Greece: Day 1

The first morning after our long day of travel, Gus and I woke up at 10am. Well, I was the one who woke up. And I was still exhausted, but I'd been having these dreams that we'd accidentally slept until 2pm, and they sort of startled me into looking at the clock. The room was really dark-- I was shocked that it was 10! And I freaked out a little. The room we were in was ours for only one night (long, boring story), and I didn't know what time we had to be out of it. Was it 10am? It's not like there were any signs or anything. And, as it turns out, most places like this will let you stay well into the afternoon-- there is no real check-out time. Oh well. We got up, showered, packed what little we had unpacked, and drove back down the hill to where yiayia and papou and the kiddos were staying.

Niko, in typical Niko fashion, and despite going to bed after midnight, had still woken up early at around 7am-- immediately wanting to walk around and explore. Maya was still asleep when we got there, and didn't even stir until after 11! You can probably guess who was in a better mood that day. :) Still, the kids were troopers! They hit the ground running. First, we walked over to the ocean so they could get a peek:

Then, we drove to the town of Tolo, which has great sandy beaches and super calm water (because it's sheltered from the open ocean). We claimed a few lounge chairs and umbrellas, and the kiddos got their first-ever taste of ocean swimming!

You'll notice that the kids are wearing their life jackets in these pictures. This was the first and last time they wore them. Niko's armpits got chafed, and poor Maya got a really painful owie at the top of her leg, where the strap literally rubbed her raw (bleeding!). Poor baby didn't swim for a few days because it hurt so badly! Both kids got arm floaties after this day. I had thought they wouldn't be safe enough for ocean swimming, but the water was VERY calm. Arm floaties were perfect! I had brought the jackets instead of their usual floaties, thinking that we might rent a motorboat one day (like Gus and I did in 2006), but we never did. It ended up being a total waste of suitcase space. Oh well, live and learn!

I don't remember what we did for dinner that night, but I did see this beautiful sunset over the hills behind yiayia and papou's third-story apartment. The hills on the outskirts of the ancient city of Argos!

Getting to Greece...

Our journey to Greece was a long one, as we expected it would be! We left the house at 4:30pm on Saturday, and dropped our pet fishies off at Caryn's house along the way. Then it was off to the bus depot, which is about halfway between our house and the airport. I was hoping we'd make the 5:30 bus, but traffic meant that we got there closer to 6. And then, once we got on the bus, we learned that there were several multi-car crashes ahead of us that were slowing everything down. Greaaaaaat. Commence stress-out!

Still, we were fine. We got to the airport with 2.5 hours to spare. By the time we'd checked our bags, gone through security, and gotten something to eat, it was really just a short wait before we boarded our plane. Thank GOD, because the kids were so excited I thought they might explode. I won't lie, they were driving me nuts!!

Our first flight was on a British Airways 747 to London. It had a second floor!!! Not that we got to see it, but I've always wanted to be on a "double-decker" plane! We had the middle four seats, so we all got to sit together. Behold my charming seatmates, early in the morning (English time; this was at 2am our time!).

Poor zombie children. Niko fell asleep shortly after takeoff, getting probably 3-4 hours of rest. Maya, on the other hand, was WIRED! She was so excited to be on a plane, have her own tv, have someone bring her food, etc. You name it, she was excited about it! She eventually crashed, getting probably 1.5hours of sleep. Which meant that I dozed off and on for a little while, but eventually gave up and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1). So I was a zombie, too.

We got to London about 20 minutes ahead of schedule, and it was cold and rainy outside. We had over three hours to kill before our next flight. Flashback to the day before, in the morning: we were all packed up, and I was killing time googling things (British Airways, Heathrow, etc.). I learned that there was a children's play area in the airport, and told the kids (serious parenting mistake!!). Niko was absolutely obsessed with finding this play area. He wouldn't let it go!! Then, we got to the terminal for our next flight, and there it was. Hahaha!!!!

But WOW, what a discovery! It wasn't just a play area-- it was actually staffed by young adults who got to know all the kids, organized games for them, etc. Both kids were very shy at first, but were soon in their element. They spent most of our layover in there!

A few funny things: For whatever reason, the guy working there thought Niko's name was "MEE-lo," and Niko didn't say word one about it-- he actually responded to it!! Haha!!!! (If you know Niko, this is shocking!) Another time, the guy asked Niko (Meelo) and Maya where they were from. Niko told him Massachusetts, but the guy said "WHERE in Massachusetts?" Niko promptly shouted out our entire home address so loudly that everyone could here. So we could possibly be getting someinteresting mail upon our return, ha! :)

The next flight, from London to Athens, ended up being delayed about an hour due to mechanical issues with the plane (joy...). But we finally took off, and broke through the clouds. It was sunny on our side of the plane, and it felt so good! Gus and Niko stayed awake the entire time:

Maya, however, fell asleep on my arm shortly after takeoff. She was wiped out!

We landed in Athens, made it through Border Control without any trouble, and our bags all arrived pretty quickly (BIG IMPROVEMENT OVER LAST TIME! haha!). We met Gus' parents immediately outside of baggage claim, and a guy also met us there to lead us to our rental car. It all went so smoothly!

It was about a 2.5 hour drive from there, during which both kids fell asleep in their carseats and I could barely keep my eyes open! Gus' dad drove our rental car, and I rode with Gus' mom in their rental. They had a head start, and even managed to pick up some food on the way. As soon as I got there and saw the souvlaki and fries, I realized I was starving! I'd never had such good food in all my life, haha!!

And that is where I will end this post. Care to guess how long everyone slept? :) ------------------ I am going to try to catch up on the blog and date everything appropriately, but we'll see! The spotty Wi-Fi here makes things interesting! :)

A Little Interview...

Little Fish

I have to say, I'm a little amazed by my big boy lately. He's always been very skittish around water. Now, suddenly, he has this desire to hold his breath under water, open his eyes, and really swim around-- with floaties. Still, it's such a far cry from even last summer. Who is this little fish??

I think the biggest push for him has been being around kids his own age (like Caryn's son, Evan) who can swim. Suddenly,  he wants to do it! Today was more of the same: we went to a birthday pool party for a t-ball friend, and said friend was a good little swimmer. I had made a huge mistake and had forgotten Niko's puddlejumper (floatie). In the past,  this would have been a deal-breaker-- I was ready to go back home and get it! But Niko shocked me and swam only with inflatable arm rings! And loved it!!!! I think it might be time to try real swim lessons again!!

Anyway, here are a few pics from today's party.  It was a lot of fun! This family is very nice,  and the little boy will be in kindergarten with Niko this year.  Friends for life?  Who knows? :)

An update!

Ok, ok, I dropped the ball again! Gus gave me "the look" and pointed out that the last blog post was from the Fourth of July (well, I posted it on the eighth, but still...). It turned out that right after that, I was struck with inspiration and creating a new blog! I'm blogging about all my home improvement projects, which has had the added bonus of making me continue to actually complete said projects. Woohoo! Anyway, please check it out, if you haven't already-- http://www.handy-mommy.com. I am excited about it!

Anyway... Our life here has continued as usual! We are in the midst of a heat wave, and it is kind of miserable! I am sitting in front of a fan as I type this. It's good practice for when we all go to Greece in a few weeks (YES!!!). Today, we spent the morning at the "Trucks and Diggers" event at the next town over, and quickly followed it up with some excellent swimming at Caryn's house. Hallelujah for having a friend with a pool! It's also great, because Niko's friend Evan has recently learned to swim on his own, and it's inspiring our own boy to be a little more adventurous. He's tried a few times without any sort of floatie, and he can almost-sort-of doggy paddle! Today, he was obsessed with holding his breath and "swimming underwater" (while still wearing his floatie). He was so proud of himself, and I'm proud that he's finally showing interest in swimming! Hooray!

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our (very hot) morning!

AAAAAND, I nearly forgot! Last Friday, we had a special guest spend the day with us! My old classroom aide, Amanda, was in Boston for the week because her husband had a conference. She had a free day, so she took the train out to see us! I picked her up at the station at 10:30am, and we had such a nice time visiting! We took her to our favorite seasonal restaurant for lunch, then hung out on the deck all afternoon. This was before the heat wave, and it was just a gorgeous day! The kids adore her, and we all had so much fun (and she got to do some laundry). She took an 8pm train back into Boston, and we were sad to see her go. It was so weird and so cool to show her the house!!

Happy 8th of July!

So, I just realized that I sort of forgot to blog about our 4th of July. Oops! Better late than never, right?

We spent the evening of the 3rd hanging out at the town common with thousands and thousands of other people. Our town has a population of about 8,000, but people drive in from all over the place for our 4th of July celebration. It was packed, but fun!

The next day, we went to the parade. It was insanely hot and humid-- we were dying! But it was a good parade, as always!

I, personally, liked this "fire" truck the best... it's a beer truck, haha!

As soon as the parade was over, we zipped home, got changed, and drove straight over to Caryn's house for a swim. Did I mention how hot it was? It was around 90 degrees, but the humidity was killer!

And that was our day! We had pizza for dinner and ate it outside, because it was way too hot to cook anything. I'm sort of hoping this heat wave ends soon!

Coast to Coast!

So it's taken me nearly two years to get a picture of the kids in front of the Atlantic, but here it is! In front of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Damariscotta, Maine!

I hatched this plan after taking the kids to the beach in San Diego before we moved away... We just wanted to see the Pacific one more time, and I needed a break from packing! But my coworker suggested getting a matching photo on the Atlantic once we got here, and it just didn't happen. Truthfully, our camping trip to Maine was the first time we have actually SEEN the open ocean since moving here! Massachusetts is called the Bay State for a reason-- lots of bays and harbors and inlets... no real open ocean unless you go pretty far out on Cape Cod!

Anyway, this is the photo that started it all... Pacific Beach in San Diego, California, taken in November of 2011. I can't believe how much they have grown!!!

Maine!

So, we can now say that we've been to Maine! The truth is, the border is less than two hours away-- really, it's not bad! We drove a bit further north, though (3.5 hours total) to get to beautiful Boothbay Harbor! My parents took their trailer, and we followed them with our camping gear. We had two campsites near each other, but used ours pretty much only for sleeping. I mean, the trailer is an awfully handy thing to have around! Gus commented (and I agreed) that the ability to take a shower every day sort of ruined tent camping for us. haha! It felt good to get clean, especially since it was so hot and humid! Anyway... I took a lot of pictures, and am trying to narrow it down. On Friday, we drove up to Boothbay and got our campsites set up:

The next morning, once we were all showered and fed, we ventured into the harbor and to a public beach I had read about. I really wanted to get a picture of the kiddos on the Atlantic, to go with the one I took of them on the Pacific before we moved. Except, this really wasn't a "beach." It was more of an oceanfront park, on an inlet. It was very pretty and very peaceful! Just not a beach! We had brought our swimsuits, but they stayed in the car, haha!

Next up, we drove over to the other side of the bay to the Maine State Aquarium. It sounds impressive, doesn't it? Well, it was exactly one room. The kids had fun, and it was cheap, but yeah... very small! Maya held both a starfish and a scallop, but decided she was done when the scallop started to open and close its shell while she was holding it. She freaked out and chucked the thing back into the tide pool... something that is sort of frowned upon by the staff! Oops! Niko touched the sea star, but wouldn't hold it. And while I took pictures there, they were pretty dark and not so great. Whatever! It was fun!

At that point, it was getting close to lunchtime, and we were hungry. We drove to downtown Boothbay Harbor, managed to find two FREE parking spots right next to each other, and walked around a bit. We ate on the water in a lovely air-conditioned restaurant (it was SO HOT outside!), and then walked out on the footbridge that goes over the bay. It was much more pleasant out there, with a nice little breeze coming off the water!

Between the beach that wasn't a beach, and the super tiny aquarium, we found ourselves with some free time... We decided that it would be cool to see a lighthouse. So my dad looked at the map, and announced that we should go to Pemaquid. Quickly glancing at the map, it looked nearby. The plan was for them to follow us. So we started out of the town, soon to realize that we were at the very tip of one point of land, and the lighthouse was at the tip of another point-- very close by, if only we had a BOAT! Instead, we had to drive about ten miles inland to the nearest bridge, then another ten miles out the point. But we had nothing else planned, and the lighthouse ended up being really cool! We actually got to go inside, where it was incredibly claustrophobic! The kids weren't tall enough to go up, but they got to ring the bell inside the museum. They were happy with that!

I also got my Atlantic picture at that point, but I am going to write a separate post about that as soon as I'm done with this one! :)

Once we'd had our fill of Pemaquid, we headed back to the campground and called it a day. The plan was to maybe go play some mini golf after dinner, since there was a cute little course just a short hop from the campground. Meanwhile, a mommy friend of mine (who lives in Maine) saw that we had been to the lighthouse, and asked me if we had gotten ice cream at a place called Round Top. Sadly, we hadn't (she swore it was the best ice cream she has ever had). Well... she then told me about a mini golf place in Boothbay that also had awesome ice cream-- before remembering that this particular place sold Round Top ice cream! And of course, it was the place we were headed! So we let the kids play 18 holes, and then enjoyed what honestly might have been the best ice cream ever. She wasn't lying. It was AWESOME!

After that, we did campfire and hung out until the mosquitoes became unbearable (again). We have a lot of mosquitoes where we live, but this was even worse! I am COVERED! And they are SO ITCHY!! But I digress... that was pretty much the end of our little Maine adventure! We packed up this morning and came home. Now that we know how close it really is, I'm excited to go back and explore some more!