Oia, Santorini

We took the bus to Oia and spent the whole day there wandering all around. Good thing we had the carrier--easier to keep Hailey contained and safe and go up all of these narrow steep steps and paths. Wow, it is just as beautiful as the pictures you see of these unique white and blue domed buildings scattered all over these steep island faces. It lived up to all the hype (I asked around and pretty much everyone that had been to Greece said that Santorini was their favorite Greek island.) It did not disappoint and lived up to the hype!

Right off the bat, Ethan was looking at these little donkey snow globes and the shop keeper said, "you can have this." So nice! I went back to get one with a domed building inside for Hailey and was getting out the coins (it cost €3.50) and the lady would only take €2 for it. How generous. Wow, these kids get all sorts of freebies in this country. Greek people are giving them candy right and left and patting their head. It pays to be a cute kid in this country. :) The kids, of course, are eating it up! They are on a permanent sugar high and quite like being on vacation here!

Oia is full of galleries and jewelry and art shops. These are made on old shutters and pieces of wine barrels. Kind of cool!

Fam pic with Oia in the background. Always interesting asking people to take a picture for you (takes a few tries sometimes and isn't really what you intended in the pic but beggars can't be choosers). Sometimes we laugh over the pictures with heads cut off or that don't have the item of interest in the background at all. We crop them later and try to make the most of it. This one cropped down nicely:

Opa!

Ah, some nice green salads (orange chicken and a seafood one with octopus and other sea creatures) at one of the recommended restaurants for Oia called Petra. We sat up on the rooftop deck that overlooked the Aegean Sea and ate while Hailey napped in the carrier.

Ethan quite liked the octopus:

Trying to pick the olives:

She's interested in the jewelry, like her mother... Oh, I forgot to mention that I got this gorgeous gold and silver olive branch necklace and bracelet with little pearl olives. I love it and keep admiring it (I've worn it every day since getting it in Athens). Very unique and handmade metalwork (not the mass produced ones). It was more expensive that my jewelry normally is but I really really loved it and will cherish it and was glad that Chris was on board. Merry Christmas to me. :)

Chris joked that he has a large budget for new tools now. 

Beautiful Oia windmills:

The "pack mule" with the kiddos:

"Pack Mule" resting his back while the kids play for awhile before dinner:

Hailey is doing her favorite activity: fastening all the clips! We always have to unfasten all the clips before putting her in because she is OCD about fastening them after she gets out. :)

Sunset drinks and light dinner at Skala outdoor restaurant. Octopus again, we're on a roll! Oia is known for its sunsets and has the best views on the island but unfortunately there were some low clouds that blocked it.

Still a gorgeous view!

It seemed to be mostly Asian tourists in Oia today. We were laughing at how a lot of the tourists were posing every 2seconds for selfies and having the male do a "photo shoot" for the female a lot of times. It was kind of out of control. We also saw several couples in wedding attire. One of the couples we saw in normal clothes later at lunch and were reading their phones opposite each other and barely conversing. Ha, guess the honeymoon is already over--how awkward.