After two full days in Athens, we caught a short 30 minute flight to Santorini.
We spent our first five days in Santorini up on the cliffs with a beautiful view of the caldera and then moved to a hotel down by the beach on the other side of the island for the next five days.
The hotel for the first part of Santorini was Celestia Grand Villas. They had amazing views and we had a beautiful two bedroom villa with our own private pool.
Checking out the view from our patio.
The private pool was awesome. We could put Lily down for her afternoon nap and then head right outside to enjoy the pool without having a toddler hanging on our necks.
The hotel also served us breakfast on our patio every morning.
Lily was spoiled rotten by the staff here and had hot chocolate for breakfast every morning which gave her a nice mustache. She was crying over something before we took this picture so she was pointing out her tear. She is crazy.
I put Lily to work pushing me on the hammock. She has to earn her keep somehow.
On our first full day in Santorini, we went on a 5 hour catamaran ride. I am sure all the passengers on the boat thought we were crazy for taking a toddler on such a long boat trip, but she did awesome and loved it. She didn't cry until we pulled up to the dock to get off the boat. By that time she was about 3 hours past her nap so I couldn't really blame her.
Lily LOVED the water. The boat stopped three different times to let us swim around and she was so excited to get in every time even though it was pretty cold.
We had lunch on the boat and it was probably the best food we had the entire trip!
This yacht was named Delma. Fun little surprise reminding me that my mom is always with us.
The next day we went into the town of Fira to do the most important thing of the whole trip… ride donkeys!
We started by riding the cable car down to the base of the cliff.
I was a little worried that the donkey riding was going to be an epic fail. Lily and her little friends here in Agadir go to ride the ponies at an equestrian school once a week. Well, the other little girls ride the pony. Lily cries when I try and put her on him so she just ends up playing in the dirt. Because of that, I was worried that she would start crying and freaking out the minute we tried to get her on the donkey.
We decided that she would ride with Danny because he would be able to hold on to her tighter if she started to flail around.
As you can see, Lily loved it! My donkey was walking pretty far ahead of Danny and Lily but he said she was so happy the whole ride.
We made it to the top!
The excitement of the donkey ride wore Lily out.
Our next stop was a fish pedicure for me. Totally not worth the money but still fun.
For dinner that evening we went to have mexican food at Señor Zorba. We thought the food was actually really good. Danny wanted to go back for dinner again the next night!
Enjoying a virgin cocktail.
Watching the sunset
The next day we hung around the hotel and swam and relaxed until it was time for dinner .
On our last full day on this side of the island we rented a car and drove to Oia.
The next morning we checked out of our lovely villa and went to stay at the Santorini Kastelli Resort in Kamari beach.
We basically did the same thing everyday for the next five days: breakfast, beach, lunch, nap, swim, dinner. It was wonderful!
Lily was feeling very European and decided to go topless.
At the hotel we had a semi private pool that we shared with 3 other rooms. It was nice and small and not too deep so this is where we played every afternoon after Lily woke up from her nap.
After two weeks, vacation was over and it was time to come back home.
And, like at the end of most trips, we vow never travel with Lily again (she was HORRIBLE on our 6 am flight from Paris to Agadir).
But, then I look at the beautiful memories we made together and decide it was worth it!
