Happy Birthday Laurel!

Well, if you’re gonna turn 24, I suppose Kalymnos is the place to do it. Since we were all feeling pretty thrashed from the previous enduro-days, a rest day definitely seemed in order. We spent our time kicking around Massouri & Myrties beaches and exploring. We wound up at Babis Bar where Babis entertained the boys with alcohol and a very thorough Greek history lesson with maps/video/photos/etc. I love Kalymnos and the pride the locals take in their island. Everyone has greeted us with such kindness and interest. For example, we have been frequenting Antonio & Nikis’ Grocery where we’ll buy things we realize we need like soap or cereal after we’ve finished our dinners. Antonio has bestowed all kinds of life lessons & stories upon us with every checkout. Tonight Antonio talked about the importance of taking adventures like the one we are on and remembering it with photos. When it started pouring rain (a rarity in Kalymnos), he gave us cardboard boxes to make a rush for our studios and insisted on taking a photo. . .” that way it will be history”.

We celebrated Laurel’s birthday with a big Greek meal at Panos’ restaurant. We tried our tastes at a lot of traditional Greek foods: mousaka, stuffed vine leaves, tzasziki, Greek lasangia, fresh kalamari, stuffed tomato, olives, and more! Red wine and laughter- we must have stayed at our table for 3 hours! Most of the restaurants are a portion of people’s homes and they are in no rush for you to leave. Unlike at home where you are being shuffled out the door, in Kalymnos you are lucky to leave a restaurant in a couple of hours.

Laurel blowing out her imaginary flame. (If someone would photoshop a candle into this and email it back to me. . .that would be great!)

Enjoying our traditional Greek meal

One of the many moth-sized hummingbirds they have all over the island

Kenneth's too cool for school on the Myrties beach