A MUCH NEEDED VACATION!

On Friday Sept 17th, Jeremy and I boarded a plane in Des Moines for a BIG vacation to Greece and Turkey! Many people have asked us why we chose Greece. For those of you who know us, we have two very different ideas on what constitutes a vacation. Jeremy wants to see as much history as possible, I want to get as much sun as I can, read as many books as I can and drink as many fruity drinks as I can. So, we compromised with a few days in Athens for historical site seeing, and then went on a 5 day cruise for sun, and relaxation. We had an AMAZING time and saw some amazing places. It was hard to decide what pictures to add to the blog so I am working on a digital scrapbook I can share with everyone. For now, here is a brief rundown of our trip!

Saturday: Arrive in Athens FINALLY! Long story short, missed flights+36 hours of no sleep+lost luggage=HUGE meltdown in Athens airport by yours truly! We get to the Stanley hotel, wash out our underwear in the sink, go to bed! We pray our luggage shows up!

Sunday: We went on a sight seeing tour of Athens today. We were in a group of about 25 people with an amazing guide. The first stop was the 1st Olympic Stadium built in 1896. It is made completely out of marble and still looks brand new today! Next we went to the Acropolis Museum and took in a history lesson. This is where I ( Jeremy already knew all of this) learned about the history of Athens, the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Poseidon, and many other historical Greek figures. After our guided tour, we did some exploring on our own. We both agreed Athens was harder to navigate than Rome was but getting lost in a strange town is the best way to see the sights! We had a GREAT surprise when we got back to the hotel, our luggage arrived!

Monday: Our transfer picked us up at the airport bright and early and drove us to the port of Pireaus. We got checked onto the Aquamarine by 8:30 am and had the day to explore the ship, take a nap and sit outside and take in the beauty of the water. It is so amazing how blue water can be! We docked at our first stop, Mykonos, around 6:30. We spent about 3 hours touring this island, also know as "Little Venice" not so much for all the water, but the crazy winding streets and TONS of shops, bars, eateries! Back on the boat and lights out for these two!

Tuesday: We sailed overnight and ported in Kusadasi, Turkey. We didn't book an excursion here and decided to explore on our own. At first we were a little nervous here as the streets are lined with shops and the shop owners are VERY aggressive about getting you to come into their shops. Once we got past the "tourist" shops, we felt less harassed and enjoyed all the great shops filled with jewelry, leather, hand made clothes,shoes, soaps, olives and cheese. As we were getting back on the boat, we noticed someone with an ISU shirt on and after talking with this couple, found out we have mutual friends! Small world! We got back on the boat around noon, and headed to the deck for some sun and a much needed nap! That night we ported in Patmos and again explored on our own for a couple of hours. I had intentions of getting in the crystal blue water here, but it was FREEZING so we headed back to the boat for dinner.

Wednesday: We woke up this morning in Rhodes. This is the largest island we stopped at and it was amazing! It looks like it is straight out of a movie, as it has a wall built around the entire city. It has a castle in the middle with a fortress protecting it. It was so cool! We booked an excursion here to see the old city and Temple of Athena, Temple of Apollo and Philerimos. This is a religious center where priests/monks lived years ago. It is a very sacred place and very beautiful. This is also where Mussolini's summer home is located. This city if full of beautiful architecture. We did some shopping after the tour and noticed most shops here were filled with symbols/statues of Jesus Christ or of warriors such as Leonidas or Spartacus.....interesting mixture! After spending the whole day here, we boarded the boat around 6pm and got ready for "elegant" night on the ship! It was really fun to get to dress up! We had a nice dinner, but unfortunately the boat was super ROUGH!! The crew locked the doors and place "emesis" bags around the ship. Everyone walked around like a bunch of drunks. I get motion sickness fairly easily and this really affected me! I spent the rest of "elegant" night in bed or in the bathroom! Romantic huh?

Thursday: Today's morning port was Crete. We decided to sleep in and stay on the ship. We relaxed with some sun, good books and a nap! The afternoon port was Santorini. This place is completely AMAZING and I would recommend this place to anyone. We only had about 4 hours here but you could easily spend a couple of days exploring this beautiful place. This is the place you see in pictures with the white houses and blue rooftops. The scenery is unreal. This island is lucky to still be standing as it sits on a volcano and was hit by a hurricane years ago. It is only 26 miles long and at one point only half a mile wide. The only way to the city which sits high about the water is by cable car, donkey or walking! Part of Santorini has black sand beaches from the ash of the volcano. We took a walking tour here to make sure we saw the highlights since we didn't have much time here. This is definitely a place we will go back to someday!

Friday: We disembarked the ship by 7 am and headed back to the Stanley Hotel. We couldn't check in yet, so we explored a tourist area called "Plaka", meaning Plaza. We conquered the subway system to find it and we are so glad we did as this is where we ate our first gyro of the trip! I was a little leery to try lamb, but after a taste of Jeremy's decided this was the only way to go! It was SO good! Yum Yum! Needless to say, this was our diet and mission for the next 2 days, finding a new gyro shop indulging in it's goodness!

Saturday: Today we walked to the National Archaeological Museum, which houses some the world's most recognized sculptures, bronze and marble statues, and the history of different periods of time. Jeremy was in heaven when he found this statue of Augustus. We spent most of the day here before heading out to dinner at a recommended restaurant, "Alexander the Great'". Again, being the history buff, Jeremy was in heaven!

Sunday: Homebound! We arrived back in Des Moines around 8pm and were so excited to see the kids at the airport! It is amazing how much bigger they looked! Carter was so excited to see us, Claire gave us the snub and clung to my sister Darcie. She finally warmed up when she noticed Darcie wasn't coming home with us! The kids worked hard on a welcome home sign for us! It was so good to be home! We have to send a big thank you out to my sister and Jill and my mom who kept the kiddos for us while we were gone. We wouldn't have been able to take this trip without them!

Claire modeling her outfit from Turkey! Isn't she so cute?