The Jemez 500

Video of The Start

Zak & family visit for "one last time"

 Zak thinks he hears that we will move to Maryland before next year's holiday season. Maybe . . .

Regardless, Zak, Janae, Kaitlyn, & Alexis came to visit us for a whole week over Thanksgiving! Zak helped work on the deck A LOT, and it is getting close. Yiayia spent a lot of time teaching Kaitlyn & Alexis all sorts of stuff. Janae's mother & Max came for Thanksgiving day. Max may have made the favorite dish - Mac&Cheese. The turkey was ruined by malfunctioning meat thermometer.

So far, only 2 photos to post:

At the top of Coyote Call trail. Some altitude sickness occurring.

At Soda Dam with Yiayia

The Bears Return!

Got any honey? 

And the original . . .

Greece 2023

Athens, Naxos, Paros, Antiparos, and Kifisia the easy way.

September, 2023 we returned to Eleni's motherland with her sisters and their husbands.

Upon our arrival in Athens, cousin (once removed) Christos picked us up at the airport, dashing our plans to lug our luggage through the train system. That led to lunch with his mother, Pavlina & Taki, Margarita, and more kids. A nice change from the long flight! We then met up with the sisters, who had arrived the previous day, at the hotel. I believe shopping, drinking, and eating ensued.

The next day, Sean & I took the ferry to Naxos while everyone else flew. I don't know why the ferry cost more than the flight, but it was a nicer and more interesting trip. I sat with a couple from the UK and an UK expat Aussie (randomly assigned seating).

One dinner on Naxos featured fish stew for 2 (motto: a fish in every spoonful!)

Eleni, Sean, and I hiked to visit Zeus' cave.

The trail up

The watcher of the cave

Inside the cave. The colors are from growths on the rocks, rather than human painting, I think.

There were a lot more goats in the area, but only the one that hung out near the trail.

The view from somewhere near our lodgings on Naxos

Then we all got on the ferry for a short trip to the island Paros. 

The front of our Paros lodging

Our first adventure (Eleni, Sean, me) on Paros was a "secret" cove 36.9771, 25.1739. It is a little pool that can only be accessed by swimming around the point and under an arch. Sean & I did that. Actually others jump off the arch, but we are too old for that level of adventure. It's worth several pictures:

and the nearby beach (Tripiti2)

we didn't even swim from because we had to go to another beach (Tripiti1) and another taverna (Glyfa) for lunch.

Sunday was a good day to tour the cathedral:

The garden outside

The front

Inside

Saint Eleni, easily confused with our Eleni

Greek version of a "red tag." Perhaps Sandoval County could use these for our more rural homes?

Another Eleni, Sean, and John adventure day started at the "butterfly" refuge. They are actually moths, but attractive ones:

Up close. When they fly, their wings are red underneath.

Bunches! There were quite a lot of them around.

This unfortunate person bent over to look at a sign and a cat jumped onto her back for a nap. She patiently waited for it to take a little snooze.

The refuge was also a bit of an arboretum. There are many types of trees, mostly fruit-bearing! A nice stop, even if it was not that "Greek."

Then, a short ferry ride and onto the Antiparos Cave! This turned out to be quite the tourist destination, and for good reason. At the entrance, there is a cairn garden:

At 279 feet deep, the cave was spectacular:

If you look closely, you will see the stairs!

Then on to the southern tip of Antiparos to see rocks, swim, and eat:

Too rocky to swim here

But this was nice. The most sheltered-from-wind beach of the trip.

In Lefkes, we found a Greek fire truck, but no firefighters:

Then back to the mainland to stay in Kifisia, visit Zina's family, and more hiking for me. A long hike through suburbs and up the mountain got me to Davelis Cave:

There is a little chapel at the front of the cave

Inside are two altars. This is the newer one.

The older altar, with fading icons

Nicholas, the patron saint of the cave

No cave is complete without a (dead) bat. There was a live one flying around for a moment, but too quick to photograph.

The view from the inside, out.

Our last adventure day, just Eleni & John, walking around the old town:

A Greek UPS driver. Scooters fit better than trucks.

The Greek equivalent of U52, near the Acopolis

An ancient tortoise near the Acropolis

These are my highlights. Sorry if you expected food pictures. Check out others' posts and you will likely find more.

Republished - Greece 2018!

In November, 2018, we went to Greece to see The Gathering play (twice!) and to visit Eleni's Athenian relatives. None of my concert pictures really turned out, but here is the group:

One highlight is that the singer, Silje, seemed to recognize John in the crowd the second night as someone who had been there the first night! Needless to say, John does stand out in a crowd of Greeks.

We found two posters advertising the concerts, one next to where Eleni was sitting drinking coffee in Thessaloniki!

Fire safety in Greece - Firefighter toolbox in hotel and hose reel at a metro station. Note the size of the feed to the hose reel. Maybe useful for ashtray fires?

First stop was Thessaoloniki. In no particular order, some of the sites we visited:

A former minaret outside the Rotunda. The top is missing - likely because it provided a certain Muslim flare. As different religions take over a place of worship, they tend to destroy or cover up signs of the previous religion.

Inside the Rotunda. It's big. A few paintings have survived the centuries. 

For comparison, that's Eleni standing just right of center

Modern day St. Paul. Another really big church (cathedral!) It was closed. 

St. Sophia was not  closed however. We got a personal tour from a volunteer that Eleni really enjoyed. 

Thessaloniki motto - If it's vertical, tag it. If it's horizontal, drive on it. View from a sidewalk cafe showing graffiti and a car taking a short cut. 

A section of the ancient wall that used to protect Thessaloniki. 

The White Tower of Thessaloniki