We made our stop in Athens a family day and took everyone ashore to explore the Acropolis. During our brief stop at the Plaka (outdoor market) Mike and I purchased a painting of Mykonos to remind us of our visit. At a traditional Greek restaurant on the water the waiter brought out whole, uncooked fish for us to select from for lunch. A short time later the fish we had selected reappeared at our table delectecably cooked. We ate the entire thing!
A view of Istanbul from our balcony. I spent five days in Istanbul with a girlfriend during college and was hopeful to recognize the major sites and remember favorite places we had visited. Strangely enough, it felt like I was visiting for the first time because nothing looked familiar. The Grand Bazaar was both grand and bizarre. A quiet lunch with live Turkish music redeemed the experience. This time I did not buy a rug :).
Hunter and Kayla at the Greek island of Mykonos, our last port.
Mike was invited by the Ship's Captain for a rare bridge tour. While up there alarms sounded, the crew scurried to the controls in response and he witnessed the beginning of problems that would put one engine out of service for the remainder of the cruise and prevent us from visiting our last scheduled port, Split, Croatia. After his bridge tour, while enjoying lunch in the dining room, without kids, Mike observed "see Jill, even big ships have engine trouble sometimes." The inconvenience was nicely compensated for with a shipboard credit we enjoyed spending at the spa, ahhh!
Mike has been a fan of Igor Medvedev and purchased this piece on board. The art gallery was probably his favorite stop while walking the ship. We took the boys to the "Fun Factory" on board almost every day. Fisher went crazy in the ball pit and Hunter practiced walking with a little push cart in the toddler room. They played on the outdoor slide and one day swam in the kiddie pool.
A view of Istanbul from our balcony. I spent five days in Istanbul with a girlfriend during college and was hopeful to recognize the major sites and remember favorite places we had visited. Strangely enough, it felt like I was visiting for the first time because nothing looked familiar. The Grand Bazaar was both grand and bizarre. A quiet lunch with live Turkish music redeemed the experience. This time I did not buy a rug :).Hunter and Kayla at the Greek island of Mykonos, our last port.Mike was invited by the Ship's Captain for a rare bridge tour. While up there alarms sounded, the crew scurried to the controls in response and he witnessed the beginning of problems that would put one engine out of service for the remainder of the cruise and prevent us from visiting our last scheduled port, Split, Croatia. After his bridge tour, while enjoying lunch in the dining room, without kids, Mike observed "see Jill, even big ships have engine trouble sometimes." The inconvenience was nicely compensated for with a shipboard credit we enjoyed spending at the spa, ahhh!
Mike has been a fan of Igor Medvedev and purchased this piece on board. The art gallery was probably his favorite stop while walking the ship. We took the boys to the "Fun Factory" on board almost every day. Fisher went crazy in the ball pit and Hunter practiced walking with a little push cart in the toddler room. They played on the outdoor slide and one day swam in the kiddie pool.We disembarked in Venice, Itlay and stayed overnight in a hip Marriott hotel near the airport. Hunter took his first steps at this hotel walking between two suitcases set outside out hotel room door the morning we were leaving.
Althought we arrived at the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight our check-in took much longer than expected and we barely caught our flight to Vienna, where we were to connect to a flight Zurich them direct to LAX. Unfortunately due to our delay the flight arrived late and we missed our connection. We were re-routed through JFK. Although I was completely exhaused (that combination of morning sickness, exhaustion, etc) the kids were amazing! They stayed awake for most of the nine-hour flight from Vienna to JFK, where we had to claim our luggage, clear customs, transfer to a different terminal, pass security (that's never easy with sleep deprived little ones in arms and a double stroller to empty out and fold). Thank the Lord we made it to our gate just in time to board. The boys and I had the entire back row of the plane to ourselves. Hunter stretched out across two seats and I made a cozy bed for Fisher on the floor in front of us. They both slept the entire way and with earplugs and my comfy neck pillow I caught some sleep too.
Kayla's parents drove all the way from El Centro to meet us at LAX. Her dad persuaded security to let them through so they could meet her at the gate. This was the longest she had ever been away and was so relieved to see them. Amazingly, Mike was able to think straight to file a claim reporting our lost luggage, which was not a big surprise, in light of having missed our originally scheduled flight. We eventually made it out of the terminal with half our luggage, caught the shuttle to the parking garage and began our drive home in the early morning hours.
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