College visits

Whew. Spring break is officially over tonight. Here's how it went...

Asher, for whatever reason, only got a partial week of spring break. On the plus side, at least it was still the same week as both brothers' spring breaks. And. Because he doesn't have classes on Fridays this semester, he was able to fly home last Thursday night (March 10). We had all five of us here then from late March 10 until this past Wednesday (March 16). We didn't have any big plans...just a quiet spring break with some games and time with friends and watching shows and working on some individual projects. Not exciting but good. :)

On Wednesday, though, Asher had to fly back to Omaha. At the same time, Micah and I flew out to California to do some college visits. Here's us waiting for our flights...before I hugged my Asher and Micah and I boarded our flight to San Jose.

Let me insert the short version for anyone who doesn't want/need all the details...

Micah's still figuring out what he's looking for. This trip was great for that...helping to show him what's important to him and what questions to ask. We walked around Stanford University on our own, did an individual tour with Stanislaus State, did a group tour with Monterey Bay (CSUMB), and walked around San Jose State University on our own. Along the way, we also enjoyed California. As of now, Micah's thinking he might want to pursue a degree in kinesiology and knows that the campus culture is very important to him (looking for a more active student body). He's also a fan of California and warmer weather. 

Got it? Cool. Okay, now for the longer version...

We got to San Jose smoothly, picked up our rental car and got some food. Then we drove to Stanford University. Stanford isn't doing official campus tours right now (except for admitted students) so we just wandered around the campus on our own (which was encouraged). 

Wow. Stanford is a gorgeous campus! I'm totally kicking myself for not taking more pictures but I was just getting in the groove...also, Micah didn't like me taking pictures, lol. Regardless, it was beautiful. Also, Micah really liked what he saw of the student culture...lots of people out and about, playing together and studying in the sun and exercising. Lovely. :)

After that, we drove down to Marina, CA and found dinner and our hotel and settled in for the night.

Thursday morning we found our way to the beach for a bit. It was chilly but that didn't stop Micah from getting wet, lol. We went back to the hotel for him to get some dry pants then drove a couple hours to Turlock, CA in the central valley. We grabbed some lunch and then did our individual tour at Stanislaus State. Stanislaus is part of the California State University system (CSUs...as opposed to the UC system). (Micah has been looking at the CSU schools over the UC schools because of cost for out of state students.)

So, we enjoyed our tour guide, Kyle, and Micah had a good conversation with him about Kyle's kinesiology major. Prior to this, Micah had been mostly undecided and leaning toward a business degree (when made to lean). Now he's realizing that a kinesiology degree might be a better fit. Beyond that, though Stanislaus seemed a nice enough campus, Micah felt it was too small. It reminded him of Front Range Community College, where he already takes classes here in Fort Collins. Also, very few students live on campus at Stanislaus, making for a very quiet campus. (Apparently, with many of the CSU schools, the student body draws primarily from the surrounding area and many commute.) 

After that, we drove the couple hours back to the coast and went the extra 15 minutes or so from our hotel down to Monterey and Cannery Row. We had a nice dinner there and were entertained by a couple of women in long flowing dressed doing some photos down on the beach. Everyone at our restaurant was watching as they recruited volunteers on the beach to help them "billow" their dresses and even take some of the pictures...and cheered/laughed when a wave came in and got one of the dresses while the women were talking. :)

(I went and chatted with them after we finished eating. I was curious, lol. Apparently, one of the women's mothers is a seamstress who makes these dresses and has recently started a business renting them so they were taking photos for advertising and Instagram content and such.) I didn't get to window shop or browse more, being with my teenage guy, but we also stopped at the Ghirardelli store and just generally had a nice evening before going back to the hotel and watching a show together. 

Friday morning we got day passes to a nearby gym and got our workouts in. (Yay, us!) We then showered, got lunch and went to CSUMB (less than 10 minutes from our hotel)...California State University Monterey Bay. It was a group tour this time with our tour guide named Micah. 

CSUMB used to be a military base. It shows. The campus, though, had a mix of old and new buildings...had significantly more students living on campus than at Stanislaus...seemed to have an active student body with lots of nearby things to do (you can literally see and walk to the beach from campus)...and, apparently, has more women than men. Oh, and Micah found the rec center and scoped out the gym to make sure it's adequate. It passed his inspection. ;) Also, from what we can tell so far, the CSU schools seem to have an emphasis on hands on participation and projects that appeals to Micah. 

After that, we made our way to Fort Ord Dunes State Park and my big 16 year old enjoyed the beach like a little boy. He ran up and down the dunes...(which were gorgeous!)...

...and had me take more than 200 pictures of him posing in one way or another. Yes, he refused to pose for more than one or two photos at every campus but was totally down for beach photos, lol. 

...yup, he had fun. ;) Oh, and I was there, too...

(Edited to add: For the record, even though the beach looks lovely and sunny, it wasn't even 60 degrees out. You'll notice that I kept my jacket on the whole time. Yes, he was cold, lol.)

We played until the sun started going down and made our way back to the car (where I'd fortunately remembered to bring our travel towels). We grabbed dinner then went back to the hotel for Micah to dry off and get warm. :) Oh, and he realized that he likes how his hair dries in the California humidity. 

Saturday I let the boy sleep in a bit before packing up and checking out. We drove the hour or so up to San Jose State University (also a part of the CSU system). We hadn't looked into scheduling a campus tour here but stopped because it was near the airport and we figured "why not?" We walked around campus...encountered what looked like a very fun Holi celebration, checked out the gym (of course), and took note of the amount of campus and off campus housing. 

Micah's going to do some more research on San Jose State but does think living in the middle of a city might be cool. 

After that, we grabbed lunch, returned our rental car and flew home. Whew. So, that was the end of our spring break and a start on Micah's college visits. We'll visit at least some schools here in Colorado, and he's going to do more research looking for other schools now that he's narrowing down what he's looking for. I'll keep you posted... :)

Thirty years

Just popping in to say a quick "Happy Pi Day!" to you all and to celebrate thirty years of knowing Nathan. Yup, thirty years ago, he walked into my family room and my life...and it's been such a good thing. 

Since I've done plenty of blogging lately already, I'm just going to leave you with the first picture of the two of us together (taken in April 1992) and the latest one (taken at the start of the month in Greece)...

And now I've just realized that all three of our boys are currently as old or older than we were when we met. Let's just ignore that, eh? ;)

And on that happy thought, I think I'll go buy a pie now...Happy Pi Day, Happy Anniversary (to Nathan), and Happy Monday, all!

Greece wrap-up

Whew. So, that was our trip. It was fabulous. Such a wonderful way to celebrate 25 years of marriage!

Along the way, we had a number of observations and thoughts. Rather than try to work them into all the previous posts, I figured I'd just make some lists here at the end...

Things we were thankful for:

• Europeans speaking English...Seriously, so impressed by how many languages most Europeans speak and thankful that pretty much everyone we encountered also spoke English, making things so much easier for us. (Truly, we felt like we should apologize for only speaking English. <hanging our heads>)
• towel warmers...Our AirBNB in Kalampaka had a towel warmer rack in the bathroom. I want one. For real.
• wide angle lenses...Our iPhones have wide angle lenses that came in very handy!
• smart phones...Relatedly, what did we do before smart phones? Numerous times we were thankful for having that technology in our pockets...for directions, websites, translations, keeping in touch with boys, etc.
• international credit cards...Travelers checks? What are those? lol...very thankful for the convenience of international credit cards.
• artists...In more than one museum, we noted that artists were to be applauded, not only for artwork itself but for their work historically making renditions of sites and works so that we now know what they looked like.
• good health & mobility...Also thankful for our good health and mobility. Being able to walk everywhere, climb all the steps and carry all our own stuff is very handy. It's a good motivator to stay in shape. ;) 
• tracking things...So glad we got Apple AirTags before this trip and put one in each bag. We'd never had a bag misplaced by the airline before (and we usually only travel with carry ons but knew the smaller airline would require checking a bag anyhow), but it was so valuable to know that our misplaced bag was in the building and not back in Athens or in some other city. 
• alpacas...For Christmas, I received a wonderful new sweater and also bought myself one of the same brand's base layers. They came in sooo handy in the cold weather! They're soft and comfy and warm and perfect.
• new shoes...Before the trip, both Nathan and I got these new shoes...specifically for this trip. We knew it was likely to be wet and that we'd still need traction for the walking and climbing and didn't have footwear that would work for that and yet also be comfortable enough on other just walking around days. (One pair of shoes for both purposes was preferable over taking both sneakers and hiking boots given our packing space.) They performed fantastically! We literally proclaimed our thankfulness regularly...as we were climbing uneven terrain in Athens and managing slippery streets in Santorini and actually hiking in wet conditions in Meteora. (By the way, marble and cobblestone are really slippery when wet!)
• Nathan's long arms...I don't know about you but I'm not good at taking selfies. My arms are short like a t-rex and it makes selfies look weird, lol. Thankfully, Nathan has long arms so was in charge of all of our selfies on our trip. :)  
• online manuals...It's so useful to be able to look up manuals for things online. When we were in Kalampaka, we did some laundry since our AirBNB had a washing machine. There were no instructions, though, and the labels weren't in English. Fortunately, I was able to look up the manual on my phone and figure it out. Yay!
• google maps...For whatever reason, Apple maps didn't work too well for us in Greece (and Siri really can't pronounce Greek places and street names well, lol). Google maps only led us wrong a couple of times and was much appreciated!

Things about Europe/Greece: 

• The EU digital covid vaccine passes are so much more convenient than our paper cards that don't fit in wallets. Whenever we went into a restaurant or museum or even some shops, we were asked to show our vaccine pass. For everyone else, this involved scanning something on their phones...easy, peasy. We felt a bit silly having to explain that the US doesn't have those and then having the person have to stop and read our little pieces of paper. (By the way, our handy passport/vaccination card holders that we picked up just before this trip came in very handy since we had to show our card so often.)
• Does anyone know what the deal is with speed limits through tunnels in Greece? When we were driving from Athens to Kalampaka, we went through numerous tunnels and they all had extensive warnings and signage and such to make sure you slowed down to 80kph. Inside those tunnels, there were also excessive emergency phones and fire extinguishers. It felt like something really bad had happened in a tunnel and this was the attempt to prevent it ever happening again.
• Apparently, Greece is the land of stray cats. They were everywhere. We took pictures, and Nathan made a friend in Oia that he even started feeding. (We're wondering whether Noah would have had a problem since he's allergic to cats...)
• In each of our AirBNBs, we had to turn on a switch before we needed hot water and wait a bit before using it (for a shower usually). We then flipped the switch back off when done. It took us a bit to remember but we figured it out and felt it was a good reminder about water and energy conservation. We've been trying to do better since being home.
• I'm so impressed by people's parking abilities in Europe. I literally would not have been able to drive or park there. I have depth perception issues and those roads and spots are tight. (Course, their cars are also generally smaller than here, which helps.)
• Other places are so much better at portion sizes than the US. You could tell which places were clearly tourist traps used to American tourists by the sizes of their meals. 
• It was lovely never having to hand our credit cards over to other people. Everywhere we went had card readers that they brought to you. You could just tap it. It would spit out your receipt. Done. Why isn't that the norm here?

General travel thoughts/tips (aka notes to ourselves):

• In the future, we want to find (and take) some local postcards or something to leave with thank you notes for our AirBNB hosts.
• We must remember to pack necessities in our carry on's. On our first flight (from home to Athens), I'd packed a spare outfit along with all my necessary toiletries in my carry on. From Athens to Santorini (where my checked bag got lost for a day), of course, I took the extra outfit out of my carry on and put it in the checked bag. So, I was without a change of clothes for a day. Fortunately, at least I had everything else I needed. 
• Course, it would be easier to just not check bags anyhow. I really must pack lighter. (Honestly, we packed lighter when we went on our Europe trip in May 2018 and that was a longer trip. We think that the season makes a difference. Sweaters take up more space than tank tops. Plus, on our 2018 trip we knew we were going to do laundry. We didn't actually plan to do laundry on this trip so packed more.)
• If you have an early flight, don't assume places will be open at the airport. Come prepared with snacks, water, book, etc.
• Keep a rough list as you go for the customs form when you're coming home. (I actually made a list when we were repacking everything to go home, so that came in very handy, but it would have been easier to just keep a running list on my phone.)
• If possible, pack all declared items for customs together so that, if they pull your bags for searching, everything is all together and accessible...and then you don't have to repack multiple bags. (Not talking from direct experience here or anything, lol.)
• Take a screen shot and/or save travel documents to your phone in case you can't access the internet at the airport. Fortunately, this didn't happen to us, but we saw others having issues. 
• Always pack pocket flashlights. Ours came in incredibly handy walking to our places in the dark and worked better than phone flashlight apps in the rain. 
• We're so glad that we rented cars on this trip. Even though driving in foreign countries can be scary, doing so gave us so much more flexibility and freedom and let us experience things that we couldn't have if we'd been reliant only on public transportation. Relatedly, I find it concerning that they'll just let us rent cars without providing any sort of instruction or a booklet with keys to the foreign traffic signs and rules. That would have been incredibly helpful.
• From now on we'll be adding a small travel pharmacy to take with us. We were totally fine, but we'd read ahead of time that it was a good idea to pack some meds since it might be tricky or inconvenient to find things...so we had Advil, Sudafed, Dramamine, and Tums with us. But I didn't pack any Claritin. And in the last couple of days, Nathan probably would have taken some if we'd had any. (Something seemed to have bloomed and was causing some allergies...which also reminded me that Benadryl might not be a bad idea to have, too.) 
• I rarely use cash these days. Cash was more necessary in Greece, though. And change in Europe is more often in coins than here. So having a coin purse would have been handy. (Ironically, I made myself a mental note of this after our Europe trip in 2018 and totally forgot.) I ended up with just a jacket pocket dedicated to cash and change.

Other:

• Archaeologists are cool. Indiana Jones had already done great things for the profession but visiting all these places really makes you appreciate archaeologists. They must have such patience and be so good at puzzles. 
• Wow. I have more white hair than I thought. :) My white hair is more prominent in the back...where I can't see it. Seeing pictures that Nathan took that showed all the white hairs surprised me, lol. 
• I must remember that things take longer to dry in places with more humidity. Fortunately, all of our places had hair dryers, so that was good. But if you do a load of wash and there's no dryer, hanging things to dry takes longer than it would here in fairly dry Colorado. Also fortunately, the AirBNB where we did a load of laundry also had wonderful radiators throughout the space which we hung things on (from hangers). 
• Thankful, too, that we could take this trip without boys. It's good to have older kids. :) Noah and Asher were obviously fine, as they live away from home in the first place. And Micah's pretty self-sufficient. Given the length of our trip, though, we asked Noah to come home and stay with Micah. Between the two of them, they managed to stay fed and (mostly) get to classes. (Noah appreciated the warmth and convenience of getting to class in a car instead of having to walk or bike.) They also managed a vehicle breakdown (Micah figured out the problem with the help of a friend and bought the parts, and then he and Noah got it to the shop and picked it up), and Micah even applied for and started a new job. Yay!

And, finally, I'll leave you with some random pictures of food we enjoyed during our trip...

Um, yum. :)

So, that was Greece. Lots of pictures. Lots of memories. We're so incredibly blessed to have been able to take this trip...and so incredibly blessed to celebrate 25 years of marriage! Tremendously thankful for my wonderful husband for so many reasons...

And, as usual, traveling just makes us want to travel even more. :)

Delphi & Athens again

And, finally, after we left Kalampaka, we drove about 3.5 hours to Delphi. We drove through fog, snow, rain and sunshine and arrived to a downpour that started about as we stepped out of the car. It just made sense, then, to start our visit there by going through the Delphi Archaeological Museum. (I have pictures but didn't include them here.)

Fortunately, the rain let up while we were inside the museum, so we grabbed some quick sandwiches from the gift shop area then headed to the outdoor sites...

Pictured above: The Treasury of Athenians, the Temple of Apollo (where the oracle would sit), an engraved wall, the theater, random impressive stuff, us in front of the Temple of Apollo, and the Temple of Athena (where one had to go initially to get permission to see the Oracle). Sadly, the stadium at the main site and the gymnasium on the way to the Temple of Athena were both closed for the season.

From there, we drove the 2.5 hours to Athens (with a stop for coffee and snacks, of course) and found our AirBNB (near the airport, just outside of Athens) just after dark. We met with our enthusiastic host, walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner (upon our host's recommendation), and finished out the day. 

Wednesday, we set out in the gusty wind to get our required covid tests for our flight the following day (thankful for the lab recommendation from our host!), stopped at a couple bakeries, and drove to the airport. We parked there, went inside for some paperwork we'd need for the flight and then took the metro into the city. (Driving and trying to park in the city did not sound appealing.)

Above: Nathan walking in the Athens Flea Market, us having figured out the metro system well, a view of our rental car and AirBNB, us across the street from our AirBNB (in front of the Aegean Sea), the view from our AirBNB, and me freezing in the wind before hurrying back to our place. 

For what it's worth, it seemed like March 1 was the magic day when a great number of the shops that had been closed when we first arrived in Greece decided to open. The Athens Flea Market and neighborhood shopping areas were notably busier and there were a lot more people out and about. (It looked, too, like it might be spring break for a number of European colleges and schools based on the number of young person groups we saw.) It was fun seeing more things open but we actually preferred the quieter time when we had first arrived, when things were still closed for the season and there were fewer people. :)

And then we somehow managed to pack everything back into all our bags, wake up crazy early to get to the airport, and fly home. Whew.

Back in a bit with more wrap-up sorts of things...

Meteora

From Santorini, we flew back to Athens, rented a car, and drove about four hours to the town of Kalampaka (also written as Kalabaka). We checked into our AirBNB then took advantage of the remaining daylight to drive the Meteora loop. (Similar to when we arrived in Santorini, the forecast indicated this might be our only good weather day. It's almost like the bad weather was following us, right?)

Meteora is a rock formation/area and home to amazing Eastern Orthodox monasteries built precipitously on immense natural pillars and boulders. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage site (as was the Acropolis). 

It was amazing. The pictures don't even do it justice. Wow.

The next day, we were scheduled to do a scramble tour with Visit Meteora but it was raining and windy and yucky. In the end, the scramble tour was cancelled and we were offered the option of going on the hiking tour instead...which we considered but ultimately decided against, in favor of waiting a day to see if the weather improved enough to do the scramble tour. Instead, then, we spent a quiet day enjoying the comforts of our AirBNB--doing some laundry and reading and just relaxing. We headed out for lunch and to drive the loop again in the misty conditions (and ventured over the crest and found snow). We also found some short hikes after the rain had mostly stopped...to hidden monasteries in the rocks and caves and ruins.

Again, the pictures don't do it justice. It was eerily cool. Oh, and that bottom right photo is the town square in Kastriki, a nearby village. We were trying to go to a geologic museum there but it was closed.

The next morning, the scramble was still canceled (the rocks were too wet) but it wasn't actively raining or windy. So, we went on the hiking tour...which turned out to be a private tour with just us and our awesome guide, Kostas. He led us around the area, sharing stories and background and his love for the place. 

As part of the tour, we also went into one of the monasteries (Varlaam) before finishing our fabulous hike. It was a lovely way to spend our morning and one of our favorite things.

The rest of the day was spent back at our AirBNB, getting a late lunch, and checking out an interesting mushroom museum. (Technically, it's the Natural History Museum and Mushroom Museum.)

And we ended our evening as we did every evening during our stay in Kalampaka...enjoying a fabulous dinner at the Meteoron Panorama restaurant. This place was recommended to us by our AirBNB hosts and was so delicious the first night that we went back every night. Here's a sampling of what we ate and drank there:

Yum! And that last shot is the view from the restaurant. Amazing.

Sidenote here to comment about the pace of dinners in Europe. They definitely enjoy dinners and meals at a different pace than here. We knew this from our time in Europe before and really embraced it this time...which was wonderful. We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner experiences...particularly on Santorini and here. Places would bring us some combination of shots of pre-dinner drinks, dishes of olives, shots of post-dinner drinks (often made specifically at that restaurant), and small desserts...just as a matter of course (without any extra charge). If we'd been typical Americans and just asked for the check as soon as we'd finished eating (which we saw some others do), we'd have missed out on so much goodness. Also, our waitresses at both Meteoron Panorama and Kokkalo Restaurant in Fira were fabulous and we had a great time chatting with them!

(Honestly, those were some of the best drinks and bites. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the fact that it's off season and they were just grateful for the business or if it made a difference that it was just us and not all five of us. Regardless, we loved it.)

And then we continued on from Kalampaka...