Hello and happy Wednesday, everyone!!

Today started MUCH later than yesterday. About 6 hours later for some of us, and more than 8 for the girlies. I personally slept about 10 1/2 hours, which felt MARVELOUS after two nights of crap sleep.

Delicious bread and coffee/tea started the day for us, and by about 10:30, we decided another trip to the grocery store was in order. It's impossible to actually think of everything you might need in one trip! So, Steph, Erica and I headed down to a different grocery store, and all we could think was "This feels like an ALDI". Well, sure enough - it was a German store, and I think just another name (Lidl) for ALDI. And the prices were much better than at AB. So, by the time we got home, the little girls had FINALLY woken up and were eating breakfast...at noon. :)

We then proceeded to basically spend the day lounging in and around the pool. Evie and Kostas, the couple we are here to celebrate with as they get married, and Kostas's sister Yianna came over for a visit. Such a WONDERFUL trio of lovely Greek-Americans. All of their parents were born in Greece, so although they were all born in the US, they all grew up speaking Greek first, English second. So helpful to us poor gringos. (Yes, I know we're not "gringos" here, but it sure fits.) We all just sat around, talked, laughed, soaked our feet in the pool... A perfectly lovely (to borrow a phrase from the Irish) afternoon. Quite nice.

Once we decided we wanted to grill our dinner, Mike and I headed out once again to try to find charcoal and a few other goodies for a trip to the beach tomorrow. Well, all of you that have been to Europe or Latin America know that NO WHERE has everything you need like we have become so used to in America. So, after trying the store we were told was "like a walmart", and then heading back to Lidl, we were still sans charcoal. But then we ran into Evie and crew! So, she was able to talk to a store worker in Greek and he told her at least what type of store would have it and where that would be. So started our adventure into the town of Lefkada. More narrow streets, crazy drivers, crazy pedestrians, and no store that carries related goods. We actually gave up on finding the charcoal and texted home to just fry or bake the food and BAM - there was charcoal. But that store sold neither matches nor lighter fluid. So, across the street we found what amounts to lighter fluid except it's little blocks. But still no matches. And that shopkeeper seemed incredibly surprised that I even asked if they carry them. Matches must be scandalous here.

So, we finally made it home to a delicious dinner, and after a cold shower (too cold even in this heat, thank you!), I'm here blogging to you all while everyone else tucks into bed. Tomorrow we will be meeting Evie, Kostas and Yianna for a beach outing. We are all set with beach umbrellas, towels, and a cooler bag. Whoever rents this place next is going to have some nice amenities. :)

Have a wonderful day, everyone!!

I added a couple of videos today as well. The first is kind of long, but if you'd like an idea of just how crazy the roads here are, it's a video of our descent from our villa up on the mountainside to the road that's close to the water. Go at least to about 2 minutes. You can get an idea of just how many near head-ons one has here. The other is just a quick video of some crazy Greekness that happened around sunset. :)