Wednesday Hodgepodge

I'm joining up with Joyce at From This Side of the Pond for Hodgepodge Wednesday. I would love to hear your answers to any of these questions!

1. What is one good thing you often take for granted? Every time we travel outside the United Stated, I realize (once again) that I take “clean, running water at the touch of a fingertip” for granted. I also take regular toilets, toilet seats, toilet paper, and paper towels for granted. I know that I just named more than one thing.

just in case you don't know --
this is a squatty potty. You place
one foot on each side and squat to
do your business. I've
never used one before,
but we went to many bathrooms
where there were no toilet seats and
if there was toilet paper or paper towels, you had to
pay an attendant to have a few sheets. Sometimes
there was no toilet paper, nor paper towel . . .
nor attendant. On these trips, I try to
remember to pack my tiny rolls
of travel toilet paper in my purse.

2. What's the boldest piece of clothing in your wardrobe? I bought a really fun and cute dress from Talbots this year. I think the dress was horrifying to Mark haha! I enjoyed wearing it.

photo from Talbot's website

3. Do you think common interests or common values are the key to people getting along? Elaborate. I think knowing and loving people who have different political views/thoughts/lifestyles might come first which might involve realizing you have common values and common interests. Mark has very different political views than some of our friends. I'm thinking of one person especially. She and Mark are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. They will never understand the other's view on politics BUT they met several years ago and really like (love) each other a lot . . .so they get along well. They would probably never discuss politics. Our country has gone beserk with hate. People hate people who vote differently than they. People hate people who live a different lifestyle. Civility seems to have gone out the window. I'm not pointing fingers at either side - both parties have added fuel to the fire of hate. I'm writing this post in the wee hours of Tuesday before the election. I'm trying not to worry about tomorrow.

4. November 6 is National Nacho Day...do you like nachos? How do you like yours? Do you make them at home or only order out? I like this question much better! I do like nachos! I like chips with ground beef and black beans (or refried beans) with cheese and salsa and sour cream and guac. I rarely order them out because they are so fattening! I made some at home this weekend. I counted out my tostito bite size rounds and put them on a plate. I added reduced fat cheese and black beans and zapped them in the microwave until cheese was melted. I added salsa. I didn't have all of the other ingredients but these were still tasty! Moe's BBQ has several locations in our area and they serve Redneck Nachos - kettle chips with your choice of pork, turkey, or chicken, jalapeno, queso, red and white BBQ sauce, fresh tomato. I've never eaten Moe's nachos, but I've heard they are excellent.

5. Have you spent any time in Washington D.C.?  If so what did you think? If not, is that a place you'd like to visit? What do you think about politics as a career choice? I've been to Washington D.C. twice. I think that is correct. When Laura and Glenn were four months old, Mark had a business trip to Washington. I went along and slept for a lot of hours and ordered room service! During the first ten weeks of their little lives, I never had more than two hours sleep. I was still pretty tired at the four month mark. I do remember hanging out a little with the wife of the owner of the company. She was old enough to be my mother and she was very shy. Mark and I also went to a play at a cool theater and we went to the Smithsonian. When Laura and Glenn were in the youth choir at church, we went to Washington D.C. while on a choir tour one summer. We went to the tomb of the unknown soldier and it was Memorial Day, so that was powerful. I can't remember everything we did. I wouldn't want to live there, but it was an interesting place to visit. I would NEVER choose politics as a career choice. My skin is not thick enough. In today's world, dirt diggers find every piece of dirt in a person's past and then make up things. I wouldn't survive.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Santorini - Thursday, October 17

One one of my first posts about the trip, I told y'all that I would tell you later . . .about me sleeping on the side of the bed closest to the wall.

For the first several nights of the trip, our ship traveled along the cost of Turkey and the waters were calm. Between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 17, a noise awakened me. I opened my eyes for a second and I realized that the boat was rocking and rolling like crazy. We were crossing over the open water and headed to Santorini. The noise was our bathroom door banging open and closed . . .open and closed. Everyting in the room was moving. Mark woke up and said to me, "What are you doing?" I said, "I'm trying not to get sick." He said, "yes, but what are you doing?" I was sitting on the side of the bed and I had my feet (they were clean) pulled up and braced on the wall opposite me and I was staring at a stationary point on the white wall. It wasn't moving and with my feet braced I wasn't moving! I didn't get sick but I did take lots of dramamine. I had a patch but didn't use it. I even went back to sleep at some point. That wall and I were friends haha!

 All of these pictures are out of order and I'm just going to explain and talk as I go!

This was early that morning as the sun was coming up. The water doesn't look rough here . . .but believe me, it didn't calm down.

Mark was sitting on the porch and I said, "Is that snow on that mountain?" It was the white buildings on Santorini! I had no idea they were up SO HIGH.

Our ship was "parked" (docked? anchored -- I think that is the right word!). Our ship was anchored off shore and we had to take a tender over to the port. The water was still very rough.

Their are a couple of towns on Santorini - or sides of the island? To get to the towns, you either have to take a cable car from the Old Port of Gialos to the island's capital, Fira. If you don't take the cable car, you can walk the 587 steps or you can ride a local donkey. The views from the cable car were amazing - we could see the Caldera, the sea, the volcano - all of it!

Pass on by the picture below if you are easily offended. ALL OVER SANTORINI - actually everywhere we went in Greece, there were penises. There were lots of carved ones of all sizes and painted in all sorts of colors. This is Lu - showing us one!

There was a good bit of donkey poop on the streets. Mark had stepped in camel dung in Egypt and he stepped in Donkey Do on Santorini haha!

As you will see from some pictures in a minute, Mark and my friend, Laura Ellis, took a taxi and went to the other side of Santorini. I hung out with Lu and Dave. We visited a small beautiful Catholic Church.

The views from the top were amazing.

These photos are so out of order! We chartered a catamaran for the afternoon. Our boat had six couples plus Laura. I think the other boat had six couples, too. We were on a sailboat and at one point, there were 6-8 foot waves -- more dramamine and thank you, Jesus, for Ginger Gum!

It looks like Mark was getting ready to kiss Dave but I think he was just talking to him hahaha!

Here we are on the cable car headed back down from the town to board the catamaran for our afternoon excursion. Totally out of order - I don't understand why this randomly happens.

Mark and Laura took a taxi to the village of Oia - pronounced EE YA. Oia had HIGH END SHOPPING and amazing houses and hotels with private swimming pools for each room with lots of privacy. Oia is the part of the island that you see in travel ads - white buildings with blue rooftops. I just couldn't get into another moving vehicle so I opted to stay on the Fira side and just walk around.

Lu, Dave, and I stopped in a cafe and Cliff and Carol were there eating! Cliff and Carol shared some of their food with us.

Here we are again -- Lu and Laura on the cable car.

Laura M. (there were three Lauras on this trip and I'm friends with all three) was on the boat. We were just loading the catamaran at the dock. She actually stood for most of the trip trying not to get sick.

me, Laura, and Terrie - such fun to travel with good friends.

It was a gorgeous day but it was windy and cool. I wore my sweatshirt for a large portion of the afternoon. I never put on my swimsuit and I definitely didn't get in the water.

Santorini is an active volcano.The volcanic activity dates back over 650,000 years. They experienced a horrible eruption in 1560 BC, but they also had activity in 1950! There was some seismic activity back in 2011 and 2012.

Our catamaran crew showed us all sorts of interesting rock formations.

Mark was LOVING it!

The captain allowed Laura to drive!

We had a chef on board the catamaran and he prepared a beautiful lunch. I only ate a few bites because IF I were to get sick . . .I wanted an empty tummy.

The crew were all very good natured. He was pretending to push Lu off the boat.

We were pulled up into a cove and the water was calm here. Three of our folks went swimming.

We booked through Odyssey Sailing - highly recommend.

Look at the beautiful fresh and colorful food!

We made it back to the ship in time to change and to attend the White Party. The Captain spoke over the loud speakers to tell us they had moved the ship long enough for the party to happen. The water was still very rough. Everyone wears white to this party. It was outside on the pool deck and it was actually chilly. The servers were handing out pool blankets!!

We bought Mark's tux shirt at the thrift store - not our usual place to shop, but it was perfect for this event.

The deck was decorated and it was truly a party atmosphere. There was live music and lots of dancing.

I've told y'all that Mark loves sweets - this was his dessert plate!

Mark and Dave in their white attire!

I had on a white shirt from Talbots and I bought some white pants at the thrift store.

I am pretty sure I have left out something from this day. Santorini wasn't exactly what I expected, but it was lovely.