Happy 4th!

Paros, one of the Cycladic islands,  is the stuff that storybooks and movies are made of. White sugar houses, blue-domed churches on every hillside, winding cobblestone passages and bougainvillea all set amongst endless groves of silvery olive and citrus.  And then there is the sea.   Swimming in the crystal clear waters of the Aegean Sea kind of tops all other waters. We’ve been exploring our islands, first Crete and now Paros, finding a new Paradise at each cove. We like to go late afternoon when the sun is at its hottest.  We drink frappes and swim in the warm water that is just cool enough to be refreshing.

Our villa is so sweet here on Paros.  When we arrived last week we were greeted with a bottle of white wine grown from Marina’s own vineyard, house cured olives which Judah devoured and a basket of tomatoes, nectarines and cucumbers from her garden.  She loves our boys and each morning she brings them homemade cakes and more fruit from the garden.

Today we went to the picturesque mountain village town of Lefkes, which claims to be one of the most beautiful mountain villages of the Cyclades islands.  I think that might be true.  We hiked almost 6 km of the 1000 year old marble Byzantine path from behind the church down towards the sea.  The vistas were breathtaking~ we could see all the way across the sea to our neighboring island of Naxos.  We told the kids that if they agree hike the path with us they’ll be rewarded with pie at their favorite cafe in the church square where everything is ‘mothermade.’