Katie's News: 2025

2025

January 1st and after a few too many jello shots we are trying to clean up the mess from our NY Eve party at Penny and Ted's in St Augustine.

Rarity - it snowed in SE Georgia. Of course lots of power outages - our trees are not used to all that ice weight and crazy drivers that don't understand how to drive on ice or snow. I didn't drive anywhere until it had melted -- I'm not stupid. (Even though I was raised in the north).

In March we had our annual West Marigold Dog Parade where we raised almost $ 7000 for Glynn CountyNo Kill. It is always so much fun. Viva Paws Vegas was our theme this year.

Polish Easter dinner with Laurie, Stacy and Laurie's mom, Lovey.

Salem House

It was time. I bought the house in 2017- it was in a perfect location - right at the entrance to SAW ( Salem Art Works ) where Zac works. Bonus I'd get to see Zac at least once a day. Classes to take (I took 4 - 2 glass blowing, 1 blacksmithing and 1 pottery) and lots of artists activities to observe. SAW actually helped me buy the house - because Gary, one of the local artist mechanic and teacher at the sculpture park rented part of the house from me and lived in it all year long so no need to winterize or worry about my house every year. This year SAW was having some financial problems so they could no longer subsidize Gary's rental. I rented it to 2 younger people with 2 dogs and I could tell that they were not crazy about an old lady coming every summer to stay 2 months in the downstairs bedroom. So.... it was time to sell....... We have a plan to fix up one section of Zac's Salem house for me to use. The summers were cool and full of interesting activities. I hope I can continue to spend part of my summers in that beautiful area. Hopefully it will work out the way I am imagining and my summer visits will continue.

I spent about month cleaning, painting, simplifying, packing moving my possessions with the help of Zac and Fox. Luckily the house was under contract within a week of our listing. I got close to my asking price and a great 'vibe' from the mom and her sons who bought it. Definitely gave me conflicting emotions. It was a good 8 years.

Not as many participants this year due to the SAW slow down but Friday night horseshoes at the top of Cary Hill continued on and was fun as usual. Yes I even made a ringer or two. Lots of beer, dogs and music.

Yes, we even play in the rain.

Back home and back to my part-time work at JICC (convention center) but I intend to turn in my notice soon (I did the same a few years prior but it didn't stick).

Liz my boss at our staff party.

Even though this was my official last day - they didn't let me hand in my keys. I am still on the books ( I've only been called in once). Besides packing and doing chores I have been putting off for too long..... I seemed to have been picked up a lot of pet sitting and computer help jobs which seems to keep me with some extra cash.

2025 BIG ADVENTURE

In 2024 I joined Paula and Bob for a partial Holland America world cruise tour. We all flew to Singapore and had a great 2 days before we boarded the Zuiderdam. Second SHIP day we took one of HA tours. On the tour Paula fell - broke her shoulder and got a slight concussion and they flew home. I stayed aboard and continued the cruise. Thank goodness I met some really nice people I could hang around with. The only glitch in the trip was that due to the problems in the Suez canal. The HA company decided to change the itinerary and skip the canal and the Mediterranean. A refund CREDIT was given and that is how I ended signing up for this cruise.

Basically we start in Athens Greece, stop in Croatia, Italy, Albania, Sardinia, France and end in Barcelona Spain.

Beth, one of the wonderful people I met on the 2024 cruise, is my traveling companion for this trip. She flew to Brunswick to meet me for a few days and see our "Golden Isles". She said our airport was adorable! Her welcome package was a t-shirt and meal from Willies Weenee Wagon -- I go all out don't I? We also cramed in a Jekyll Island Museum tour and Driftwood beach inbetween the rain we had for the two days she was there.

From our "Adorable BQK" we flew to Atlanta with a 3 hour layover. Flight to Athens was 10 hours in the full Economy section. Sore butt, two movies, and no sleep but we arrived with all our luggage and an easy entry into Greece. We caught a pleasent taxi ride to a luggage storage area near the port. The luggage store was a do-it-yourself place with no attendant. The worrysome thing is that my 28" bag is now stored right next door to a busy sex shop. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

We walked across the street and went into the port area after a couple of questions we finally found the correct area to wait to catch our hydrofoil "Areo 1" to our pre- boarding small adventure that was recommended to Beth. She did all the arranging and found us a nice AirBnB on the island of Hydra (or Irdra - pronounced eedra). Her research had gotten us the apt address and the recommendation to take a water taxi to the smaller village of Kaminia. On Hydra there are not many street signs and no house numbers. All the roads are cobblestones and with many many many steps. This flatlander had a major problem dragging my backpack and smaller bag up the hills. after texting the agent a few times we decided to trust Google maps. It led us to a building at the top of a long set of stairs where we accidently entered the home of an elderly person. One of her NICE neighbors spoke English and helped us by calling the owner and agent. If this sounds confusing - it really was. Please remember we had both been without sleep for more than 24 hours. Beth roamed around (she had taken pity on me - she is younger ) as I collapsed on one of the rock walls. After a few minutes she found the correct place and let me know we were home..... It is much smaller than it appeared in the ad but very adequate.

We had a nice early dinner back down at the small harbor area. Climbing back to the apt was so much easier without luggage and crashed. I slept for about 10 hours.

First night we had beer, and split an order of lamb and Greek salad. So much we took home the rest for lunch the next day - still yummy.

Tuesday -Next morning I walked back to the main Hydra harbor - again lots of ups and down. Beth had picked up a little cold from the plane so she was hunkering down for the morning. I went to the local museum and shopped a little. Walked back to Kaminia by noon where we had our yummy leftovers from last night's dinner up on the pation on the roof. Both of us caught a couple of nice naps up there to.

Leonard Cohn Memorial (he used to live here) - Bird on a Wire and Everybody Knows fame -- sort of like a Bob Dylan type

On the walk to Hydra the main town

Loved the name of the drinks

Lots of artifacts from the Greek Revolution of 1821, guns, swords, uniforms and paintings - some women's period clothing

looking up the sides of the hills sheltering the harbor - lots of sailoats water taxis

Donkeys that carry mostly suitcases and cargo to the hotels

(sometimes people too)

And by the way they have donkey milk face cream for sale in some of the shops - no I didn't try it.

Dinner at the same restuarant by our little harbor. They treated us so nice and helped us find our accommedations the first night - we just kept coming back.

Wednesday - Beth is finally feeling a little better so we decided to see if we could find the pharmacy that I saw a sign for but could never find. We up lots of hills again and followed the 'iffy' google maps (there is no way that little google car drove around here documenting the area) and this time it worked! After getting the drugs we went into town and got some bakery items and cookies. Walked home and took a nap.

lots of cats everywhere

I decided I wanted to see the old Quarter of Kiafa and Beth was game, so back to climbing up many stairs. Definitely the oldest part of the town. Lots of arches, narrow streets and old buildings in need of repair. We picked up some good looking plums for breakfast tomorrow morning and headed back home. I worked on the roof patio with a Coke Zero - (always hard to find the diet ones) to finish up the blog for this part of the trip.

Village is very high up but you can still see the harbor

and repeat over and over....

Our garden in our courtyard - Lemon, Lime, and Rosemary plus herbs.

view from our rooftop

Pomagranites next door

if you zoom in - you will see a really cute chapel

yes they have horses too - it is parked outside the owners boat making shop - Another taxi boat is being built

We are headed to bed to get ready for another day of travel back to Athens. We will stay 3 nights in another AirBnB that Beth booked. Hopefully we will be able to find it easier than this one. BUT we would still recommend it - just hopefully their directions will be "upgraded ".

Athens Thursday Oct 9

Travel day- lugging my backpack and carry-on DOWN the hill to the wharf was so much easier than going up. We had a reservation for a water taxi to meet us at the Kamini Harbor and take us to the Hydra Harbor to board the hydrofoil to Athens. Yes, we could have walked the 20 minutes, but with the up and down cobblestone roads we treated ourselves to the taxi- Plus the water taxi driver was really cute. The young Greek men are really nice on the eyes. We had about an hour to wait so we enjoyed watching the sailboats and yachts maneuver for dockage in the harbor. After 3 days in Greece my conclusion is that the Greeks are friendly, helpful and very nice.

Landing at the port we quickly got a taxi (another cute driver). We stopped to pick up my bag at the storage place next to the sex shop. I fretted for nothing. It was still in its locker, but the machine made me pay for an extra day. Total of 60 EU- next time I will either pack lighter or lug it around. Next stop was our Airbnb apt. Another really "adorable" apt. The host greeted us but the best part was her really nice husband lugged our suitcases up 2 floors and the final spiral staircase to our one room set up. So far we haven't been able to join their Wifi (ended up being the wrong password on the Airbnb internet site). Host finally texted us the new password that had already LAMINATED & POSTED on our wall - but we missed reading it. Oops. We finally were able to join by the next morning but it seems to be very sporadic and slow.

We decided to walk around and get our bearings. I was getting a little hungry so was hoping we might find something along the way. We did! It was called the "Black Salami". I ordered the salami, tomato and cheese (not sure of the type of soft cheese it was ) sandwich on a toasted foccachia. It might replace Willies's Weenee Wagon as my favorite place - IF it was 5675 miles closer.

After eating and having some water I was ready to tackle the stairs to the park that had a funicular to the highest point of Athens. It was hard- my watch registered 16 flights. Beth was nice and allowed me to take it slow and rest a lot. Boy am I our of shape when it comes to hills and steps. It was worth it - we made it to the ticket office. The sales girl was the first Greek that wasn't helpful- but she was young so it might have been a teenage thing. On top the views were beautiful, but go in the morning when the sun is shining on the Acropolis. It would make for better selfies. I whimped out and Beth let us take a taxi back to the apartment.

yes we walked up to the bottom of the hill and then some....

Views on the way

From the Top of the hill

Athens- Friday

We sat on our small outside porch and had our breakfast of tea and break - both of us slept well. The famous Archeological Museum was on our schedule for today. Following our trusty Google map we were able to navigate correctly to it in about 10 minutes. Weather has been perfect - so far sunny, 70's and no humidity. This is definitely the time to come to Athens.

As I mentioned before the Internet is sort of iffy - so the Rick Steeves FREE App and museum narrative (for tons of other places too) would not download for me or play correctly for Beth (she had downloaded it at my house). We should have listened to it beforehand. We spent about 2 hours wandering and reading the English version of descriptions. It was very interesting and definitely worth the time and 12 EU fee.

'Barbie' dolls that had moveable joints

This was neck of large vase from someone that sold whatever was inside it -

First ad? Or Business card?

Toy wagon - holes in the bottom left and right held a rod and wheels so that it would roll

Leaving the museum, we walked 20 minutes for a repeat of the Black Salami sandwich (5 EU) and a 10 walk back to the apt. We took photos of some of the more interesting graffiti we had seen. (We skipped the ones that said F*&% Airbnb and F*&$ the tourists). I don't ever remember seeing so much graffiti in such a large area - sad part is that is even some on marble. Sort of makes the city look dirty and it 's really not. But definetly very crowded. Five million live in Athens - about half of Greece's population.

The gray green door is OUR door to the Airbnb - very safe area here contrary to its appearance

Nap time! I'm Pissed - I forgot to put on my iWatch today so I didn't get credit for the flights we climbed or the number of steps, but it felt easier than yesterday. Later we will venture down the two floors to the courtyard and split a beer. No wonder people in this are are none for living a long life. Not only the walking and climbing as well as their healthy fresh diet, but also their socially strong and laid back lifestyle. In the US it is common to see women hanging out and socializing but here you see groups of men doing the same thing.

Saturday-Athens

Today's adventure is the Parthenon. We had more hills and steps but only 13 flights of stairs by the end of the day. Before we started traveling to our main destination, we took a side climb to the park that was located behind our Airbnb. It used to be a quarry, but now a dog park, small marble amphitheater, look out area and lots of hiking paths. Again, lots of graffiti.

Another treat was the Saturday street market on Kallidromiou St. They had moved all the cars which park on both sides of the one way street for about 3 blocks. The set up started about 5:30 am in the morning and the clean up was about 5 pm. There were many older ladies with their metal carts buying their fruit, vegatables, olives, and flowers. We bought a bottle of fresh sqeezed pomagranate juice and the fattest carrots I have ever seen.

We did the 40 minute, up hill climb to the Parthenon where we stood in the wrong line for a while, but were redirected to the ticket office. Beth soon learned that our tickets wouldn't be good until about 90 minutes later, so we joined a guide that would take us immediately for an extra price. She was informative and a nice guide. Knees were hurting from the last 5 days so I opted to sit on the steps and wait for Beth to finish the last part of the climb. I regret it now but at the time I needed a break. It was great people watching and I ended up talking to a group of Indians from Singapore. Beth picked me up on the way out and I got the cliff note version of the guide's lecture and of course her photos too.