Turning 40

Now in my story of how we left our former hotel, I forgot to mention that the real final straw was our breakfast. Our previous trip to Greece, we'd stayed at a hotel with a nice breakfast, but the key was the most delicious yogurt we'd ever tasted in our lives. Drizzled with a little local honey, and let me tell you, the Greek yogurt we can get in our American grocery stores is nothing like the real thing. We'd dreamed of this breakfast for two years. So we did indeed spend a sleepless first night, then trundled down to the breakfast lounge at the time our hostess told us to arrive (8am) only to find no one about at all. Our hostess finally showed up at 8:30, took about 10 minutes to get breakfast set out, which included disgusting bread, deli meats (and not the nice ones), and really bad coffee. And keeping a baby who likes to eat happy for that extra 45 minutes was not fun. It was the straw.

Stelia Mare's breakfast was jackpot. Greek yogurt, honey, pastries, eggs cooked to order, granola, whole fruit, fruit salad, fancy desserts (like chocolate mousse filled cups), bacon, three different types of bread, local jams and cheeses, coffee, espresso, cappuccinos, hot tea, orange juice. Serious jackpot.  I think we might have spent an hour at breakfast every morning. And we may have scared Georgia with our weird and constant smiling. We were just so happy. The perfect place to turn 40, complete with dessert in the morning!

Monastiri Beach

We'd kept our car to visit another beach, this one reported to be the best on the island. We just spent a very relaxing day walking around the village in the morning, visiting Monastiri Beach in the afternoon, then a finish up of the day sitting by the hotel pool with fruity cocktails before yet another great dinner. The day was quiet, relaxing, and we just enjoyed being together as a family on this incredible island - one of the best birthdays ever.