A side trip to Plymouth Plantation

We left Boston, and headed for Cape Cod, but decided to make a side trip to Plymouth. I know everyone said that Plymouth Rock was rubbish, but we did stop and have tacos in town, and then headed to the Plantation. It was a reenactment village place, which I should have loved, but I did feel a little uncomfortable being there. I'm not sure why, but either way, it was a nice side trip!

Along the Freedom Trail

After our walk through Harvard Yard, and being very envious of all the students who get to go there. American colleges always do that to me! So anyway, we headed on the subway into town, right to the centre of Boston, where we started a little on the Freedom trail by ourselves, before meeting up with our friend from Japan, Caitlyn. We started at the state house, and made our way all along important stops in History. We headed over to Quincy Market, where they have a

UniQlo ( with a cool, Purikura style machine) to get some lunch. It was something Josh had been raving and raving about since he was a kid apparently, so we went there. I also found time to get a giant elephant ear thing with sugar and cinnamon - it was amazing!

We headed back after walking all around the city, so that we could spend time with Josh's family. We went to his aunt's house, and she hosted everyone. We had a nice backyard dinner and hung out and played frisbee and then the kids and I played with rocks. It was just a nice time and I know Josh wished they lived a little closer!

A walk through Harvard Yard

Our next stop on our big American road trip was Boston, where we were staying with Josh's aunt Debbie. I was really nervous to meet all his family again, but it was nice because I hadn't gotten to speak to them all much at the wedding. It was super fun,

but on the road up to Boston, we stopped at all of the rest stops in each state (or at least the Welcome centers) and recreated all the photos Josh had taken with his brother and sisters when they were kids. It was good, and kept us busy on the way up. In the morning, we headed to drive into town, and we got a flat tire. Josh was amazing, and he changed it in no

time flat! It was a bit nerve wracking, but we made it and it ended up being the only issue on our trip! We hadn't expected his aunt to live in Harvard, and it was convenient that we use her university spot. Before we headed into town, we took a littlw walk around the campus, which was great! They have a beautiful church and a library and it was very majestic!

We are just TOO good at doing Disney

We landed back from Santorini, and thought we had just one day before heading to America, but it turns out we were wrong, and we had to spend a whole 'nother day in Frankfurt. Which just sucked! But we headed to Florida and hung around for a few days before starting out on our big summer road trip. Our first stop was Disney - and we left really early in the morning to arrive at the hotel. We changed our tickets to Magic Kingdom tickets and off we went! It was nice and empty, and we had signed up for all our fast passes online, so we ended up riding everything, having lunch and ....well....being done. We had swapped some pins, eaten a Dole Whip, and rideden all the big rides! So we went to the great outlet mall, before heading back to our cute Disney hotel. I just love staying at Disney hotels - we got takeaway from this great grocery store and brought it back to our room to eat while watching a movie. It was pretty much the perfect day!

Dreaming of Donkeys!

I wont lie - I was pretty obsessed with seeing Donkeys in Santorini. I had heard they were in Oia to take people who arrive by boat up to the town, but I hadn't seen any and I was super sad! You see donkey themed memorabilia everywhere in Oia! So finally we asked, and while Mum and Dad enjoyed a snack, we headed down the stairs to the port. I had seen it was a bunch of dusty, grotty stairs, but it was 60 flights. But once we started,

we had to just keep going. Josh was such a good sport, just to go all the way down to see some donkeys and take some photos of them....and then to walk all the way up 60 flights again. By the time we made it back up to the restaurant, had a drink and settled down again, we were ready to move on back to the car. As we stepped out of the restaurant, bam, there were a ton of donkeys heading down to the port. It was THE path the donkeys headed down - and I got great photos of them!

Top of my Bucket List - Santorini!

We were so fortunate, that on our last day in Athens, I got a message from Mikaly, my friend from Japan who was in town. We headed over to his hotel to catch up with him. In the morning, we caught a very early flight to Santorini. Santorini was my pick, and was actually the top of my bucketlist.

I had had a hard time choosing between Mykonos and Santorini, but now, I am so happy with my decision! As soon as we got into the taxi from the airport, I saw a blue roof, and a donkey and I was so, so excited! I hadn't had much say in where we stayed, so I really wasn't sure how we were going to get around the island. Mummy had chosen us a cute, cute hotel which only has 3 hotel suites, but it wasn't avaliable for us to check in for several, several hours. We were all pretty tired, but Daddy agreed to

rent a car and we could drive over to Oia. It seemed that without a car, or renting an ATV, it was pretty difficult. I was so glad he just agreed on the spot to rent a car! Compared to our great map in Athens, the maps in Santorini were so vague! We did make it to Oia, and after finding a parking space, and wandering around wondering where the town was, we made it to the town. And it really was every photographer's dream! We got there super early, and there weren't many people around yet.

We heard from some of the shop owners that the morning was the best time to visit before all the tour boats and buses arrived. We had such a nice time exploring the town, especially climbing up on the roofs, and following little alley ways to get the best view of the blue domes.

I was searching for the perfect photo spots! On a postcard, I had seen that there was a windmill somewhere on the island, and after getting directions, we headed over towards that part of town. It was a little cheaper there, and much more touristy, but we did find the windmill which was great! Santorini is full of lovely villas, that look over on top of one another, private pools and super cute, fancy restaurants. We had a really lovely time exploring all over. After a spot of tea,

we headed back into the car and drove to a couple little towns that some people had reccomended to us. It happened to be the cute little town that "Sisterhood of the travelling pants" was filmed in. It was a super quiet town, with barely any people around, but it was super cute! We even had a chance to stop in a bakery (mainly to use their loo in the basement!) but everyone was super lovely!

I think the main draw in Santorini really was the pretty blue and white houses. You can really see how much effort must go in to maintain it all! It really was exactly what I had expected and wanted to experience!

Dionysis Theatre

Our trip in Athens was basically to see everything on the city map - and that is how we ended up at the Dionysis theatre - where it was remarkably intact and we could wander all over the ruins! We even got this timed family photo!