We are going to have a home on the island of Rhodes, Greece, and it will be called McFalakis.
Greece 2024 – A New Chapter
It is April 1st, otherwise known in the US as April Fools Day. As we board the plane, we have to pinch ourselves to make sure this is not a joke, lol. It took unbelievable patience and persistence to get to this point. Honestly, both David and I feel we have aged 10 years in the last two trying to get to where we are now. Lack of exercise, healthy food choices, dealing with Greek bureaucracy and overall stress of living out of suitcases/without our house items has created this situation. However, looking on the bright side, we are finally […]
2024 – Are We Finally Moving?
January 2024 Many exciting things are happening this month. The first, which always happens on the first day of the new year, is David’s birthday, which is also his Name Day in the Greek Orthodox Church. When you are baptized in the Greek Orthodox church, you are given the name of a Saint (like Demetrios, John, Mary, etc) or the name of a biblical event (such as the Annunciation or Resurrection). My paternal Grandfathers name was Vasileos (William or Basil), and St. Basil’s name day is January 1st. Coincidence? Doubtful. So David chose St. Basil as his baptismal/Patron Saint name. […]
Florida 3.0 – Jupiter Edition
Well, here we are again…… On January 7, 2023 we left for Florida, this time Jupiter. My sister has a condo that she lived in for many years. It is currently unoccupied so we are staying rent free in exchange for helping with renovations. I couldn’t be more thankful! David is using my sister’s office set up and is loving his new work environment. He has a huge desk with two gigantic monitors in addition to his uber powerful laptop. Yep, he’s geeking out big time. I’ve set up downstairs on a smaller desk, but I too have an extra […]
Family Time
There is nothing better than family time. Yes, it can be stressful and stuff, but really, none of that matters. I love family time. This holiday season has been my favorite, hands down, best ever. I could die tonight and be happy. Before leaving Houston, we got a special treat. Ariel & Francisco had been in town over Thanksgiving and were scheduled to fly back to Seattle prior to our arrival. Lucky for us, Ariel got covid and had to stay in town additional days until she was in the clear. The good news was her symptoms were mild and […]
New Braunfels, TX
December brings us back to Texas. I didn’t think I would miss being here as much as I do. It feels so great to be back in Texas! One of the reasons we chose Texas for December was to be close to the kids. We landed in Houston, and spent the night with Andrea/Ty before driving one of their cars to New Braunfels the next day. Cassandra is back in Austin, working as an Athletic Trainer at Akins High School. After spending three years in Knoxville, TN, we wanted to spend some time with her. We looked into some Airbnb’s […]
Back to Florida
The month of October brought us back to Wellington, Florida. This time we are staying with the remaining National Treasure, my Thea Juana (Joanna). She was very happy to see us and we were happy as well. Now, instead of video calling every morning sharing recipes, we could now share in person! Our plan is to stay October and November here. WELL…. time just slipped away these last two months so looking back, I will just share the highlights of our stay…….. The Consulate Calls….. We were back one week and just settling in when I get a call from […]
Places to See on the Big Island
I thought I would group all the places to see on the big island into one entry so you will see some things here that are located on the dry side and some on the tropical side. We are staying on the dry side until the end of August, then switching to the tropical side for September. Keep checking back for additional content. Starting off the morning, I produced a quiche that can be paired with fruit for a breakfast, or a salad for a lunch or dinner. 4 eggs, 2 cups milk, 2 cups cheese, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 […]
Beaches
Our first stop in the land of beaches is Wawaloli Beach. Located just south of the airport, we came here about an hour before sunset. Wawaloli is a sandy beach protected by a lava barrier and allowing for several tidal pools. Our next beach day was Mauna Lani Beach Club, located just north of Waikoloa Beach, just off Hawaii 19. That’s what they call the road. They don’t say “highway 19” which is what I’m used to. Every time I hear Hawaii 19, my mind launches into the Hawaii 5-0 song. Seriously, every time. I didn’t get many pictures of […]
Hawaii – the Big Island
Our next two months will be spent on the Big Island of Hawaii, with the month of August on the Northwest side at Waikoloa Village, and September on the more remote southeast side at Pahoa. Our condo in Waikoloa Village is pretty nice I must say. Situated 900ft up the volcano and overlooking a golf course, with a glimpse of the ocean in the background. It is quite peaceful here – a nice welcome change from the street noises of Seattle.
Olympic National Park
We’re getting better at planning our outings. Preliminary research indicated that we needed to arrive to the park before 10am to avoid wait times into the park. We wanted to enter the park near Forks, WA which is about a 4 hour drive from our Airbnb, so we decided to leave Friday evening and spend the night in Port Angeles, then drive to the park in the morning. Olympic National Park is on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest. The park sprawls across several diverse environments – from the ~8,000 ft glacier topped peaks of Mt. Olympus, to the […]