Turning 40 on Santorini

This may be one of the most beautiful places in the world to wake up!

 We have a birthday boy today!

 Scott turned the big 4-0!  I think he chose the perfect spot to celebrate.  Scott's parents surprised him with a very special gift.  Before we left on our adventure, they mailed us the shirt seen below.  It is the same shirt that Scott gave his Dad for his 40th birthday!  They saved it all these years and re-gifted it back to Scott today.

 Of course, we have the obligatory traditional birthday sign photos.

 That ended our time in Santorini.  We turned in our rental car and had a driver take us down to the port (Hallelujah because it was another scary road!).  These boys can whip out their gizmos faster than I can turn around!

 We caught a super fast ferry to the island of Paros.

It was really quite a sight how they could unload and reload hundreds of passengers in just a few minutes.  They didn't wait around on anyone!

 We made a quick stop at the island of Ios for some passengers to get off.  When the ferry churned up the water, it was exactly the same color as the waterfall at Adventure Land (or any other cheesy put-put golf course where they dye the water an unrealistic shade of blue).  It was amazing.

Now we are on Paros.  It is now our favorite location.  It is absolutely beautiful with very few tourists and easy to navigate.  We walked by the harbor and caught a quick glimpse of the sailboat that we will be boarding tomorrow for the rest of our journey.

 There were several real fisherman repairing their nets as we walked along the harbor today.

 As I mentioned before, Scott is an wonderful travel agent.  Every accommodation has been perfect.  But this one may be our favorite.  The pictures really don't do it justice.  We have two amazingly affordable rooms.  They are clean and nice (with the obligatory hard-as-rock Greek beds).  The best part of all is the wonderful courtyard and flowers.  The owners live here and keep everything immaculate.

 The wifi is not cooperating and I will not keep fighting with it... the photo below is out of order.  We decided to try something a little different tonight and have Mexican food in Greece.  We have had traditional Greek food for every meal and after a big lunch we just wanted some nachos and cheese quesadillas.  It was delicious but we learned one cultural difference when it comes to Greek Mexican food.  We were charged 6 Euros for each VERY small plate of chips... we ate 18 Euros of chips tonight!

 Davis and I did a little exploring this afternoon.  One nice thing about this island is that there are trees right on the beach.

 He helped me work on my rock skipping skills.  I was able to get up to 3 skips.  The boys can get 8 skips!

 We enjoyed a beautiful sunset by skipping more rocks and running races.

 Tomorrow the real adventure begins as we start the sea portion of our journey.  We are all a little anxious about it as this is way outside of our comfort zone.  It will either be the best or worst thing we have ever done!  We are certainly praying for the best.  In case you don't hear from us for a few days, do not fear.  Hopefully we just don't have wifi access (and are not ship wrecked, suffering from scurvy or captured by pirates!).