Living Life and Having Fun: Greece: Day Fifteen

The plans for today were very up in the air so I decided to sleep in and not set an alarm for once. This decision was also helped in part by Charlie who came to give me back my iPad at 1:00am by pounding on the door and waking us up in a fright. He had borrowed it to watch a movie with his mom and figured I needed it back. It was hard getting back to sleep after that, so sleeping in was needed.

I headed down for breakfast close to 10am where Brian was already up and sitting in the shade using his tablet - he had been nice and didn't wake me up when he got up. I had some breakfast and met up with the group who had decided to visit a cave and a few small villages. While that sounded interesting, staying by the pool, reading and finally catching up on my delayed blog entries sounded appealing. So I chose to stay behind. I saw them off, changed in to my bathing suit and headed for the pool.

I sat in the sun for about an hour (big mistake) then swam lengths for almost an hour. Then I spent almost 2 hours in the semi-shade working on my blog. By this point I was days behind. I had been writing, but hadn't proof read or added photos. If there were spelling mistakes during the last few days that's why. I ate some pita and dip for lunch, then went back out in the sun (another mistake).

(Photos: The pool area - heaven!)

At 3:00 the group returned and I went down to the beach with Alyssa and Charlie. We floated in the water for another hour (yet another mistake). I got back to the room at 5:00 only to realize I was incredibly burnt. Despite putting on sunblock I over did it and I am paying for it now. Hopefully my aloe and the cream Brian bought for sunburns will help.

Today is Mikhalis 13th birthday so we had a party for him by the pool. His grandparents and Greek family came. Nick and Jenn ordered in souvlaki and pizza from this place in Chios town that they remembered as being amazing - and it was! Pizza was standard pizza but good, but the souvlaki was without a doubt the best I have ever had. The chicken was so tender, and the spices were just perfect.

For the dinner portion it was mostly just us, then the Greeks arrived. There were his grandparents, some aunts and uncles as well as cousins. The Greek family remind me very much of my Italian grandparents who passed away a few years ago. First, Katina (his grandmother) had wanted to make all the food for the party but Jenn didn't want her to go to all that work. When she came in and saw the takeout boxes she had a look that my Nonna would have had. She's also been bringing food to the resort all week, to the point Jenn and Nicks fridge is full. It made me think of "operation throw out" a strategy my parents, brother and I employed while on road trip with Nonno and Nonna where we were trying to get rid of her food after having it for two weeks straight on the way back from Nova Scotia. Despite it being a few days to get back home, Nonna spent hours cooking meals for the road so we wouldn't have to stop. Don't get me wrong, her food was great but at that point we wanted a restaurant!

Nicks mom did bring these beef patty things which were delicious as well as the cake. They also reminded me of my family in terms of how welcoming they were. Despite having never met me or being able to speak English, all of the aunts, uncles and cousins rushed over to give us all hugs and kisses -on both cheeks.

They had a cake for Mikalki and we all sang happy birthday about 4 times. Then he opened presents. Brian and I had given him his gift (consisting of euros for the trip) when we first arrived so he could use it. One of the best gifts was from John and Erin and was a "man kit" which included a various assortment of products.

(Photos: Birthday Celebration)

(Charlie, Alyssa and Robert)

(Mikhali and his cake)

(Pam, Jenn and Erin)

After dinner we all went back down to the pool where the kids - and Brian - went swimming. I also appointed myself the offical photograher (which will not be a surprise to my family) and made sure to get photos of Mikhali with everyone. There was a bit of a divide as Nick and Jenn sat with the Chios relatives and were speaking Greek, but it was a fun night and a great way to spend Mikhalis 13th birthday

(Photo: Mikhali with Jenn, Nick, Pam and Erin)

(Greek family!)

(Mikhali with his grandfather and John)

(Me and Alex)

(Me and Mikhali)

(Me and Brian)

(Kids - and Brian - posing in the pool)

(I have this "fish bowl" function in my camera and its hilarious!!! Brian hopefully doesn't read my blog because he won't be impressed to see this one. Hehehehe!)