back to the camp and decided to make the lunch leftovers dinner. We also took a pic from our campsite. It is the one with all the boats in it. What a great sight to wake up to every morning.

Surf's Up, Dude!

Ok. Day two of Lefkada may have been my favorite day. We decided to try for another new adventure/hobby- windsurfing!!! After walking around the beach and comparing different prices, we settled for the German-owned Human Sports to rent gear and take a lesson from. Great choice. Not only was the price better -- the teacher was great and let us stay out an extra hour than we paid for. I have to brag for a moment and say I was quite a novice at this activity. I loved it! I got up quickly and learned to steer and change directions quick. Tres caught on pretty quickly and liked it too. He preferred the dangerous rock climbing more though. Probably because he was the novice at that. Anyway, we loved it and were so glad we tried it. It was a great day, and we would definitely recommend this company to anyone traveling to Greece. They were great. We then headed back to our campsite for laundry night. Dryers are not something the Greeks have discovered so after washing our tent looked like a "white trash" tent. The good thing is the heat there probably dried the clothes faster than a dryer would.

Lefkada, Ionian Islands

Our next trip was to Lefkada which is an island in the Ionian Sea on the opposite side of Greece as the other islands we visited. It was Tres' favorite stop. They had some of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen. The water was crystal blue and so refreshing. We spent the first day at a remote beach on the edge of the island. We had rented a car so we could go around the island which was not that big. Tres loved jumping off the rocks at the beach which has become his American trademark in Greece. He starts the jumping, and people generally follow suit. We then just drove around the island. The donkey is a typical thing to see in the villages which Tres loved. The vineyards were one of my favorite things. We had fun "taste-testing" some of the grapes, unbeknownest to the owners. They were great! Our first day was so relaxing and enjoyable. What a great island!
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