Branching Out: Paris edition

 Three days in Santorini and we hopped back on a ferry to head to Naxos. Naxos ended up being one of my favorite islands.  It's a lot less touristy than Santorini.  By shear luck, our hotel was very close to the best beach on the island.   It also had an amazing pool.  We figured out the process for the beach.  Most restaurants had sunchairs available for free as long as you ordered from them.  Scott and I greatly enjoyed how inexpensive everything was on Naxos.  We had no formal excursions planned so our days were just filled with lots on beach time. We did rent a paddle boat one afternoon.  This version had a waterslide! We had a lot of great meals in Naxos.  One night I had to pick my fish from the case with the day's catch in it.  There were great sunsets to enjoy as well. We found that the restaurants would replace their sunchairs with tables in the evening.  We got to eat dinner right on the sand. 

 From Crete we took a ferry to Santorini.   The ferry ride was very simple.  It took about 2 hours and the boys were very good about wearing their masks. The ferries dock at a different port than the cruise ships so we didn't get to see the mules carrying people to the top of the Caldera. It was in Santorini that we had our first hiccup in our trip.  The hotel I booked didn't seem to exist.  Scott wandered around and spoke to 2 local travel agents before we decided to book something else.  Luckily, the boys and I got to sit in the shade and enjoy the view while Scott was figuring things out and i was using the public internet to rebook. One interesting experience we had in Santorini was the fish spa.  It's little fish that nibble on your feet exfoliating and rejuvenating them.  The boys loved it so much.  They also made friends with the lady who ran it. Our first full day in Santorini, I booked a sailboat cruise to the volcano and hot sp...

 Our first island was Crete.   I made one mistake in planning.  I didn't realize how big Crete is and we flew into Chania airport instead of Herakliou airport which is 15 minutes from the ferry port. It took us 2 hours by taxi to reach our hotel but the drive was beautiful. I booked a small family run hotel and we received a really warm reception.  At our first dinner, Scott and I discovered Greece is rather inexpensive especially compared to Paris. We started our first day with an ATV tour through the rural hillsides.  We had so much fun.  The boys tried driving but found their hands a little small for the controls. Along the way we explore a local cave.  The rock formations were beautiful and it was a nice escape from the sun.  Our next days were spent jumping from the beach to the pool and back.  The waves were a lot smaller than what we are used to but the water was such a nice temperature.  The hotel staff was so nice.  Th...

 School is out and Borders are open.   The day after the boys' last day of school we flew to Greece for a 16 day island hoping adventure.  My next posts will be our travels island-by-island. At the airport having a snack before our flight.