Archive for the Category »over7 «

3 Goddess in Greece
24
September
Mom, Serena and myself went on vacation for over two weeks in scorcho weather, good food, fresh squeezed orange juice, thousands of cats, lovely locals touching my head, friends and family, fantastic wedding, late flights, ferries, rented cars in the speed of light,  four islands, too much walking, sailing sun burns, colour coded  beaches, cute churches, white houses, traditions, museums, ruins, impressive buses, efficient taxis…and more walking.
We started off with a 30 hour journey from Vancouver to  Milos. Cute, local, amazing coast lines with a moon like beach, crystal blue water while sailing around the island…we couldn’t ask for more.
Next was popular Santorini which we reached by a late night ferry to my (NOT) favourite port. Impressive 5 star buses and fun car driving in small streets. From black and red beaches, to cave houses, busy town of Fira, melting while walking up to the volcano, meeting lovely Jola in majestic Oia for  tourists with heavy wallets.
Of course midnight flight to Athens arriving to the hotel at 2am is perfect for a 7 year old. And the walking began: Acropolis Museum, Parthenon, Zeus Temple, Panathenaic Olympic Stadium (first in the world for international Olympics 1896), Socrates Prison, Plaka and more ruins.
Time for another ferry from my favourite (NOT) port to Aegina for THE Wedding of Serena‘s cousin Samantha and Jacob. What an experience of tradition, fun, lost in translation ceremony, ATV escort and finally beautiful married couple and late night Zorba dance with amazing guests.I even tried Ouzo. More ruins day after with spectacular Moni Island.
Back to Athens for more walking. This time with Jon and Chuk Chuk exploring Archaeological Museum, The Frogs – Ancient Greek Comedy at theatre of Herodes (hmmmm amazing theatre not sure about the show).
There was lots of laughter when I put on my jumper and shorts on a separate day and wore them backwards without knowing.  Perfecting my Greek accent, learning words in Greek and Cantonese and teaching Polish to Serena.  We made lots of funny faces in pictures and laughed super hard when we went back to the hotels to review them.
Time to say goodbye to amazing Greece with Gorgeous islands, Rich history, Warm people and all the cute cats. Sun Overdose.

Category: over7, trips  Leave a Comment
Summer camping trip
17
September

This summer instead of road trip we decided to go camping and be stationary in one or two places. Last minute we found a campsite at Wenatchee lake in Washington, US. We loaded our kayaks, bikes and gear. We started off with the Abbotsford Aviation show watching it from the roof of the car. Biking, kayaking, SUP, and short visits to Leavenworth. The highlight of the trip was the Boeing Future of Flight Aviation Center with Boeing Tour as well as the Naval Air Station on Whitbey Island. Chipmunks were great companions, sky was apocalyptic and at least it didn’t smell of fire. It was a very different trip from others: Mom was in relaxing mode, she even managed to read an entire book and sit down for long hours. Both mom and dad wanted to rest from taking pictures too (as you can see the amount of pictures posted and the quality ;). Despite the fire and smokey air we had good time. 

Category: over7, trips  Leave a Comment
Alaska; Kodiak Island, Katmai, Seward
02
August

Alaska trip felt like a National Geographic expedition. Vancouver to Anchorage (overnight in a weird airbnb), Anchorage to Kodiak Island by plane (Goal:10 foot Kodiak bears – fail;  instead we saw friendly Cross Fox). Back to Anchorage by plane, train to Seward, boat to Glacier, (Goal:whales) back to Anchorage by bus. Anchorage to King Salmon by plane; Brooks Camp (Goal: bears and celebrate 100 years of Katmai NP) by float plane. South from Pilot Point by bush plane (Goal: walruses).

In this post you will see a handful of pictures of me and 240 pictures of bears and haul of walruses.  Bears from the front, side, upside-down, close, far, big nose, small nose, with fish and without. I should do a challenge who will last through all the pictures.
Category: over 7, over7, trips  One Comment
Cook Island
31
July
Mom finally found the time to upload the pictures and post about Cook Island. The trip was incredible, sandy white beaches, crystal clear 30 Celsius turquoise water, and pretty much nobody but just us.
 
We spent 5 days on the main island in Rarotonga and a week in Aitutaki. My highlights was hitchhiking on both islands and meeting locals. In Rerotonga we stayed in Joe’s house. In the airport we were welcomed by emigrations feeling puzzled but than we found our that Joe works as emigration officer and he told everybody to look for us :). Joe’s farm was special. There was a pig that was raised at home like a cat until she just got too big, chicken that thinks he is a cat and walks behind me where ever I go or sit, he sleeps in the basket at home and eats with cats. Just priceless.
 
We did a cross country 3 hour hike, pretty challenging in my opinion. We ate at the night market, went to see sunken boat, mom drove and we both snorkelled a lot, I tried every possible fruit.
 
On Aitutaki we met Olaf, Mara and Flow and we spend few days all together and in the end celebrating mom’s birthday. We saw them again in Vancouver a week after when they started their big Vancouver -Anchorage journey by bicycle.
 
Mom tried to be smarty pants and found a guy with a boat who would take us at 9am to the lagoon and sandy tiny patches of islands as apparently other tours come at 12, from 9-12 we were all by ourselves, a bit creepy and it felt like we were in the middle of the ocean on the small sandy patch. At 12 one boat arrived and 2 people were in it :))) All of mom’s effort to escape the crowd was wasted 😉
For two days we joined a kiteboarding camp on one of the tiny island and we had a blast there.
I was very pleased with myself as I went kayaking by myself several times.
Everybody was so nice and welcoming, so far mom’s fav place to travel and maybe one day to live.
PS. Posing pictures are in my communion dress it required lots of my patience to make mom happy while taking photographs, but I was melting.
Category: over 7, over7  Leave a Comment