Our Vacation

And Re-Writing History! Okay our Vacation wasn't history changing, but what we saw will change the way history books are written. I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since we went on our very small trip of 2 nights away to the northern part of Greece.

The Heart is our Home and the Box is where we went.

  What I love about traveling is:

• Seeing Historical Sights
• Seeing Natural Sights
• And Eating!

We had plenty of food to eat, first stopping for lunch at the mall in Thessaloniki for our bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken (we eat this any time we are there).  Then we ate dinner in Asprovalta, calamari and tzatiziki (if you need a tzatziki recipe you can get it here).

 Enjoying Calamari

Yes, I get 2 Ice-Creams!

The shop owners offered the kids ice-cream and they of course said Yes, but it was a Mastika ( μαστίχα) flavored, which is pretty good in ice-cream form, not sure how to describe the taste, but this is something they only make in Greece, specifically Chios Island. The next night we enjoyed Gyros in Nea Peramos

I don't have many pictures of the beaches, since I am always in the water.

This is near Nea Peramos, the beach is called Sand Dunes (but in Greek)

The 2 places we stayed at are starred and the little teardrop is where the find of the century has been discovered.

The signage at Amfipoli

The top sign says Macedonian Tomb, we wanted to see it, but when we crossed the road, there was nothing there, the nicely paved road turned into a dirt road.  We thought the Greeks must have gotten the signage wrong, but what it is is something that they didn't announce till this week.  They have discovered a new tomb to rival that of Vergina.  Here is an article in Greek(pictures are nice) and here is a smaller article in English(my husband and I have been arguing all week about who is buried there). Amfipoli (amphipolis-Αμφίπολη)  is an Ancient City, if you have watched the Movie 300 with the Persian King Xerxes, this is where he was defeated.  And where Alexander the Great's wife and son were executed. (I believe they are the ones in the tomb)  My husband thinks that Alexander the Great is in it.  We can't wait to find out WHO is inside, I also believe that Alexander the Great's mother could possibly be inside.

Ancient Aqueduct.

Rolling Hills and the river meeting the Sea.

The most popular sight of Amfipoli right now is the Lion, it is right off of the old road from Asprovalta to Kavala.

The Lion Monument, was found in 1912 and rebuilt in the 30's.  I am using this as my color palette and the story behind it and the region Amfipoli to Design my Surface Pattern for my class that I took with Bonnie Christine at Creativelive.

I made this on Adobe Illustrator, aren't you proud.

The class was great, you can take it too, I watched it live, from 7pm to 2am for 3 days to see it for free.  But you can pay just $79 to watch it anytime.  I was a little scared when on Friday we didn't have any electricity all afternoon and then boom at exactly 7:05 the electricity was back on, phew. Now I didn't know anything about Adobe Illustrator and it is a definite learning curve, but the I would have been really lost with out Bonnie's lessons.  The other cool thing is that you can use the Illustrator for FREE for 30 days.  Sign me up right, I have always wanted to make my own fabric line. (you will need to sign up for Adobe first and then the Creative Cloud and then you can download Illustrator for free) You can find more info on the Design Surface Challenge from Bonnie's web site, Going Home to Roost. Of course no trip is complete with out some fun!

Corfu Pictures Part 1- Beaches

 Our first beach stop was on the west side of the island and a little south of Corfu town, in the beach area called Agios Gordios, a lot of Dutch people there.  The waves were a little rough and the rocks continued into the water with some big boulders along the way, making it difficult for the kids to get in. 

 Nik loved riding the waves with Dad

Kat liked throwing the rocks and feeling the surf come in around her toes.

This cozy beach is right in the middle of Corfu Town, we didn't dip in, but it looked refreshing.

A great beach to get to, only a 15 minute drive north of Corfu town, called Ipsos Beach.

The waters were fairly calm with small pebbles on the beach and then sand in the water, perfect for the kids.

 Some great beaches driving north of Ipsos, we spent the night in Nissaki beach but the rocks were really big at that beach so we left after one night.

 We ate dinner in Kalami, a great little village with 3 restaurants right on the water.

 The view from our hotel in Nissaki

The view of Ipsos beach from above.

The above and below shots are of Sidhari, a great beach for kids, all sand and it goes out really far at a shallow depth.

 I took a few shots of beaches on our drive back down to Corfu town

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Here we are at the beach.

Baby Katerina is a very competent crawler and now has mastered going up the stairs. She also can pull herself up and stand with out holding on to anything. I see her walking very soon, she wants to go where ever her brother goes. She's a very good eater and we have her drinking regular milk already.
Nik on the other hand has declared martial law and he is the new leader. Telling us when to talk and when to walk, I sometimes feel like I am living with a miniature dictator. But I must say that the best part of being a parent came a couple of weeks ago when all on his own Nik said "I love you, very much" to me and then to his sister. I don't know where this came from, but it made me feel ohh! so good.

Quick Trip To The Sea

An exhausting early morning drive and swim at the beach has left both kids tuckered out. Baby Kat had her first dip into the sea, it was still windy but the water was a little calmer this time. We went to the same beach and hotel that we had stayed at previously.
The restaurant at the hotel that we stay at, the whole place is surrounded by trees and flowers. It needs this protection from both the sun and the constant wind.
Baby Kat chillin' with big brother downstairs where they had a TV that was hooked up to a Satellite that got the Cartoon Network. Nik really liked that channel and controled it for the two days that we were there, thankfully the owners have 3 children themselves and didn't mind having cartoons on all of the time.
Watching TV and sipping on a lemonade, perfect holiday relaxation, after a day of swimming.
Eating dinner, Nik has a great imagination and has picked up the habit of pretending that a toothpick is a cigarette, so here he is having a cig along with his dinner in typical Greek fashion.
The beach that Arthur really loves, on this day it was super cloudy and very rough, so only Nik and Dad went out, while baby and I stayed at the hotel.
When Nik came back he was covered from head to toe with sand, he really loves playing at the beach.
So we decided to stay only one night since this day was appearing to be stormy and the next day would be the same. While Arthur was having breakfast he saw a sign for some Apartment Villas on sale, we called the number and went to look at them. The view from the Villa is below.
A really sweet view even better in person, within a 5 minute drive and probably only 10 minutes to walk down to the beach. There are 6 units, 2 to each pool, the one we looked at was 2nd to the end of the picture below, there is the first floor and then a basement. Kitchen, living room w/fireplace, 2 bedrooms and one bath for 160,000euros. At the time it sounded great you have the view to amaze you and then you leave and it's like what where you thinking 160,000 is a whole lot of money.
So we didn't purchase our own beach getaway, but we were tempted, it's very beautiful.

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