One last side trip...

Before we left Greece, we took a side trip to the southern coast.  Leaving our first location, our bus took us down through winding roads where a few people got car sick from all the turns.

The roads along the southern coast followed the coastline more and were less twisty.

We went to see the ruins of Poseidon's Temple

But it turns out that hiking and exploring were more fun.

You can see the Temple up on the hill.

We hiked down to where a drop off was that led down to the water. 

Doug, Keira and Caleb slowly made their way down to the water (it's further than it looks).

 Shortly after, Kylie decided she'd join in.

Karis and I spent some moments alone, and then we ended up sitting on a rock and talking for about an hour while we waited for everyone else to climb back up.

 Can you see them, way over there on the rock?

Before hiking back up the hill, we took some pictures with the beautiful water backdrop, and then we drove back along the coast watching the sunset.

Yeah for summer adventures!

Dear Greece,

Thanks for the memories!

Love,
The Taylors

A Pretty Decent Locale

We had a week-long conference in Greece during the last week of Ramadan, so I don’t have any amazing stories about the end of Ramadan because we were out of the country. 

It was a nice blessing to actually be able to get out of the country, since the airport had been closed from the end of September to March.

We left on June 10^th at 2:55am after Kylie finished her online school for the year a few hours earlier on June 9^th at around 10pm.  That’s called “cutting it close.”

The conference was refreshing, and we had opportunities to meet some more people who work in our region of the world.  The kids had a great time, too, and since it was such a small gathering, 6^th-12^th graders were all together, so my older three were in one class together.

Check out the size of the feta in this Greek salad!  

 And, of course, we had a serving or two of pork.

On our way to the conference, the bus stopped for a bathroom break at a souvenir shop in Corinth.

We took this picture of the man-made canal there that cuts through the narrow isthmus of Corinth.  The canal is 4 miles in length, but it's very narrow, so most modern ships can't pass through.

It took 12 years to dig and was finished in 1893.  That is a lot of rock cutting done without modern-day tools!

Our first night at the conference, the kids wanted to rush down to the water, so I thought I'd get a picture of Keira's first time to ever touch the ocean.

But within 30 mintues, like all kids, she ended up preferring the sand to the water.

While Kylie and Caleb preferred seeing who could knock each other off the floatie first.

Keira loves the water, however, she has always been a little timid of getting her face wet and trying the pool without floaties.  But she wants you to know that she went swimming with her class at the conference, and when she saw that other kids could swim, she decided she could, too.

Off came the floaties, and down she went.  She taught herself to swim and go underwater in a few hours time.

One day, our schedule allowed us a free afternoon to see some of the local sites.  Many people took a boat or a ferry to neighboring islands, and we did as well.  It was quite beautiful, and it refreshed all of us.

The conference was a few hours north of Athens, and it was nice to be out of a city atmosphere.

The weather was beautiful, and my only complaint was that the week was too short.  It was such a blessing to be with other people who work in our area of the world, share stories and gain encouragement from each other, and the meeting place was in a pretty decent locale, too.