Emily and Joshua both had their big meets of the season last week.  Both of them did fantastic!  

Josh came in first place in his division and is the All City Champ.  Not only that, he beat his own best time. He is 7th grade and ran in the 7-8 graders division.  Pretty awesome to see him beat those bigger guys.

Emily came in second place for her school  She ran with the varsity team, even tho she is a sophomore.  It was the rainiest day!  Which made for the muddiest meet ever!  Those runners were covered in mud.  Part way through the race, she lost a shoe, but she continued on without it.  Her sock is forever brown now, I am sure.  It reminded me of when her Dad was a little runner and did the same...as he ran into the woods and out of our sight, they hit a mud hole and he lost his shoe, when he came back out of the woods at another point, he yelled "I lost my shoe in the mud!"  He was running along with only one shoe on.  It was hilarious. He just kept on going to the end.  Afterwards, we had to go and search the mud for his sunken shoe.  This time, it was her Dad going back to where Emily had lost it to retrieve it for her.  How time repeats itself.   

Home again!

5 loads of laundry!  and we even had it done once while we were gone.

My sister Lindy had taken good care of my cat and he was alive and well. 

Jessi and Ariel had been here and delivered milk for my morning latte and Arianna and Josiah left me some pumpkins and flowers as a welcome.  

Santorini

The reason this whole trip began...to shoot Santorini.  I finally was here!  First thing after getting our bags to our room we headed for the bus stop to get to Oia to get the shots of sunset that I had been dreaming about.

I found a spot that I thought would be good and got my tripod and camera all set up. Then waited.  While waiting, I turned around to see the town behind me...turns out...everyone else was there for the same reason.  This shot really makes me laugh.

Once I was set up, I took my camera off the tripod and walked around.  John was happy to just sit by the tripod and wait for me to return.  

And then it began. I was elated!  Especially when the sailboats came into view.

The next day we rented a car and drove the island as we had on the other two islands.  This time it was a little more scary as the roads are narrow and full of traffic, especially huge tour buses.  

We stopped at a port town for lunch and enjoyed the view of the fishing boats.  They were all busy cleaning their nets and unloading fish.

This is called Red Beach.  There is also a Black Beach and White Beach but I couldn't see anything different about them from any other beach to shoot.

Here is how the grapes are grown there!  Seriously, this is a vineyard!

Do you see the two hearts on this dog?

The next night we went back to Oia for sunset.  It was cloudy and the sun set high in the sky.  I only took one photo and we walked away.  Everyone kept rushing past us towards the water.  I kept thinking that they were nuts to be in such a hurry for a sunset that was way done with.  Then a woman bumped me hard in her rush past me.  I turned to watch her and was stunned with what I saw!  How did that happen and I didn't even notice?

The next day we walked to Firostefani and Fira, two other popular towns there.  This is where the donkeys are for the cruise ships to bring up the tourists.  

We walked down the donkey stairs and by then it was pouring rain.  We found a place to sit inside and have a cappuccino while we waited it out.  we had one, then another, then John ordered a beer while I went into some gift shops.  When I got back, we ordered lunch.  Finally we made a break for it and got on the funicular to the top.

And then we did as true Oregonians...we walked back to our hotel.  In the rain.  Without umbrellas.  Sure we could have hopped on the bus or taken a taxi, but by then we were already wet.  It was a fun day!

Our last day.

sunset from our deck.

I have never been able to take a decent shot of a crescent moon.  Pretty happy with how this one turned out.

Oia at night from our deck. 

Sifnos

Our second island was my favorite.  Small, less tourism, relaxing and still plenty to do and shoot.

Here is the view of the bay, I took these to show the difference between the two islands.  Like Skopelos,  there is a church at the end of the bay, but not all the buildings.  

This was the view of the ocean in front of our room.  Two steps from the patio and we were in the water.

Most days the water looked like this, but sometimes it turned to this. 

Right out our door was a potted olive tree...with ripe olives.

This was our town.

We rented a car and drove the whole island.  I could not believe how many churches there were!  Later I found out that there are 365 of them.  All Greek Orthodox.

It was drier than Skopelos had been.  It was pretty unreal to see how much rock there was.  They had terraces and fences and piles made of it...everywhere!

And windmills.  so many of them.  I love it!

This cycle was just sitting there deserted above the bay.

At first I thought this guy was waiting for some tourist to come along and ride him. He was there when we drove past to see a town down the road.  Later when we went by he was still waiting.  Nobody was around at all.  

These are replicas of ancient bee hives.  

All of the homes had these pots on top.  I thought it was just decoration, but John thinks it is for the chimneys.  

My favorite shot of Sifnos.

taken from our window.

The landlady brought me a bowl full of Greek cookies and the bowl was for me to take home!  wow!

Our last morning there.