Tim and Jeni: Santorini Island

After Athens we were excited to go to the island called Santorini! We were excited about the beautiful views and some relaxing on the beach. In order to get there we took an 8 hour long ferry ride. We packed up our baggage and headed to the port.

The ferry boat was huge! Since we would be out at sea for the day we thought of this as our mini-cruise!

It was really windy when we stepped out on the deck to take some pictures. Melissa took this picture of me with my hair flying in the wind!

There were three stops on this trip. The first stop was Paros Island.

The second stop was Nachos Island. We got a kick out of the name of this island. I wanted to ask someone if we could get some nachos here! Ha!

Our final stop was Santorini Island! We were SO EXCITED!

This was our first view of a village in Santorini. You can see the port down below and the stairs that go up to the village.

This is a picture of our ferry boat. We took this pic as we were driving away from our port.

Here we are walking down the street to our little hotel. It was more like a bed and breakfast, very quaint and we were happy there!

Once we put our luggage in our rooms we hurried to get our swimsuits on and spend a little bit of time on the beach.

The next morning the kids and I went down to the beach while Tim slept in. The sand on the beach is black because it's a volcanic island and the sand comes from volcanic rock.

After the beach we came back and saw Melissa and Becca all dressed and ready for breakfast.

Here we are eating our breakfast.

While we showered and got ready Melissa and Becca played card games. Then we headed out to Fira, the biggest village.

Fira is on top of the cliffs with a beautiful view of the water.

We took a cable car down to the port at Fira. One option is to ride a donkey up the 600 steps to the village. You can see the donkeys in this picture that we took from the cable car.

A family pic at the Fira port.

We stopped at a little cafe for a snack at the port before we went back up to the village.

A family pic at the cafe. Do you see the fresh octopus on the counter above us?

These two were such a delight to travel with! We're glad we went together!

Here's the donkeys taking a rest before more people want to take a ride.

We opted to go back up in the cable car. I have to admit that I was a little scared.

Group shot after getting out of the cable car...we made it to the top!

Here's our complete group with the village behind us. We had a fun time together!

Fira village

We were anxious to watch the sunset at Fira. We found a restaurant to enjoy the view. We weren't disappointed!

Such a beautiful sunset!

The next day we spent some extra time on the beach.

Joseph enjoyed using his new sling shot to shoot rocks into the water.

After lunch we headed to another village with an awesome view! This village is spelled Oia, but pronounced "Eeya."

Faith got a flag that went well with her new dress and sunglasses.

Here's a beautiful view of the village of Oia.

Throughout the island there were many orthodox churches that looked like this. They were very pretty.

A family pic with a beautiful background.

We were excited again to watch the sunset from Oia! We found a place on the stairs to wait and watch the view.

It was another beautiful sunset!

I love this picture of Tim and the kids with the village of Oia in the background.

The view of Oia was beautiful even at night.

The next day was more relaxed. We spent more time at the beach and resting at our hotel.

We told the kids that we were going to bury them in the sand. They were a little unsure of what we meant.