12th Birthday

We celebrated Wyatt's birthday with his friends at Shakopee Bowl's whiffle ball fields. Was kind of chaotic & at the end Wyatt dove to catch a football and jammed his thumb on the ground, which ended up being a fracture in his thumb & ending his football season.

We also celebrated with him at home. Auntie Drea started the day with McDonalds breakfast, treats & presents. Fred & I got to take him out to Sake where he loves the noodles! And then cake with the fam.

Croatia

Flew from Athens to Zagreb to await Tim & Adrea's arrival. Once they got to the hotel, we wandered the nearby sites & found a light meal.

"We moved from Zagreb to Split on tour bus via stop at the national park. The national park was full of beautiful lakes and waterfalls cascading from the upper area to the lower canyon area. Amber loved the waterfalls. I loved the changing lake colors.. which changed w the depth, sun, etc. We didn’t ask Tim or Fred what they liked 😂. Good tour guides. One was like “well, looks like we have most people, let’s go” 😂. We had a good breakfast at the hotel, and a bit of a cafeteria style lunch on the trip. Then, we end capped the night with excellent gelato for a dollar / cone. "

History: Roman emperor built his retirement home in Split. Now the “old town” is built within this castle walls that were built 1700 years ago! That first pic is one of the old walls.

"We took a bus tour to Krka national park for more waterfall. Wow! Day was lovely until we got caught in a downpour. We tried to hunker down & stay dry, but all ended up wet. Then we headed to a beach town for lunch (3pm is apparently when they lunch here) on the sea & a quick dip. Made our way back to Split, and ventured to the old fortress to check it out - Game of Thrones had done some filming there & the view was cool. Made our way back into town to wander and find a light meal. "

Fred & I walked up to a restaurant for breakfast while Adrea & Tim planned a run. We explored Old Town of Split - Diocletian's Palace, Saint Domnius Cathedral, Jupiter's Temple & Grgur Ninski statue. Then, we made our way from Split to Dubrovnik via Ston & Rizman Vineyard on a private transfer. We were surprised that the Apartment Mila I had booked and the Apartment Mila Adrea had booked were in two different parts of Dubrovnik. We dropped Tim and Adrea off at their suburban oasis before finding our way to our downtown shoebox. Adrea and Tim caught an Uber down to wander Dubrovnik old town with us & we ended up at the bottom of the Shame Steps for a late meal.

"We started out with a walking tour of old town, getting to know the crowds from the tour buses and cruise ships 😜…. As well as all the history which Tim  loved. I like to know more about the culture… and we got some of that. Croatians are laid back, not too hard working, and basically either go into hospitality after college or move to somewhere else, like Germany for a better economic situation. The people we’ve met generally work 2 jobs… like our Uber driver is also an accountant for the city. "

We avoided the crowds by heading to Adrea & Tim's apartment and then to a lunch spot on the water & the beach for the afternoon. We then went back to Old Town for the evening to walk the walls that surround the city. Then found a place for supper.

"We did a Game of Thrones of tour, going all around the town & seeing locations where they filmed and even spotting locations (and a shirtless actor) for current filming of Vikings-Valhalla. We had a nice meal tonight, was so hungry forgot to take photos."

Went out to Lokrum Island & Arboretum Trsteno to see filming locations. We were unable to go into For Lovrijenac as they were filming there that day.

Greece

"Made it to our hotel and walked a couple blocks to see the sunset from Philopappos Hill & then the Acropolis lit up for the night. Found gyros that were not as good as the fair 😬 will try again tomorrow 😉"

 "Cool sites and great food today!

History lesson. They built amazing stuff 2000+ years ago. Parts of it still stand. "

Saw the Acropolis, Panathenaic Stadium, National Garden, Syntagma Square, Hadrian's Arch, Parliament, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Roman Agora, Monastiraki Square, and more. Did the hop on hop off bus tour & went to the Acropolis Museum. Had gelato for lunch. Ate at Bairaktaris Central for supper.

"Made it to Naxos via ferry today. Found our hotel, the beach & two delicious meals! Both meals came w a surprise lemon dessert at the end. Yum!

History: old island where they tried to build a temple for a god, but didn’t finish. Built many restaurants instead🤪"

"A day at sea. I didn’t take pics of the food, but every time we got in to swim we came out to food! What a deal! Swam to a beach and got a natural mud treatment & tried a little snorkeling in the beautiful waters. Grabbed ice cream after trip. History for the day - a ship sank, ruins are still under the sea but too far from the boat I was on so I didn’t get over to see them 🙄"

"Another fun day in Greece! We rented an ATV to get to Mount Zas (Zeus). It was about a 1500 ft gain, which was tiring, but coming down was almost harder. Awesome views on the way up & from the top. Then we rewarded ourselves with baklava & orange pie. Continued the island tour and found a couple of cool beaches - had one all to ourselves. Lots of cool / beautiful views along the way! "

"Mostly just a ferry ride from the island back to Athens today. We have a hotel room w 2 bathrooms! Had a great meal & wandered the streets a bit looking for Loukoumades (Greek donuts)."

We had some time before our flight to Zagreb, so we walked over to Lycabettus Hill. It was a very warm day. We made it about half way up the hill to a restaurant and stopped for iced coffee and water, before making our way back to our hotel and then to the airport.