Χαίρετε (Chaírete) - hello in Greek

June 2, 2017
Happy birthday to Corey and Uncle Troy!

We were up 'earliesh' to catch out flight to Greece.  It was 8:30 AM on Italian time or 2:30 AM on South Bend time.  These cuties still had smiles on their faces.

Once we landed, a Greek man offered to take us by van to our hotel.  It was an interesting ride, as he had a lot of commentary to offer on his country.  Sadly, the unemployment rate is at 25%.

The hotel we are staying in - is only 2 months old.  Absolutely gorgeous.  It was the bunk beds however that sold the kids :)

This lucky daddy was getting a lot of extra birthday love!

Even some of the wild cats wished him a happy birthday.

Love this pic of Lily!  She is looking so grown up!  And so much like her daddy.

Greek Salad.  Yum.

We all LOVED this restaurant Oinea.  Right at our door step.  The people who work there are some of the kindest we've met on our travels.  Kind to the kids and just sweet as can be.

Aside from our Greek salad we had the traditional Mousaka, Greek meat balls, calamari, fresh salmon, and mussels.  Oh, and a bottle of wine.  Phenomenal food!

Lunch was incredible!  The food was so fresh and delicious, which was impressively surpassed  by the kind people who ran the restaurant.  One of our waiters even tried to buy our kids gelato as they pressed their faces against the glass waiting for Corey and I to finish our lunch.

While eating gelato the restaurant brought watermelon - which all the kids love - so they were forced to be double fisted :)

When they realized it was Corey's birthday, they brought Corey a special mango cheesecake for his birthday dessert, and sang to him in both English and Greek.  I have a video of this, but too big to upload.  After Corey blew out the candle they had him break the candle in half so his wish could come true.  A neat tradition!  Or maybe just a scam from the candle manufacturers to me to make sure you don’t reuse :)

All were beyond full at this point.  A full bottle of wine was drank and all clothes were in need of changing.

You can get a sense of just how close Oineas really is to our hotel as Caden people watches the diners from our hotel lobby.

More fashion shots by Lily...before gelato 

After naps...we waddled out for some exploring...

The entire square is a giant market with people selling anything and everything.

The Acropolis on the background, another temple being excavated in the foreground, and all around a bustling city with a train right through the middle with walls covered by graffiti. 

At this point the "Kitty Count" officially began.  There is a crazy number of wild cats about.

As we walked back towards our hotel, the kids declared they were hungry!  So we stopped at a crepe shop.  The crepes were as big as their heads - but not a bite was left.  They decided this was a 'must do' for tomorrow.

We headed back and played a little Jenga.  Stakes were high, as the loser had to be the first to jump in the water off the sailboat - or run up the Olympic stadium steps.  Despite her intense concentration, Lily met her fate...

Great first day in Greece.  Goodnight!