This summer we finally took our vacation to Greece. Two days after the last day of school we loaded up the car and headed to Grammie and Papa's house to say goodbye and get a little closer to the airport. We had our last Mongolian BBQ and American ice cream, headed to bed and headed to the airport at 4am. And, no, the kids did not stay or fall back to sleep, but they did great on the way to the airport, at the airport and on the planes.
What is not to love about traveling when you have a constant flow of yummy snacks in lieu of meals and unlimited screen time?!
But, due to weather, we were re-routed and took longer to arrive in Newark. We missed our connection by about 20 minutes, so insread of having a short layover and just one more flight we had 3 more legs (LAX-Newark-Munich-Heathrow-Athens) and 2 longer layovers, getting us there about 29 hours after we left. On flight #2 (the longest one) Brooklyn was sick will a fever and not feeling great. And to top it off, 1 of our 2 suitcases was sent to Dallas and arrived 24 hours after we landed.
These poor kids had only 3-4 hours of sleep but had amazing attitudes (once Brooklyn's medicine kicked in).
We even found some pretty cool play structures in the airports!
We arrived in Athens on Tuesday night, and Pappou drove us from the airport to Dina's apartment, where we stayed 2 nights. Wednesday we visited Acropolis and walked up to Parthenon.
The kids whined the whole way up, but on the way down, when they saw a giant rock to climb, Landon REALLY wanted to climb it...twice.
We headed into town to look at the souvenir shops and have lunch.
We stopped for our first gelato and at the Farmer's Market.
On our second morning in Athens we headed to the ferry terminal to get to the island of Naxos.
Peter, Amber, Jacob, Zoe and Lucas met us at the Sun Hotel in Naxos, and the kids were all so excited to be reunited!
That day we played at the beach, walked through the cobblestone town and ate dinner in town with a view of the sunset.
Landon caught Brooklyn's sickness and started feeling yucky and sleepy that day. He slept on the beach for over an hour then fell asleep on me while waiting for dinner.
The view from our hotel balcony:
"Gregory's" - both Landon and Lucas' middle name is Gregory, after Pappou
The next day we walked up to the Temple of Apollo...
...played at the beach...
...Amber and I went "grocery shopping" (code for ice cream away from everyone else...while grocery shopping)...
...ate Italian food (Sue Gui restaurant) & muscles...
...and played in a little square next to the restaurant.
...through Old Market...
...and up the Castle of Naxos.
The panoramic view from the top was beautiful!
After the castle we split up and went back to town for some rides...
...then headed to the Eggares Olive Press to learn how olive oil is & was made and sample some olive products.
The kids loved the olive oil lemon cake!
We played ball, smelled the flowers, tried a new kind of berry (although we don't recall what kind they were now) and goofed around waiting for our taxi back to town.
We met back up with the cousins at the beach after...
...and went back again for sunset.
Brooklyn has a new "pretty pose."
After dinner the kids enjoyed their giant lollipops that they picked out earlier.
We all took a ferry back to Athens (and Luke caught the bug)...
...picked up a giant rental van and drove a few hours to Pyrgos, the town where Pappou grew up.
We spent the next day at Kalogria Beach, right down the hill from Pyrgos, in the water. The kids played on floaties...
...and we took the big one out to Myti. There we climbed on rocks and played in the tidepool area.
They played soccer on the patio...
...discovered a loose tooth (which didn't end up coming out for over a month)...
...then enjoyed dinner in Stoupa (the beach town next to Kalogria) (Thank you PlusPlus building toy things for keeping children of all ages content!) and walked around.
The view from the deck at Pappou's house is so beautiful in the quiet mornings as well as at sunsets!
We spent the next day at the beach again.
Landon, Jacob and I went to Britzipa, the natural cold (freezing cold!) spring on one end of Kalogria Beach. Landon really wanted to, but he wouldn't go all the way in.
We headed back to the house in the afternoon for some quiet time. Jacob & Landon watched one movie while Luke, Zoe and Brooklyn watched another.
We saw where the family's bones are stored (ick!),
...including who Daniel (Dionysis) was named after.
And we stopped by Thea Voula and Theo Kosta's house to play in their yard.
Even though the kids couldn't understand each other, they babbled on to each other in their own language and got along great!Here they are looking at books together in Landon and Jacob's (really, Maria's) room.
The next morning, Daniel, Peter, Greg and Jacob went for a walk down by the beach.
We all headed to the beach after.
(We are so sad to no longer have the unicorn now that we're home!)
Daniel, Peter, Greg & I jumped from the cliff into the water.
Then we pedalled to the other end of the beach to climb on some rocks.
Landon really enjoyed playing padles and volleyball, while Brooklyn preferred sand castles (sand zoos, actually) and the water noodle...
...and everyone loved the patio (relaxing in the hammock, playing on the roof, climbing in the tree, playing soccer and reading)!
That night we went to ice cream in Salinitza, a little marina town.
The following day we headed back to Kalogria Beach, and Daniel & Peter took Theo Kosta's row boat out with the big boys then the little ones.
Thea Maria took us to dinner, and she was so interested in how much/fast Landon ate his pasta (until he fell asleep on me)!
We took a day off from the beach for some sight seeing. We saw the stalactites and stalagmites of the Caves of Diros.
We took a round about way back to stop for lunch in Gythio
Once we got back, Landon read a couple of books to the littler ones...
...and the adults had a double date night in Stoupa.
We headed back to the beach the next day.
We broke for lunch with Mark & Fotini Salos at Panorama restuarant, right up from Kalogria Beach.
This day we rented a paddle board and took turns going out.
We all concluded our final beach day with a dip in Britzipa and ice cream.
Voula and Kosta had everyone over for dinner on our last night.
The last morning the kids played a little Mad Libs Jr. while we packed up.
Our two families went into town for lunch and souvenir shopping then drove back to Athens.
We checked into our Airbnb, got dinner and strolled down to the ocean.
In Toronto we stayed in the Distillery District, which was a little away from the city center but we really liked it. We walked to a nice dinner, Daniel browsed the local beers & whiskeys and we headed back to the hotel (with children as hyper as ever, even though it was soooo late Greek time).
It was a few days after the Pride fesitvities, so there was a bunch of art & flowers all over! Landon and Brooklyn liked the "Baymax" looking people on buildings the best.
Our 2 bedroom suite turned out to be a 2 bedroom dorm (although it didn't mention student housing when I booked it), and, although we were a little disappointed, the kids loved staying in a dorm!
The first day there we walked the Waterfront...
...chased birds...
...went to Evergreen Brickworks...
...then took a water taxi to Centre Island.
Centre Island was my favorite family fun spot! There was so much to do, from beautiful walks, lots of big parks, playgrounds & splash pads, restuarants (not great food though), a beach & pier, a little kid amusement park, art and more.
Brooklyn had a great time swinging herself and climbing a tree!
Landon loved playing soccer with the travel blow-up ball we brought!
Daniel and Landon planned to take a muscle picture together, but right as I said 3 Landon ran out of the picture, playing a silly joke on Daniel.
Daniel tried to teach the kids how to skip rocks, and we had a throwing contest.
The kids ate some more of their never-ending Naxos lollipops along the way.
It was a funfilled and relaxing family day, completed with a beautiful view on the ferry ride back.
To top it off we ate dinner at Wayne Gretzky's (#99) restaurant.
We rented a car and took it to Niagara Falls, which I've wanted to see for so long. We stayed on the 16th floor of Sheraton on the Falls, which had an amazing view of the American, Bridal and Horseshoe Falls!
We walked right up the street to Clifton Hill, a mini-Vegas for kids street.
Lunch was great, and the kids meals even came with ice cream and a whole bunch of (nasty when put altogether, but a fan favorite for anyone under 10) toppings.
We even found an almost-Landon ("Laindon") bus.
We strolled the parks along the way to the falls viewing points...
...then boarded the Hornblower Cruise to take us right up to all of the falls.
Brooklyn had a fun time getting wet!
Landon enjoyed it more in the interior of the boat watching everyone outside get wet.
We took it all in from above again, then went to the top of Skylon Tower for a different vantage point.
We even stumbled across a duck and a dozen of her ducklings on our way back.
At night we headed back to Clifton Hill for dinner, a Maze of Mirrors, Fun Zone and Mystery Maze.
It was so much fun, but we raced back to our room to make it in time for the fireworks show, complete with cotton candy. It was fantastic!
The next morning was our last.
We decided, last minute, to drive over the Rainbow Bridge into New York to see the falls from that side.
Although the Canadian side was, in our opinion, way better, it was fun to have the other perspective of seeing the waterfalls (and streams leading to them) right up close.
The kids did great again. We had a layover in Salt Lake City, and I could barely keep my eyes open but they were wide awake (in the middle of the night Niagara Falls time)...
...as well as at 1:00am PST, which was 4am where we had just been, and 10am in Greece).
And, at last, we made it home at 3am.
What a fun family vacation!!!
