Thanks!!!

After 24 hours of total travel time, we arrived safely in LAX  (15+ hours in the air and about 9 hours spent wasting away in airports). We were greeted by enthusiastic hugs from Jennifer's Mom and perfect southern California sunshine.

The voyage was a trip of a lifetime. We are grateful for the opportunity to have made some wonderful memories, meeting people from all around the world and seeing some of the most amazing places God has blessed us with. Most of all, we are grateful that we made it home safely to our friends and family. We saw the best of mankind everywhere we went and as a result we are coming home as we left with the exception of a nicer tan and a few souvenirs.

Thanks for following us over the past six weeks (at the time of this posting, our website has been visited 1,850 times). The process of creating this electronic journal was overwhelming at times, but knowing that people were keeping up with us along the way encouraged us to continue posting. Now that we are home, it is nice to have a record of where we went, what we saw, and stories along the way.

With Love,
The Semingsons

Our Last Hurrah

Well, we aren’t too much in the writing mood seeing that we are finally on our return back to Cali. Therefore, this entry will be short and filled with mostly pictures (kinda like the books that Sam prefers to read). While it will be nice to see Wilma and our other loved ones… it is hard to leave so many exciting places.

We finished Santorini in much the same manner as we started our first Greek island… doing a whole lot of nothin’ but relaxing under the sun. Gingerly we rolled out of bed, packed our bags and headed out to one of the two black sand beaches on the island. After grabbing a couple of loungers, we laid under the sun, periodically baring the brutally hot walk to the water for a refreshing dip in the beautifully clear black bottomed sea.

Around mid-afternoon we left the black beach and journeyed up to the highest point on the island. While we aren’t sure exactly what the elevation is, we were quite surprised at how high this peak point of Santorini perches above the sea. After snapping a few pics, we left to go and scout out a nice hotel pool to crash for our remaining hours before leaving to the airport.

We stumbled across a hotel with amazing views where they were kind enough to allow us to bath in their beautiful pool, rest in their chairs, and even clean-up in their poolside shower. The favor was returned by purchasing a few beers and grabbing a nice bite to eat at their restaurant during sunset.

Once our bellies were filled with rooster pasta and thirst quenched with a local white wine, we somberly made our ways to the airport to catch our flight to Athens where we would spend the evening until our 7:00 AM flight to LAX via Paris.

Sunset in Santorini

We were pleased with a good night’s rest in our comfy hotel room where the AC kept us nice and cool throughout the night. In the morning we set off to explore Santorini in our rental car and spotted a café to eat breakfast and enjoy the beautiful caldera view.

After a tasty breakfast we drove to the island’s nearby red beach where we hiked into a small cove scattered with umbrellas and lounge chairs. The beach was quite impressive with red-rock cliffs in the background and small waves crashing onto the red sand. We found a spot under one of the umbrellas and relaxed in the sun for the next few hours.

Feeling hot and salty, we headed back to our hotel to cleanup (stopping along the drive to get pictures of the beautiful scenery.) exploring more of the island. We couldn’t resist jumping in our hotel’s pool and relaxing just a little longer before getting ready for the rest of the night. Everyone had been telling us that one of the main highlights of Santorini is the amazing caldera views and we were excited to head over to Oia for “one of the best sunsets in the world.”

The 30-minute drive over to Oia was beautiful with amazing views of the island’s unique landscape. Upon arriving in Oia we walked along the narrow windy streets enjoying quaint city views of the distinctive buildings with the sea in the background. We asked for a couple recommendations on where to watch the sunset and decided on a terrace bar located at the end of the island.

As we waited for the sunset we enjoyed some Greek lager and chatted with fellow honeymooners from America that were seated next to us. We snapped our photos before the sun tucked away behind the low hanging clouds hovering just above the horizon and ventured off to get a late dinner at a nearby small local port.

The restaurant we chose was situated along the port and our table was positioned on the waters edge just a few feet above the clear rock-bottom sea. Our dinner of mussels and stuffed eggplant filled our bellies and we finished our white wine before crossing the island back to our hotel for the night. We plan on getting a good nights rest as we want to be fully restored for tomorrow’s last hurrah before boarding the first of three planes on our voyage back to the states.

Scootin' Around Again

The heat, the bugs, and the plethora of roosters crowing (beginning at 4:30 am) made it very easy for us to get an early start to our day. We stored our bags with the family who owned our room and jumped on our scooter to explore Mykonos and it’s beautiful beaches.  

Riding around on our scooter was a great way to explore the island and take in the spectacular views of the coastline and landscape. We maneuvered our way along the small and hilly roads and ended up at a beautiful cove where we grabbed a bite to eat in a garden restaurant next to the beach. After getting some energy for the day, we scooted over to see some of the other beaches and eventually decided to post up on one of the comfy lounge chairs at Paradise Beach. We spent the next couple hours swimming in the clear blue water and enjoying the warm weather with some cool refreshments.

With only a little bit of time left before our ferry ride to Santorini, we made one last stop at a small beach for a tasty Greek salad (minus the olives of course). Our hosts dropped us off at the port where we somewhat patiently waited in the beating sun for almost 2 hours due to the late arrival of our ferry.

We arrived in Santorini via a high-speed catamaran shaped boat in 3 hours stopping at a couple islands along the way. The bartender at our hotel was waiting our arrival at the Santorini port with a Semingsons sign and kindly escorted us to the hotel. The grounds of our hotel are quite impressive and after checking-in to our pool view room and enjoying our welcome drinks, we received a short orientation to the island. We were quite pleased with our accommodations and spent the rest of the night walking along the nearby black-sand beach and enjoying tasty Greek dishes at one of the ocean view restaurants.

Sleepless in Mykonos

Don’t get the wrong idea from the title… I mean sure we may be on our honeymoon, but it was nothing like that. Just read the blog and you will understand. 

We had the morning to kill before getting on our ferry to Mykonos so we did what most do in the Greek islands… we lounged around in the sun. After packing up our stuff and grabbing a bite to eat, we met up with our Aussie friends and boarded the huge ferry for our five-hour voyage to island number two.

Time was passed by chattin’ away with our friends and enjoying a friendly game of Scrabble. Sam was a little reluctant to play though because he finds games like Scrabble and Chess more like work due to the high levels of thinking that make him all stressed out. In the end though the game was fun and we all enjoyed the competition and walked away feeling like we actually worked our brains for the first time in six weeks. Although the ferry ride was long, it was a great way to see the numerous Greek islands and the beautifully bold white and blue structures that dot the terrain.

We were a little anxious about our arrival to port as we still didn’t have a place to stay. Our friends told us “don’t worry about it, just hitch a ride with one of the ‘little old ladies’ that will be waiting there trying to rent a room.” Well, we didn’t exactly find “old ladies,” but we did find a nice couple of sisters who were renting rooms their family owned and manages throughout the town. They took us to a couple different rooms before we decided on a beach location up on the hill that was a short distance from “Mykonos Town.” Along with the room, we rented a scooter as we figured it would be convenient for exploring the island in the morning before heading off to Santorini.

After enjoying the sunset with a bottle of wine on our balcony, we scooted into town for a bite to eat and to see the town center. Mykonos Town is quite a beautiful and happening place at night. We loved the small windy bright-lit streets housing restaurants, bars and shops that seem to never close. Our dinner of mussels and lamb with vegetables was scrumptious and complimented our Greek wine quite nicely.

The remainder of our night consisted of overheating in our room while being attacked by swarms of mosquitoes (or who knows what local biting insect was attacking us). No joke, we didn’t get a lick of sleep and were overheating with the sheet over our heads protecting us from the bugs that wouldn’t leave us alone. We were so uncomfortable that the last thing on our minds was what you may have though when you started this blog and began assuming why we were “Sleepless in Mykonos.”

Greetings from Greece

The morning began before the cocks had crowed as we needed to travel from our pleasant wine town of Sirince to Selcuk and then catch another ride to the port city of Kusadasi. Our packs were substantially heavier today from the shopping spree that Jennifer dragged Sam through yesterday. The boat ride to Samos, Greece was very pleasant with the sun beaming by 7:00 AM. The picture below shows Turkey in the background with Jennifer standing next to their prideful flag. It was sad saying goodbye to this beautiful country but it was exciting to see the captain of the ship hoist the Greek flag half-way through the journey as Samos neared the horizon. 

Our hotel was all about location, location, location with a beautiful exterior, stunning lobby, and priceless rooftop view into the Samos harbor. The rest of the hotel was... well lets just repeat how the hotel has a great location.  

Now that our "touristy" stuff is mostly behind after visiting some beautiful ruins, lunar landscapes, and the world famous cities of Italy... the remainder of our trip will be the "vacation from the vacation" that people always mention wanting after travelling for so long. We anticipate our days mostly consisting of lounging in the sun (poolside or beach side are both suitable options), getting fat, drinking beer and cocktails, and pretty much just relaxing before heading home.

After a stressful day of sipping on booze and slipping in and out of cat naps by the pool, we went for a nice stroll up the coast. We stumbled across an ocean side lounge and stopped in for their sunset happy hour. A couple of cocktails later we continued our walk and ran into the Australian friends we met on the four day boat cruise. It was nice catching up with them for the remainder of the night while watching the USA tie England in their first matches of the World Cup. 

Tomorrow we are back on the ferry and off to Mykonos. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that our Aussie friends will be joining us on the ship, although they will be getting off at a different island along the way. Sailing the seas in the afternoon sun should be a nice way to finally say farewell and wish them safe travels.