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I think Mykonos was our favorite (besides Burano) and I’m not really sure if I can articulate why. It seemed like it had the best features

of each place: All white, but still a lot of color. No steps, but fun alleys. It felt new and very clean but still very old.

The alleys were very skinny and often lead to nowhere. On the left it appears a building was added because you can only see half of a

shutter? We ran into that in Venice too.

They seemed to have a stray cat problem. But I’m not sure they looked at it as a problem since we saw all sorts of people feeding them.

Nori loves cats and would have freaked when she saw them all over. I took several cat pics just to show her.

The people of Venice and Greece must sweep 50 times a day. Sweep! Sweep! Sweep! Mop! What are you sweeping? There’s NOTHING

there! They must take mass pride of their property. Funny because I still haven’t managed to rake up my leaves from last fall and

the season is already here again! FAIL!

These windmills are apparently a big deal. Biggest tourist attraction on the island.

They called this Little Venice. How’d you like to have the seat at the restaurant where your chair legs are inches away from

the Mediterranean with no railing to stop you? Wowzers.

This is Petros, the mascot of Mykonos since 1954 when he declared it his home. We weren’t even searching for him. There he was, just

hanging out on a ledge while people got inches from his face to take a picture with him!

YAY Niko! I took these pics for our Nico. These two taverns were separated by about 3ft. Hmmm?

OLYMPIA

This was Constantine, our tour guide. He was awesome. His humor was dry and his style rocked. (Damn European men and their long curly

hair, style and murses (man purse). Adam and Eric would offer up a few fingers to grow some locks like his.) That was the only place we

paid for a group excursion. We felt like we wouldn’t really gain any knowledge by looking at piles of rubble by ourselves. We learned quite a

bit from him! For instance I had no idea where the 26.2 miles was developed for a marathon? It was the distance some dude ran back to

Greece to say the war was over. Once he stated his victory, he collapsed and died.

Part of the original Gymnasium.

I’m happy I paid attention in 8th grade mythology. SO much of what our tour guide discussed, I already knew a bit about. Pretty cool

when he’d ask a question and I knew the answer. Woot Woot! Props to Mr. Richardson!

Did you know they still to this very day, light the Olympic torch right there on Hera’s Altar? Who knew? The god Apollo (the sun) lights

it for them just like in the beginning. Fascinating.

What’s left of Hera’s Alter.

So this lady was chosen in a round about way from our group to represent the single woman allowed in the Olympic Stadium. Then the

other hottie, Adam, was chosen because his foot was the closest to size 12. He represented Hercules, whose foot measured the 600 ft length

of the arena. Constantine gave him an olive branch as his big foot trophy.

Adam “Bolting” and me…being special.

It sounds like I’m enthusiastically shouting, “my butt is sore, from DOIN IT!” I’m not. Though Adam and I laughed A LOT pretending that’s

what I was yelling. I was complaining about all the things going against me racing Adam, who was also wearing gym shoes! My glutes were

sore from the steps to Oia, I was bra less from sun poison (that took 13 days to stop looking like I had a skin disease), heavy full pumping

back pack, chafed thighs from wearing a dress to Santorini, and flippy floppies!! So what I said was, “My butt hurts, but I’m doin it!” I

gave him some lead so he didn’t except me to sneak past him to the finish! Hollerrrr!

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This is actually the only pic we took of ourselves with the real camera. Woops.

After the stadium we went to a privately owned winery/olive orchard. There we learned a bunch cool facts about Olive trees and oil.

This food was delicious!! I’ve already cooked our zucchini in the extra virgin olive oil I bought there. SO GOOD.

I was dancing in my seat to the music which must have been an invitation for them to pluck me up and lead me around the grounds for

what seemed like a 15 min song. It was hilarious. Every freaking time I conquered the step he was doing, he changed it up!

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Adam and I don’t drink. (Though recently I have had one or two margaritas in hopes it’ll help Nico sleep through the night. :-0 ) The lady

insisted we drink their wine and try this shot. I was afraid to insult her since it was her winery, so when in Rome, it was! Bleccch! People

always try and convince Adam and I that you “can’t taste the alcohol AT ALL!!” Ya right. The shot tasted like I drank my hairspray and

chased it with some hot cinnamon! Barf.

So glad we chose a cruise instead of the original plan of island hoping ourselves. That would have been a disaster and I likely would have

starved. Each place was beautiful but I felt we experienced enough in the 9 hrs we were at each port. It was great. The cruise concept

seemed perfect for what we wanted. Good food always available, constant entertainment and all we had to do was make sure we were back

on board by embarkation time! I will totally do a cruise again.

 People always say how important it is to have kid free time, that your spouse came first and one day you’ll be empty nesters forced to

talk to each other more than you had in 20 something yrs. We DEFINITELY needed alone time a lot more than we had realized. I mean, I

only wanted to punch him in the face like three times the whole week and a half! It was a perfect way to celebrate our 5 yrs of marriage, but

Lord, did I miss the kids and English Language!!

Hope you enjoyed the breakdown of our trip. If anything, I’m sure I wasted some time for you all who are bored at work!

Heart, Melanie and Adam.

Whenever I think of Greece I think of white houses with round blue tops. It’s the place Adam had been trying to convince me to go to for

yeeeears. Ask our travel agent, I think she priced out the trip 3 different years before we actually went. It was a bummer how it actually

worked once we arrived to the island. Apparently we didn’t grasp the idea of us anchoring at sea and a tender ferrying people to shore.

Because of this the cruise had numbered tender tickets that people waited in line for first thing that morning. What were we doing first

thing? Sleeping in. And then casually eating breakfast because the gangway didn’t open til 12:30. What’s the rush? So when we caught onto

what was happening we were assigned to the 28th ferry. What the?! So we had to gaze for a few hours at the tip of the boat “Jack & Rose”

style. Speaking of The Titanic, I damn near had a heart attack countless times as we walk by any of those massive waterproof metal

sliding doors on each floor. All I could think was water gushing through them and us floating away on broken furniture legs. Sick, right?

Look closely at this image. See the zigzag switchbacks from bottom all the way to the top? Want to know how long it takes to walk that? 30

min each way.  550+ steps. 5-8 feet long each. We refused to waste anymore time waiting in the ginormous tram line and we were too cheap

to fall into the donkey ride tourist trap. My calves burned going up, hopping over donkey shit and being slammed into the walls by hot

sweaty donkey bodies while we melted under the burning sun. My knees burned coming down, hopping over triple the donkey shit and

avoiding sliding down slick marble areas preventing the death of my tailbone. It was an unforgettable experience that I def recommend!

If the donkeys were lucky, they’d catch a few to rest their head on the walls.

Once up the mountain we walked another mile or so til a bus pulled over and offered to take us to Oia. YES PLEASE!  It was a site to see.

Yay! We made it to Oia without dying! People thought I took a pic with a local til they looked close. Adam so fits right in.

I really just don’t understand how this was built. I mean, I have to drive 3 min to Home Depot and that annoys me. Where do supplies

come from how DOES it get up there? We actually watched a rock avalanche from the boat. Will this city eventually fall? I never became

an architect for a reason, people.

Poor Adam was having all kinds of Hasselblad issues. He waited forever to get to this place and then his camera jammed. Worst part was he

was finishing a roll of BW and hadn’t even gotten to the color pack! I wasn’t mad though because then he carried around the big dog!

As I was shooting I was focused on composition and exposure so much that I didn’t even notice Adam til I was reviewing shots. HA!

How’d you like to own the house with that view?

This is my “I’m doing everything in my power to not think about my swampass” face.

The prime time to be at this place is sunset or sunrise. As the sun was setting we had to start our journey back to Fira and to the steps.

It was still gorgeous but we didn’t get to be at the peak at prime time.

People flocked from everywhere to the top as we were descending.

I had never chafed in my life before this trip. I also had never walked so much with a dress on. Not counting the trip up and down there

were endless amounts of steps on the mountains of Fira and Oia. All we did was walk steps and take pictures for 7 hours. (Though we did

stop for 20 for me to feed the flowers with my milk and have frozen virgin daiquiris!) Thankfully I found some Lansinoh in my pump bag

and lubed up my thighs once back on board. The rest of that night I walked like I had been riding a horse for a year. Adam was really

enthused about walking next to me like that. And as you can see the way down I made him carry my pump while I carried our coke stock

for our stateroom. 3euro cheaper per bottle. Hollerrrr!

Almost done sharing the trip. Just have Mykonos & Olympia/Katakolon left. That’s where I beat Adam in a 200 meter dash in the very first Olympic

stadium. Woop Woop! More soon. Have a swell weekend! Heart, Melanie & Adam.

We cruised Norwegian Cruise Line on the Jade ship. The boat was nice and had a lot of variety of food and entertainment. The only time you

could really tell the amount of people aboard was on the first and last days which were “at sea” days. Those days I filled my hours people

watching and trying to keep my jaw off the ground.

Our family has this obsession with the song “Hot! Hot! Hot!” It started almost 15 yrs ago when we went on a cruise together. An appropriate

song to be played no less than 68 times a day on a Caribbean cruise, no doubt. The amusing part for us was that Britt despised the song, while

the rest of us danced and tormented her singing it loudly. I knew for sure I’d hear it on our ship, I was just waiting for it to blare over the

speakers bringing joy to my ears. On the boat for less than an hour, I jumped up to record the pool deck dancing hoping to send it to Britt

proclaiming, “YESSSS!”  Except seconds in, I was overcome with this deep sadness. Unexpected to say the least, since the song brought back

such happy memories. I hurried back to my lounge because it was the type of cry that I couldn’t mask with a discrete licking of my lips.

I laid back and tossed my cover up over my face. Ali’s cover up. GAH. And as Adam asked what was wrong I sat up to speak, which I couldn’t,

and off my chair fell my cross necklace made from Ali’s flowers. Again. UGH!!  Thankfully I was able to enjoy the song the other 50 times.

I did all kinds of yoga in our spare time. It.Was.Awesome. I was watching a bunch of hilarious young Italian boys play soccer in an

enclosed area. (Maybe you don’t know Adam and I love soccer) There was also a track and a great workout room, which we never used.

Instead we used the self serve soft serve icecream machine at least once a day.

Want to feel confident about your body? Go to Europe and see all shapes and sizes in (you call that a bathing suit?) bikinis and speedos.

They must not sell adult size swimwear or one pieces because I saw more buttcrack than ever necessary in public. Though Adam convinced

me to stow a bikini to amuse him, I packed all my one pieces. By day two I was all, eff it. If saggy full figured 75 yr old gram and gramps had

less fabric on than me, I was good to go. I was always wanting to blurt out, “Excuse me ma’am, your nip slipped! Oh? You noticed, but don’t

care, I see.” As Sr. Janine Marie used to tell me when I put  my feet up on a desk in HS, “you’re leaving nothing left to be desired.” Ha!

Soooo true with their thin WHITE four triangles of salami size fabric covering their unmentionables. And Mr., Quit shaking it around like

Shakira at the pool, I can see EVERYTHING. Evvverrrrything. Eeew. You guys, the pics below was taken on shore. WHERE ARE YOUR

UNDERWEAR AND/OR PANTS??  On the right, I enjoyed the full bottom coverage of the American mom and also my hottie husband.

“I don’t always wear speedos, but when I do…I wear orange.” Dude, we were convinced this was the Dos Equis “most interesting man in

the world.” Every time we saw him we changed his tagline because we are cool like that. The one night he had a full 3 piece white silk

suit on. YES!! And of course his wife was 20yrs younger and one of the few who I was ok with wearing a thong bikini.

Pumping and dumping. BOO. I carried the pump on my back every day and “expressed” as mom calls it, wherever I could. Daily security

checks explaining via sign language what this machine was I carried. With a honk honk and a cradling of baby, I broke any

language barrier quickly. I tried being “appropriate” about it but quickly got over it and cut to the chase.  I left Nico behind 268 oz with some

help from my friends Michelle and Kelly who had extra milk their kids couldn’t use. Thanks!! I preferred to dump it in plants or the earth

opposed to the sink. Seemed less nauseating when I was nourishing something. I may have actually been killing the flowers though?

Our first stop was the Island of Corfu. We decided to splurge on a long taxi ride to the Paleokastrista Beach because we heard it was

picturesque. And that it was. We were one of the first to arrive out of the 3 cruise ships that were at port there. This picture was

taken just 20 minutes apart from the one below it!

For the record, Adam had on a speedo here. He has a hot bod and totally rocked that shit.

After spending a few hours at the beach we had lunch at an outside restaurant just out of frame above overlooking the water. Twas beautiful. This

was our first taste of authentic greek food. Ummm…BIG BOOO.  I love gyros. This gyro though, yuck. Had some chewy fatty pork with some cold fries

on top. I asked them to add feta for a little flavor which helped. However the 10euro we spent of two small bottles of coke was well worth it! I was sure

to tell our local gyro place here that their gyros were so much better than in Greece! Who knew?

Our cabdriver, Giannies (Yawn-ees), picked us up from the port then came back to get us from the beach after lunch. It was quite interesting to

me how trusting he was about it. He didn’t want us to pay him til after the second trip hours later, which if we were jerks, could have denied him

130USD! American drivers would never take that risk! Right? He was a 27yo who told us all about the customs of Greece as he drove around the

winding bends…while TEXTING and browsing through his iPhone pics to show us the girl he fancies on facebook. What? I smoothly brought up

US traffic laws which transitioned me into how you get a ticket for texting and driving in the States. Funny part was that his answer was how strict

they also are there…as he found another picture of his American babe in his camera library. Ummm?

They had shops where you could sit in a recliner, put your feet in a fish tank and have the fish suck the dead skin off your feet.

This was the only day we had to briskly walk back to the ship loading minutes after the all aboard time. Crew was already breaking down

the gangway, they aren’t lying when they say they’ll leave without you.

Our friend and travel agent, Sheila, put our whole trip together. She’s amazing. Did you know you don’t have to pay extra for her services

AND you don’t have to lift a finger to plan a wonderful trip? Going somewhere? Call her:  248-773-7471 or sheilaludmann@comcast.net.

You won’t regret the little effort you have to apply to traveling. She must have written somewhere that it was our anniversary because we were

surprised with a little celebration one night at dinner! All the sudden we were being sung to and everyone was watching. I hardly ever blush,

but I can assure you both of us were totally red (and not just from sunburn).

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On the right: HAHAHA. As soon as that sun started setting, every woman on that boat would strike a pose on the railing. We

couldn’t get over it. So I just had to make fun join the fun!

The skies truly were gorgeous.

Next up is the place Adam was dying to see, Santorini. Check back soon! Heart, Melanie and Adam.