Sorry its been a while on the updates, maybe i will have to send some more postcards of sandy beaches in paradise. We finally made it to the weather we were expecting a month ago, the ocean is actually warm. We traveled through montenegro and albania since the last update. The mountains in both were the most beautiful we have ever seen, jutting right out of the ocean. we had a very hard time communicating, no one spoke english. Its been cool to see some places we read about in the bible, corinth, mars hill, dalmatia and soon to be crete. The places are mostly destroyed but its still amazing to sit there and think 'these people (both local and the world) still have the same issues today'. I think the athenians of today reject the gospel for the same reasons they rejected Paul. The peloponnese (southwest) area of mainland greece was amazing: oranges off the trees for sale next to the orchard, few tourists, 80 degrees, laidback drivers, folks selling their homebrews on the sidewalk, huge castles on top of mountains, cheap rooms, and free bedbugs to go with you. There was a ferrystrike in greece last week, we got stuck in athens for 8 days, too long for us country folk, though the food there rocked and the acropolis was all that pictures make it out to be (big fancy rocks). We are currently on the island of Santorini, which is THE most beautiful place my eyes have ever seen, its a volcano filled with ocean......if you have never seen a picture, google it, its worth the time. Sunsets here are crazy good, the beaches have black and red rocks, which are very hot on Havas feet, and the cliffs that make up the inside walls of the volcano are stripes of color that the sunset makes light up. Sambo felt and smelled the hot sulfer coming out of the volcano crater we hiked up to. You can boil eggs on it in 10 minutes. The ground is very fertile, there are vinyards and wineries all over the island. They let the vines grow in circles laying them right on the rocky ground, no trellis. The kids have had so much fun on the ferries, the ride is slow but we pass so many islands. There are over 6000 islands in greece. It has hardly rained since the last update, I am so glad not to be hanging out waiting for spring breakup in north idaho. I started drawing houseplans in my head last week, I guess its almost time to come home. The kids miss chili, and I really miss mexican food and staring at Ben. I think I need to find a job that is on a sandy beach with weather like we have had working 3 hours a day 365 days a year. My wife could get her bikini tan and model for our income. I really think I could be content.......though all of you know otherwise.
Ericka is cutting the legs off all of the kids pants, sewing them with a sewing machine that looks and moves like a stapler, making them into shorts. Hava has loved all the flowers, everything is blooming in every color. She has learned so many new words like 'happy donkey'. Sambo rode a donkey up the caldera trail a few days ago, which I swear I pulled up the mountain, screaming at it in at least 5 different languages. We went to a museum in Sparta that was about the olive and the history of pressing, making oil and soap, and cultivating. It was very good, I cant believe the work that goes into making oil and refining it. We have come to believe that there is no flat ground on the baltic peninsula or in greece. We climb 1000's of stairs everyday, mostly carrying hava and scraping sambo off the rocks. He has looked like a boy fresh of the battlefield with a bruise or scrape on every inch of his body. For all the concrete they have on this side of the world, they dont use it on sidewalks. All the sidewalks are drystacked rocks or slippery tiles, perfect for a 20 month old girl learning how to walk.
2 weeks ago in Athens we met a great family from calgary, Canada and spent a few days with them hanging out. They have a 7 year old boy named Sam, and sambo had a great time with him. They followed us to Santorini about 10 hours after we left athens and we got to spend a few more days with them there. It was great to have real conversations with people we enjoyed and hope to continue the friendship with them since they only live a few hours away from us.
So, I would love to show some closeups of my tanlines, but some of you would take offense. Oh, and do any of you actually think we are drinking tiny umbrella drinks that cost 20 bucks?
