Off to Santorini!

I made a bit of a mistake regarding the time of our flight today…

We’ve done so much prep in so little time that my memory was incorrect about our flight today.  Instead of 6AM, it is at 7:20AM.  Not too much difference, but it cost us an hour of sleep and $20 extra upcharge for the cab ride since our 4:30 departure was in the elevated midnight to 5AM period.  Oh well.  Better early that late.

And it gave us a chance to try out the new Priority Pass lounge access that came with our new Visa Sapphire credit card.  This place is nice, quiet, and empty!  Had some coffee and oatmeal, along with free internet.

We should be off to Santorini in a little while!

We Had a Great Time at the Acropolis!!!

Sorry, no pictures.  Took lots of them with my Nikon, but haven’t had time to download them yet.  Super tired tonight.  Hope to be in bed before 9PM.  As mentioned in the first post, we have a 4:30 taxi to the airport for a 6AM flight to Santorini island.  We’ll be there two days.  Should be relaxing.  May be beautiful for pics if the weather’s right.

Trenna and I agreed that we both like Athens better than Rome, but really don’t know why.  Same time of year, so it’s a fair comparison.  Rome was so much more crowded.  The major sights in Rome were so over the top; Athens is much more real and natural.  But, be warned:  walking across a street in Athens is pretty much like playing Crossy Roads, only in real life!

We’re in Athens!

We just made it to our hotel in Athens about an hour ago.  I’m feeling really strange due to the lack of sleep and my body thinks it’s around 4AM.  But it’s definitely daylight here and we’re about to leave the hotel and go to the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum.  This is the afternoon we have to see the sights in Athens, so we have to suck it up and get with it.  You know we’re going to sleep well tonight!

And we’ll have to, since we have a 6AM flight to Santorini in the morning!  Leave hotel at 4:30!!!  Whose idea was that???

Last stop before home

We arrived in Kauai today and wow is it beautiful!  Can’t wait to go exploring!  Came down with a bit of allergies or something, but I’m hoping that won’t get in the way of fun activities for the three days we’re here.

I’ve had  chance to skim the over 4000 photos I’ve taken on this trip.  Three things became obvious very quickly.  Hawaii is an awesome place.  Trenna is a great model.  And shooting whales is still the funnest and most challenging thing I’ve ever tried to do.  (I ended up going on six whale-watching trips.)

Here are a few more pics from the trip:

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We saw lots of momma whales and their babies.

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Self Portrait

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One of two adult breaches I was able to capture.

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Final daily post!

Well, we made it home safe and sound!  Thanks for all your prayers and interest. I’m working through the 1900 pics I shot and will post a gallery when I’ve gone through them all and edited them as needed.

Overall, it was a really great trip.  I’m so grateful to have been able to go to such great places.

Day 15 – Just passin’ through

We’re in Paris now, if but for a few minutes.  So far it looks like our return flight is on schedule and not impacted by the events here Friday night.  Lord willing, we’ll arrive back in ATL at 2:40ET and home soon after that.

There won’t be a moment to rest, though, as I have to be on an 8AM flight Monday morning to Phoenix.  Today will be lots of laundry, packing, and catching up with the kids.

I won’t be back from Phoenix until next Monday morning.  🙁

But this has been a good trip.  A very good trip.

Day 13 – Pray for Paris

We awoke this morning in Rome to the horrible stories of terror and carnage in Paris.  Please pray for the injured and traumatized, and for that country.  Their current culture and infrastructure doesn’t seem prepared to prevent or at least minimize the opportunity for such attacks.

Thankfully, we were not there.  But we only barely weren’t, as we debated quite a bit before choosing finally to go to Rome instead of Paris since we had already been to Paris together before.

Day 12 – Rome!

We made it to Rome!  Wow, this place is jam packed with interesting stuff.

I hate to say this, but I got one hour of sleep last night in Tel Aviv before getting up at 2:00AM to fly here and can’t keep my eyes open to post.  I’ll try to do something tomorrow, though there will be little time since we’re scheduled to go to the Vatican.