Frugal Friday

I have no idea why I didn't put the pieces together earlier, but I went on a new injection lupus medicine last week, and it's known to cause exhaustion, headaches, etc for the first 2-3 weeks. That explains why I've felt so exhausted this week. Fingers crossed things level out. 

On to our frugal Friday recap. DH & I took Nick & 9 of his friends to Lake Tahoe for the 4th of July, so some wins related to that. 

Saving on things we buy

• I originally used United credits for our trip to the Oregon coast in a few weeks. Because Nick can't come until Friday after work, Alaska had a better schedule than United. I cancelled one way for the United trip (kept the return) & sorted his outbound flight with miles (details below). That meant I received a United credit back. Nick is not driving his car to Colorado, so he & I are flying to Denver/Boulder, renting a car, moving him in & then I'll fly home alone. For the outbound flights, we both had United credits that I used to offset the flights, saving $331. 

Earning money

• Both boys are back at work, with Nick filling in for a water sport camp (he normally leads a mountain biking group), & Sam back at the restaurant & donut shop. 

Avoiding spending

• Nick can't join for the Oregon coast portion of our family trip (work), but is joining for the weekend gathering at my parents house. I used his Alaska Air miles to book a one way flight to Seattle. He's meeting up with friends on Friday night, and then they are driving him to my parents house (north of Portland). Crazily, the business class seats were less miles than economy, so he will be flying business class & I'm sure will feel quite spoiled. ;-) 
• For our Lake Tahoe trip, we optimized a bit, as we had quite a few teens joining us. Ended up with three free rooms, which saved a huge amount, given 4th of July weekend is peak season in Lake Tahoe. (We used hotel comps. I will do a post about where the comps come from at some point, & how we track & manage them). 
• I also used a $10 coffee offer from the hotel app, and M used a $100 yearly dining offer from his rewards app for our Friday dinner. 

Eating what we have

• Continue to make Nick lunch to take for work. I don't do it every day, but try to help out when I can, as it also has the extra benefit of me getting items I'm looking to use out of the fridge. 
• I made myself lunch out of yogurt, granola & berries, plus cheese & crackers. It used up what we had & sounded good & light, so it worked. 
• We've been eating fridge & freezer leftovers. I've used up the last of a Costco package of tortillas, which was enormous. 

For others

• Did some additional work to manage the finances for my special needs aunt. 

What about you? Any wins to share? 

So tired

 Not sure if this is my body just catching up from jet lag, or starting to catch a bug, but I am definitely struggling with my energy this week. Just in time for an international work trip :-(. Fingers crossed I have more energy tomorrow.

Otherwise, I'm plodding along on work goals, getting ready for my trip, and of course trying to fill in with some home goals as well. We have about five weeks until I take Nick back to Boulder, so I also need to start a list of what we need to bring, buy there, etc, as he's in a furnished apartment vs a dorm this year. He's not much of a chef (although he did do a lot of our cooking during COVID!), but has some skills & could make himself food when needed. 

Hope everyone is doing well & having a great week!

July goals

 It's time for more goals! I'm late, but still tracking for July. Here's what's on the list for the month ahead. 

Financial:

• Stay on top of food waste by using up 3 pantry or freezer items
• Continue to track net new savings for 2026
• Give notice at work & set an exit date
• Make $100 in side hustle
• Find one expense to optimize
• Finalize post work budget & plan (health insurance through M's plan is the biggest to do)

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life
• Finalize Nick's move back plans
• Monthly date with M
• Reschedule family dinner
• Continue planning for our big trip next year, M's 60th

Fitness:

• Lose 3 lbs
• 10 strength workouts
• Track nutrition
• Average 13,000 steps/day

Personal:

• Do well at Japan external event
• Declutter 50 items
• Get together with friends
• Try something new
• Say yes to adventures
• Get to know our neighbors
• Try a new recipe

What about you? Any goals for July? My big one is definitely giving notice!!!

Menu Plan Sunday

 It's another wild week, and I leave for Tokyo on Saturday & then come back to jury duty! :-) 

• Friday - dinner in Lake Tahoe
• Saturday - 4th of July party in Lake Tahoe
• Sunday - ground beef tacos
• Monday - once again, one pan Mexican chicken and rice is on the menu, as it wasn't made last week
• Tuesday - leftover tacos
• Wednesday - leftover one pan Mexican chicken & rice
• Thursday - any remaining leftovers
• Friday - TBD

What about you? What's on your menu this week? 

June Goals Recap

June was quite a month. I finished my Stanford class, had a week in LA for work (this undersells how much prep work went into this event), and 10ish days in Greece. As you can imagine, a lot fell by the wayside between all of that. 

Anyway, not recapping goals even on rough months isn't particularly helpful, so I'll stay the course & share how I did. 

Financial:

• Stay on top of food waste by using up 3 pantry & freezer items. - Freezer is looking lean, and we've done a good job of using up: meatballs, lots of buns, leftover chicken, etc. 
• Continue to track net new savings for 2026 - yes, and we are finally back in the green after taxes, thanks to my annual bonus. 
• Make $100 in side hustle - nope, I made a paltry $20, thanks to a settlement + one eBay sale. I had my sales turned off for the majority of the month. 
• Find one expense to optimize - nope, did nothing on this one
• Create post work budget & plan (health insurance through M's plan is biggest to do) - I did track down the info, but haven't finished the budget. 

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life - this is an ongoing one, but it continues
• Sort out Nick's move back plans - still on the fence about some logistics that Nick & M are working out. 
• Monthly date with M - I think so? Pretty sure our date night landed in June? 
• Host family for dinner - this didn't happen & needs to be rescheduled
• Make progress on Iceland planning (next year, M's 60th) - eh, we are still in exploration mode & may swap to Italy. I love travel planning & the good news is that we are still in research mode on this stuff. 
• Have a fabulous trip to Greece - yes, done! It was fabulous. 

Fitness:

• Lose 3 lbs - I lost 1 lb, and came in at 149.5. 
• 10 strength workouts - 6/10
• Track nutrition - about 1/2 the days of the month, not when I was in Greece. My average (including Greece estimates) was 1,354/day.
• Average 12,000 steps/day - Definitely not. I was at 9,298 for the month. Two full travel days (long flights, no steps) & then a work trip where I was trapped in a hotel for another week didn't help. Plus, minimal official workouts or hikes. 

Personal:

• Do well at external event - went very well. 
• Declutter 50 items from the house - made no effort on this, but managed 3 items out of the house by sheer luck. 
• Get together with friends- girls trip + a hike with friends + one workout with a friend. 
• Try something new - Greece!
• Say yes to adventures - the ferry situation, lots of adventures, caldera hike, etc. 
• Get to know our neighbors - no progress
• Try a new recipe - tried a new recipe with rice & meatballs that was quick & easy. 

Let's hope for a better July! How did you do with your June goals? 

Frugal Friday

 This is a recap from a pre-Greece week + the past week. 

Saving on things we buy

• Uploaded two Costco receipts to Fetch & iBotta, as the latter had a $.05 on any grocery receipt cash back. 

Earning money

• I'd fully maxed out my 401k by my last paycheck, so it was bigger than normal, which was a nice treat. 
• Both boys are continuing to work a lot, trying to earn some cash ahead of school going back. 
• Received $250 deposit back from Nick's dorm room, which is a testament to how much time & effort I spent helping him + his roommate clean & pack back in May. 
• Also received my annual bonus + a retroactive raise from April. 

Avoiding spending

• Oh my, we spent plenty, that's for sure. Greece was not a cheap trip (see trip recap for details!)

Eating what we have

• A few weeks ago I'd been home for just a day (LA work trip) & hadn't reconciled myself to grocery shopping yet, so we had a (mostly) freezer dinner. All of our dinners are served with salad, but the shrimp & fried rice were both from Trader Joes & stashed in the freezer.
• Used up a small ziplock of strawberries, and the very end of frozen berries to make a smoothie for Nick. I added an incredibly ripe banana, some yogurt, protein powder & a splash of oat milk. He's been working outside in the 90 degree weather, mountain biking, so he appreciated the cool treat when he got home.
• I also made Nick a quick dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches, made on leftover hamburger buns & sliced cheese I found lingering in the fridge. He was between a gym workout & a pickleball match, so he appreciated the quick & scrappy meal. 
• Made the boys various breakfast items before work. 
• Nick's friend is staying with us for a few days, and oh my goodness that guy can eat. He's 6'4" and a college athlete, and eats more than double my guys combined. I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen, making sure there are easy meals prepped for them, as they are out & about. We have no leftovers in the fridge this week, that is for sure! :-) 
• Nick & friend weren't supposed to be home for dinner, but came back early from the beach, so I whipped up a large spaghetti & meatball dinner, using fridge & freezer staples. Added in a loaf of bread, and they were good to go.
• I also prepped a large lunch for everyone (6 chicken patty sandwiches on ciabatta buns - both from the freezer), chips leftover from a previous teen party, a big bowl of fruit + veggies. All was eaten minus one chicken patty sandwich, which served as Nick's lunch the following day for his job. 
• I went to make lunch on Wednesday, and noticed it was slim pickings for protein to go on my salad (see above with all of my hungry diners), so I opted for the freezer/pantry salad. Salad base + olives & garbanzo beans (pantry) + edamame (freezer). Delicious & easy. Edamame & garbanzo beans both have a good amount of protein. 

For others

• Provided some career guidance to an acquaintance who was laid off, referred them to roles, and made some introductions that I hope will be helpful. 

What about you? Any wins to share? 

Greece, a very non-frugal trip

I'm trying to create more trip recap reports, and it's important to me to show the splurge ones as much as the frugal ones. The frugal trips enable me to spend more flexibly on the splurge trips. We went to Santorini, Naxos & Paros.

Some things to note:

• The trip was a shared 50th birthday celebration for myself + my BFF, with my sister
• I paid for my sister's travel expenses, so my cost is for two people
• We originally had a fantastic deal on flights, using British Airways miles, but they changed the flights & they no longer worked for our group, which was frustrating. We then had to buy revised flights & they cost quite a bit more than they did when we originally priced them. The original flight cost was around $1800 total, so seeing the end number really hurt. 
• This trip had A LOT of logistics. M & I have agreed that Greece, while incredible, is challenging to get to from our location & we don't love a trip where we have to move around a lot. Hence how this made it to the girls trip list. 
• My BFF had a very limited set of dates available, so we had minimal flex on timing to save on cost. She's a school principal & can't adjust vacation days. We ended up needing to adjust our flights & shave a day off the last stop (Paros), as my sister found out that her SIL was getting married the day after we returned. 
• If you've ever traveled with 3-4 people in Europe (and, many places in Asia), you know that finding a room that can comfortably fit that many people is a challenge. There is either an option for a suite, or two rooms, and this is expensive regardless. 
• We were shocked by how expensive transit was, and should have done more research. We booked a hotel on the quieter part of Santorini, and they offered a shuttle service, but it didn't run during the majority of the day. Uber was more expensive than the hotel transit (they arrange for a driver to come & get you). We would still not decide to rental a car, as none of us would have been remotely comfortable driving, but the transit was the biggest area I hadn't budgeted enough for. 

Hotels - $1094.73 (remaining costs covered through Chase rewards)

• We split this up by having me book & pay for two of the hotels (Santorini & Paros), & my BFF paid for the other hotel. 
• $637.09 - food & transit booked with Santorini hotel. I didn't bring home a receipt to break out the transactions that were a few meals eaten at the hotel vs lots of transit around the island.
• $457.64 - food & transit booked with Paros hotel. Same as above, I didn't bring home a receipt to break out the transactions that were a few meals eaten at the hotel vs lots of transit around the island.

Transit - $270.96

• We had two ferry rides, to get between the islands. For two, the ferry costs were $260.72
• We also rode the ferry from Paros to Antiparos, which was a whopping $10.24 (three round trip tickets)
• See above, as the majority of this is captured under Lodging

Food - $190.75

• While we mostly ate at lounges for our airport transit days, I bought drinks for the flight from Munich to SFO (from a vending machines) to carry on the flight ($6.27) & coffee for all of us at the Frankfurt airport, ahead of our flight to Athens ($23.78)
• Dinner in Naxos- $134.44
• Gelato in Paros, x2 - $14.3+11.96
• The majority of the rest of my food was covered by my sister when we ate out, and we had few meals at the hotels (covered under Lodging, as I didn't get the receipt to split out transit costs & food). 

Activities - $243.60

• We booked a cooking class - cost for two was $243.60 
• We also did a distillery/winery tour at a Citron family owned business, which was super interesting. My sister paid for my ticket. 

Flights - $10,613.44

• I flew my sister to/from Portland, so we could be on the same flights from SFO & reduce logistics. I normally do a really good job optimizing, but we had fixed timing & airport/airline requirements that complicated things. This flight was insanely priced at $665.23. 
• We also paid for flights to/from Athens to islands, & my cost was for two of those tickets. - $623.55
• Moving on to the big ticket items - two round trip flights from SFO to Athens. The flight class varied a bit - we were in Premium Plus from SFO to Frankfurt, regular economy (I think?) from Frankfurt to Athens, business from Athens to Munich and business from Munich to SFO.  - $9324.66

Travel insurance - $96

• At my previous employer, health insurance was international, which means I didn't need to buy a policy when I traveled. My current company policy only provides coverage for international work travel. I did not need travel coverage for delayed flights & the like, as that's covered by my travel credit card. I used Allianz insurance - $96

Other - $630.97

• Gifts from M + the boys, two pair of hand made sandals, some stunning pottery from a local vendor in Paros & a necklace for my mom 

Total spent = $12,917.65 for two people (or $6,458 & change per person). All in all, no regrets on the spending except for the flights, which as noted above, was originally supposed to be largely covered by British Airways miles. Hopefully we will get a chance to use them soon. 

Naxos to Paros and home again

I  left off with our last day in Naxos, so I'll pick up with our ferry adventure from Naxos to Paros.

Wednesday 6/24 - Naxos -> Paros

• Grabbed breakfast & coffee near the hotel
• Made our way to the ferry port in Naxos Town
• Because we knew what to expect, this ferry adventure was a bit easier. Both ferries we took were delayed, but I got the sense that's kind of the norm. We met a couple in line behind us from Oregon, and gave them a lot of tips on how to navigate the ferry process. The ferry we boarded was quite large (1,300 people), but the number of folks boarding in Naxos was much smaller than Santorini. There was still a ton of chaos with the boarding process, and baggage, so that was an adventure. We had great seats, however, that put us right near the exit ramp & made grabbing our bags during the chaos much easier. Oh, and no one checks your ferry tickets until the boat is well underway. On our ferry from Santorini to Naxos, we stopped at Ios, well known for a younger party crowd, & picked up a few hundred folks. Maybe 15 minutes after we were underway, they were going around scanning tickets, and a large group of folks from the island were on the wrong ferry. No idea what happened from there, as they gathered them all together & went to find a supervisor. This is one of the challenges when you have a chaotic boarding process, and don't scan tickets upon entry. Just no way to know. ;-) 
• We got picked up at the Paros terminal by our hotel & made our way to our final destination. And, it was so incredible. We were originally supposed to have one more night at this hotel, but needed to shave one night off so my sister could attend a wedding for her partner's sister back in Portland. I'm so bummed it was a night in Paros that got removed, because this was my favorite island by far & we had an amazing time, but didn't get to see everything. 
• Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we sat by the pool & enjoyed our welcome cocktail, and shared a lunch. The weather on Paros & Naxos was much warmer than Santorini (just down to a weird mix of weather patterns, I don't think that's typical), so we were able to get in the pool & enjoy that as well. 

• Checked in, enjoyed a snack from the hotel & got ready for dinner.
• We went to Naoussa, which is a town that is exactly how I envisioned Greece would be. Gorgeous cobblestone streets, cats everywhere, and amazing views everywhere you look. We had our best meal of the trip that night at Mare Nostrum, where we had a sesame/honey/feta dish that I will attempt to find again, a shrimp pasta dish & of course, Greek salad. We took lots of photos & did a bit of shopping, wrapping up the evening with gelato before we got the shuttle back to the hotel.

Thursday 6/25 - Paros

• Got up & had breakfast & coffee at the hotel. Breakfast was good, but couldn't beat the breakfast options at the Santorini hotel. Quite a step up from the Naxos hotel, however.
• Took the ferry to the very nearby island of Antiparos. This ferry ride was one of my favorite parts. It costs about 1.50 Euros each person, per trip & you just walk on. It's a gorgeous 10 minute ferry ride to Antiparos, which was my favorite part of the trip. (Views from the ferry, below).
• Antiparos was gorgeous, tiny, and we spent some time talking to a local pottery shop owner. He & his wife have been making pottery for 40 years and have incredible pieces. I'm not one for a lot of souvenirs, but these were so lovely and worth bringing home, so we could remember a bit of Greece. We had lunch at a lovely restaurant & finished off the trip with a gelato, running to catch a ferry that was about to take off.
• We came back & hung out by the pool, where I finished the last of my books (that includes all of my Kindle library books, 2 paper books I picked up from the hotel's "free" counter, and a book from my friend). I ended up buying a very expensive book at the Munich airport, to see me through the rest of my trip. My Kindle is extremely finicky to connect with wifi outside of my house, so getting new library books wasn't an option. I tried, and failed, repeatedly. Met a really nice woman at the pool & gave her some tips on Santorini, where she was headed next.
• Had dinner in Parikia, and celebrated our last night on the island. 
• Packed up & had an early night, as we had to be up at 5 for our flight. 

Friday 6/26 - Paros -> SFO

• Got up at 5 to finish packing & get ready for our 5:45 car service to the airport. Checked out of the hotel.
• Got to the very small & jam packed airport (one gate, one terminal) for our 7:00 am flight, which was delayed. Flight itself was uneventful & short.
• Got to Athens, picked up our bags & dropped them off at the respective luggage counters. We then had to say goodbye to my friend, as her flight left from a different terminal, and coming with us would require her to deal with security/etc twice.
• Hung out at the lounge in Athens, as we budgeted quite a bit of time for security and the like. Flight from Athens to Munich was around 3 hours, and went smoothly. We were fed a nice lunch.
• Got to Munich, bought a book, cleared a very long immigration line. We were eventually pulled out to use the automatic machines, which got things moving quickly. Went through another security check at our gate.
• Flight from Munich to SFO was 11 hours, and we were in Lufthansa business class, which was really nice. I'd heard it wasn't comparable to United or British Airways, so I had low expectations, but it was actually really great. Service, food, space, etc. My sister had never flown business, and was completely thrilled with the space. Dozed, read my book, watched two movies, ate some dinner.
• Landed on time at 7 pm in SFO, breezed through immigration with Global Entry, but then waited an hour for my bag. Sad goodbye to my sister, as she was carrying on to Portland. M picked me up, I came home & immediately fell asleep!

Friday was a super long travel day, but the trip was so much fun. Lots of adventure, lots of memory making, lots of chats you don't get if you don't see your friends often. Gorgeous scenery, incredible meals, and met some really lovely people. Travel logistics aside, you can't ask for much more than that!

Santorini to Naxos trip details

When I left off, we had just finished our last full day in Santorini. Caveat, entire trip was filled with laughs, experiences & memory making, so absolutely worth doing, but I'll share the highlights & the lowlights. 

Sunday 6/21 - Santorini to Naxos

• Got up in the morning & had breakfast at the hotel & packed up
• Headed to the port for the ferry, which was ... an adventure I won't soon forget
• The thing about the ferry is it's so much chaos without any organization, and 1200 people attempting to board a ferry while workers are shouting in Greek. That would maybe be okay if everyone was going to the same island, but the ferries from Santorini go to numerous islands, and you need to leave your luggage in the designated area for your destination, Cue an absolute insane amount of chaos, dragging your bags up an enormous ferry ramp, trying to sort luggage, sirens going off, whistles being blown & just... a lot. ;-) I would not repeat the ferry experience unless absolutely mandatory. (This is specific to Santorini. We also took the ferry from Naxos to Paros, and combined with the fact that we knew what to expect and the much fewer number of people boarding, it was easier to navigate, although still...chaotic, shall we say.) 
• We got picked up in Naxos Town by the hotel transport, and made our way to the hotel. The hotels in Santorini & on Paros were really fabulous, but this one was ... more of a let down. The room was tiny, despite being a "suite". We had the sofa made into a bed, which meant there was no room to sit, no place for three bags, etc. The other disappointment was the hotel pool area. In the photos online, they showed a pretty spacious pool area, as well as what they described as a pool terrace. There were a total of six chairs for the entire hotel, and they were all in full sun for the day, and I'm not sure what happened with the pool terrace, but no such thing. We heard later that the pool photos were taken with a drone & then selectively edited... I also wouldn't stay in the location we were in, and would stay in Naxos Town if I ever came back. We were in Prokopios, which had a lot of touristy type restaurants, and it was harder to find places to eat, etc. 
• We had an okay dinner on our first night, as the place we wanted to go to was sold out, and we wandered around looking for other options. That said, the view was gorgeous on the beach. Just a stunning location. 

Monday 6/22 - Naxos

• Tried the hotel breakfast, which was not an experience we would repeat. 
• Rented lounge chairs at the beach, read two books & ordered cocktails & fries. Lunch of champions. ;-) Absolutely gorgeous views & some fun people watching. We hit maximum relaxation by this point. 

• Went to dinner in Naxos Town & did some shopping, & had a lovely dinner at Avaton 1739, which is located on the Old Monastery and School of the Ursulines (a historic complex built directly into the stone fortification walls of the medieval Venetian Castle, according to Google). The view was again super fabulous. 

Tuesday 6/23 - Naxos

• Went out to breakfast/coffee & skipped the hotel breakfast ;-)
• Had no plans, as we were supposed to be on a kayak tour, but wind meant that wasn't an option for us. We weren't quite sure what to do, so after checking with the hotel staff, we ended up on a distillery tour. I'll admit that I had zero expectations for this, but it turned out to be so much fun. The distillery makes Citron, and that type of alcohol is only made in Naxos, by two family owned distilleries. The host made the experience - she was so much fun, we drank wine, lots of Citron, ouzo, and limoncello. 
• Went to a great dinner in Naxos Town at Scirocco, and enjoyed shrimp orzo & then went shopping a bit down town. I do really like that the shopping area is open so late. 

I'll be back with the details of our trip from Naxos -> Paros, and our time in Paros + travel home. Naxos is described as a favorite island by many, so if I go back & try it again, I would make a bunch of adjustments to where we stayed & our planned activities, as I don't think we did it justice & would like to go back & experience it again. 

Not the usual Fitness Monday post

Because, other than my workout class yesterday, fitness has been pretty limited to walking during my vacation. On Saturday, I mostly just slept & lounged around on the couch, trying to convince myself to be productive. ;-) 

I'll try & do a trip recap instead (and, I've got a trip cost post coming, with more details on that). 

My sister + BFF flew in on Monday, so we could all depart SFO together on Tuesday. 

Tuesday 6/16- travel day

• We worked during the day on Tuesday morning, went for a quick walk at lunch, and then cleaned up & headed to the airport. 
• I redeemed my two free United lounge passes for myself + my sister at the SFO United lounge. I've been to the domestic terminal lounges (nice), as well as the Polaris international lounge (amazing), but never to the international lounge/non-Polaris. It was pretty disappointing, and I wish I hadn't redeemed my pass vouchers, but c'est la vie. We had a glass of champagne & chatted while we waited for our flight.
• Our flights left SFO around 7 pm. We were all together in Premium Plus. I managed to sleep for 4ish hours, which isn't too bad for me. 

Wednesday 6/17 - travel day

• Time zones make this challenging to recap, but after an 11 hour flight to Frankfurt, we got off the flight, cleared customs (the line was crazy, and a bunch of people missed connections). 
• I grabbed coffee for everyone, while we took turns using the bathroom & stretching our legs a bit.
• We had about 20 minutes before boarding, so even planning on a 2 hour gap between flights was pretty tight. 
• We boarded our next flight, from Frankfurt to Athens, which was just under 3 hours. We ordered a glass of wine & a snack & all then took a short nap. 
• We arrived in Athens & that was... an experience. We were flying a small airline (Aegean Air) from Athens to Santorini. The airport was very quiet in the terminal we were in, the gate moved twice, we couldn't figure out how to get our bags checked (even a standard carry-on doesn't fit & needed to be checked). We hung out at the lounge and ate a bit.
• We had to take busses to the plane, and that was an experience, as the bus is absolutely jammed full of people & then there was a near collision on the runway between our bus & another bus. A few people fell over, because the bus braked so hard and turned, but we all survived that.
• Flight to Santorini was uneventful. We landed, claimed our bags (took only 5 minutes or so) & exited the airport & met our hotel driver. 
• Drive to the hotel was quick & easy & we got checked in & made our way to the room, around 1:30 am local time. The hotel had champagne & snacks in the room for us. Sat out & chatted & went to sleep around 2:30 am. Hotel was absolutely gorgeous, and on the quiet side of Santorini, which we enjoyed. 

Thursday 6/18 - Santorini

• Got up late, had breakfast, unpacked. 
• Went to a winery & had a tasting & enjoyed a relaxing afternoon

• Had a fabulous dinner (birthday celebration, planned by my sister) at The Athenian House in Imerovigli, which was absolutely stunning at sunset. We were surprised by how chilly & windy it was, which was the case for our entire Santorini trip. Ate delicious Greek food & shared a bottle of wine. (View from dinner)

Friday 6/19 - Santorini

• Took advantage of the free hotel breakfast (delicious)
• Headed to Megalochori for a cooking class, which we loved. The chef was so much fun, and it was just the three of us + a lovely couple from Australia. We made a traditional bean dish, Greek salad (of course), tomato fritters & tzatziki sauce. We enjoyed wine during the food preparation, and lots of laughs with our cooking mishaps. 
• After the class, we wandered around Megalochori & enjoyed the really cute town & got some pictures. 

• Headed back to the hotel & laid by the pool for a bit, and read
• Ordered room service & ate on our patio, which was perfect. We had chicken gyros & wine. Of course. ;-) 

Saturday, 6/20 - Santorini

• Hotel breakfast
• We hiked the caldera from Fira to Oia, and the views were stunning. We went pretty early in the day, before it got too warm. 
• While the hike was amazing, Oia was jammed with tourists from the big cruise ships in town. Locals told us that three ships were in port, which explains the crowds. 
• We then had dinner in Fira, which was again super crowded & food was okay, but definitely felt like more of a tourist location/restaurant. Sunset at the restaurant, however, was gorgeous, with caldera views.

I'll be back with additional details on our next two stops (Naxo & Paros). My verdict of Santorini? Absolutely gorgeous, but a one & done for me, due to the crowds & overall more of a touristy vibe. That said, worth visiting once if you want the more traditional white building/blue dome architecture & Instagram style views. 

Menu Plan Sunday

 I'm going to keep things really easy this week, but make sure everyone gets fed.

• Friday - ate some pasta on the flight home from Munich
• Saturday - rotisserie chicken + grain salad from Costco (prepared section, delicious)
• Sunday - grilled burgers
• Monday - one pan chicken & rice dish (chicken from rotisserie purchase above) 
• Tuesday - leftover grain salad & chciken
• Wednesday - leftover burgers
• Thursday -  leftover one pan chicken & rice dish
• Friday - something in Lake Tahoe, I think we'll be eating out

What about you? What's on your menu this week? 

Back from Greece

 Trip was amazing, but travel logistics were exhausting! We had three flights yesterday (four for my sister) & it was a 24 hour travel day for two of us, and closer to 30 hours for my sister, as her final leg was delayed. Poor thing.

I will definitely prioritize places that are closer next time, but absolutely loved, loved Paros & would take M there if it gets any easier to get there. I've heard they are expanding their airport a bit.

Minimal Menu Plan Sunday

 Phew, the crazy week is wrapping up & I leave for vacation on Tuesday! It has been absolutely wild around here, but things are very slowly settling down. It was not my best cooking week, for reasons like being out of town, but we made things work. 

• Friday - I made the Argentinan shrimp (Trader Joes), which I would definitely recommend as a staple, as they are excellent & defrost really quickly. Had this with (TJs) veggie fried rice.
• Saturday- M grilled burgers for some friends Nick had over, and we had burgers, fries, potato salad, and a watermelon that was yellow? 
• Sunday - I'm making a chicken/rice one pan dish tonight. 
• Monday - birthday dinner out, with guests!
• Tuesday - eating at the airport lounge, most likely
• Wednesday - Friday - Greece!

What about you? What's on your menu this week? Hopefully you will have more inspiration than I do this week.