Book Coming Soon!

Volume 1, of the yet untitled book covering San Diego to Australia will hopefully be ready to purchase soon. Many people have asked us why they should buy our book if they can read our blog for free. Here are a few good reasons:

  • Prologue: How we formed the dream and the early planning stages.
  • The entire 21 day passage from San Diego to Nuka Hiva has been re-written. At that point, the blog was in real time and we didn’t want people to worry about us. But the truth was that it was tough!
  • Many new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
  • In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
  • Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, and the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
  • Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
  • Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
  • All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

Mafia Strongholds, Wax Museum, and Being Fed in Crete, Greece

Wednesday, May 20 This afternoon Andronikos, Eric and Christi set out to go to an archeological site called Axon, located in the mountains. We followed the same road that we took the day we took the day we went to the monastery and cave last summer. Last year it had been and the hills were dry. Right now the hills are verdant and green, with the flowers in full bloom. It is absolutely gorgeous. Just like last year, we saw lots of goats running around on the hills and several hanging out on the road.

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We passed the monastery, but before we got to the cave we turned off onto a different road. We passed through several more small villages. One of them was the village where we had gone to the wedding with 3,000 guests a few years ago and has a reputation for being one of the most traditional villages left today. In another village, we spotted a 16th century church that looks like it is still in use. We tried to go in, but it was closed.

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The towns are nothing more than Continue reading

DaVinci Science Exhibit and Dinner in Rythmeno

Monday, May 18 Needless to say, after such a late night last night, we were off to a slow start this morning. By early afternoon, we had finally gotten moving. The other day when we were at the aquarium, we had noticed the exhibition hall next door was featuring a traveling DaVinci science exhibit. Another family friend had seen the exhibit when it was in France and had said it was wonderful, so Eric and Christi decided to go see it today. We dragged Andronikos and John with us.

Christi is ashamed to admit this, but she Continue reading

My Brother’s Big Fat Greek Wedding

Sunday May 17 — Today was the big day. The wedding began at 1430. Eric wasn’t feeling good, so he spent the morning resting. The women spent the morning obsessing about minute little details. The men waited anxiously, looking at their watches every 5 minutes until it was finally time to get ready. Costas has had a beard for a while now and his male friends decided the beard needed to go and forcibly shaved it off.

We arrived at the church 20 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start. The tradition is that everyone stands outside and waits for the bride to arrive. The groom meets her outside and they walk in together, then everyone follows them in. It was a small wedding with only 900 guests, and the courtyard outside the church was jam packed. Were we being facetious when we said “small wedding?” No. In villages, the whole village is invited, and weddings with as many as 5,000 guests are common. We went to a wedding with 3,000 people once a few years ago. It was crazy. In the cities, though, weddings tend to be much smaller. We noticed a few men were dressed in traditional Cretan costumes. Here are some of the more traditional dressers posing with Costas.

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The church is at the top of a hill, with a long path that leads from the parking lot up the hill. Here is a shot of it from the parking lot.

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We knew the bride had arrived when Continue reading

Enjoying Ensenada and Its Food

The last four days we have been eating a lot, exploring the town some more, trying to take care of some preliminary life chores that will make settling in at San Diego easier, and socializing. The weather has gone back to normal, which in the early spring means sunny and clear, but cold and windy. It looks like it should be warm outside, but it isn’t. We are running the heat in the morning and have to wear long pants and jackets when we go out. On one hand, it is a nice change of pace from the perpetual summer, but on the other hand, we are not used to cool weather and are having trouble adjusting to it.

Two things that are significant to Ensenada happened Continue reading