Goats While Driving On A Dirt Road

Thursday we rented a car and drove around the rather large island of Tinos.  It was mostly a lot of rock walls with an occasional village and a lot of sparse vegetation (its SO dry here).  We did head to two beaches on the northern part of the island, but due to the rather strong wind and the cold water we didn't get in.  Reina now uses "all done" as a safety word - if she doesn't like something she will say it over and over again. Well, after she has told us that she wants to play in the water, the second we got close to it (with the relatively small waves) she starts chanting "all done." So, alas, we did not get in the water.

The title of the post has to do with a small adventure we had while driving.  Chris drove and I navigated in a small manual toyota.  After an hour or so of driving north (on one of probably 11 paved roads) we reevaluate and decide to keep going, as Reina is still sleeping in the back seat.  I tell Chris there is a bit of dirt road that will eventually lead us in the right direction to the next town we are planning to see.  So, on we go (avoiding back tracking on the paved route) up the most un-tendered dirt road we have ever seen.  We're talking logging road style.  It was crazy.  We saw some wild goats and not ONE car for about 30 minutes at which point we came to a junction where we didn't know where to go.  Finally Chris and I decided to go back, it was just too much!  We went back to the original beach town and woke up Reina (because somehow she slept through all of the bumps) and had lunch.  After an hour of driving on a road where we didn't know where it was going and in a car that really couldn't handle it, we were happy to see pavement!  After lunch we headed to the "wetlands" which mainly consisted of a lot of green plants that I thought looked like sugarcane. Here we stopped again and took some pictures of the really big beach with lots of waves and had some watermelon before heading back home.

Once we were back at our hotel (which we have since decided has two of the best beaches on the island anyhow) we put Reina down for a nap and then went swimming around 5.  This time Reina could not handle the cold water (and rather windy weather) so we ended up playing on the beach.  We had chicken in lemon sauce, meatballs and a greek salad for dinner and then Chris and I had some wine on our balconi after Reina went to bed.

Today we took the car back into the main town of Tinos and walked around there.  We found a power adapter (yay) and are back hanging out at the hotel while Reina naps.  We hope to get in the water this afternoon, but its pretty windy again (ugh).   Tomorrow the crazy traveling home begins.  We spend three + hours on the boat back to Athens on Saturday, then 3+ hours on the plane to london, a bus trip to Gatwick on Sunday and then on Monday we head to Seattle.  Oh man...we're crazy!  We did buy two new toys for Reina in Tinos, so hopefully those will be enough new to keep her entertained (unlikely).  We just need the kid to sleep!

The one picture I uploaded is in the really cute town where we had lunch, after our dirt road expedition.  When we get to my Dad's in Oregon, I will upload the millons of pictures I have been unable to at this point and add them to the slideshow.