Mother Nature Is Not Happy

So now that I've finished my Greece posts, I can write about how mad we have obviously made Mother Nature.  She is NOT happy with us.  Tuesday, Aug 23, I'm at work typing on my computer.  Just finished lunch so I'm totally relaxed.  All of a sudden I feel a rumbling under me.  My first thought "there goes a metro train!".  Then I realize, there are NO metro trains running under this building (that was our previous building).  About 15 seconds later, another rumbling.  Longer and stronger this time.  Now I think, there must be construction going on somewhere in the building.  20 seconds later, the building starts swaying.  That's when I finally think "Earthquake!".  Confirmed by hearing co-workers coming out of their offices and saying we should leave the building.  The swaying stops then but, of course, since we have no idea if it will start again, most of us leave the building and meet at our usual emergency situation meeting place.  From there it's clear that we have no idea what to do.  We are not equipped to deal with earthquakes in this area.  Cell phone lines are jammed up.  Luckily, facebook is still working so that's when we find out the details.  A 5.9 earthquake hit Mineral, VA (about 80 miles from DC).  About 15 minutes later, we find out from that our building has been checked and it's ok to go back in.  However, quite a few people are freaked out enough that they head straight home.  I call home and luckily, Teresa answers right away.  She said she just hugged the kids and everything was ok.  The Federal Govt then shuts down at 3pm.  So there's major traffic congestion getting out of the city.  I'm able to reach Mario around 4:30pm.  He was driving at the time of the earthquake and thought the rumbling was caused by the big truck next to him.  But he's ok so I'm relived.  Am able to check in with my brother and sister too.  I considered going home then but looked outside and  saw cars just sitting on the road so I decide to stay at work till 6pm.  Good thing because, by then, traffic has cleared up and it only takes me 40 minutes to get home. 

A few aftershocks during the next few days but we have to put aside the earthquake because on Wednesday, we hear Hurricane Irene is headed towards the east coast.  Thursday morning, the North Carolina beaches are evacuated.  Friday, they evacuate Virginia Beach and Ocean City.  They expect it to hit our area Saturday night into Sunday.  We're told to expect major power outages, flooding and high winds.  It starts raining around 11am on Saturday but the heavy rains and high winds start around 10pm.  And I woke up around 1am because the winds and rain were so strong.  I stayed up staring at our window till about 4am.  We have a big tree in our backyard and I was just waiting for it to fall on our house.  Luckily that didn't happen!  We lost power around 2:30 am but by the time we got up around 6am, the power was back on.  The As lost power though so we invited them over to eat and sleep over.  Pa lost power too but we weren't able to get in touch with him since their phone was acting up.  Luckily, it was a beautiful, sunny Sunday and we planned on having BBQ for dinner.  Because 5 minutes before the As got to our house, we lost power.  We figure Pepco must've been working on a line nearby and that's what affected it.  But so frustrating losing power AFTER the storm when it's sunny and gorgeous out.  Felt bad because they As brought their meat from their freezer to store in our fridge so they just kept it in their cooler.  Good thing is that power came back on 2 hours later.  Then we lost it again an hour later for about an hour.  Then it came back on for good.  The As got their power back around 10:30 (got a text from their neighbor) but since it was late and the boys had to go to bed, they did spend the night. 

Had one week of gorgeous weather after that.

Then, the rain came on Monday night, Sept 5.  It's Sept 9 and it hasn't stopped yet.  Forecast to keep raining through at least Sunday.  So now we're dealing with streets flooding.  Fairfax County schools actually closed today because so many streets there are flooded. 

So we've obviously made Mother Nature angry.  I'm scared to think what this might mean for the winter we have coming up!

Last Day in Greece: Saturday - Aug 20

We had to be up around 7am on Saturday to get ready to go to the airport.  Mario, me and the kids headed to the hotel restaurant to have the breakfast buffet.  Then had an uneventful shuttle bus ride to the airport.  Lissa's flight to LaGuardia was fine.  Our flight to Philly though was delayed by 2 hours.  Which of course meant we would miss our connecting flight to BWI.  The airline was able to get us on a flight to Reagan.  Got us back home about 4 hours later but that was fine with us.  However, there was only 1 seat left on that flight to Reagan so they could only accomodate Connie but not Pa.  They put Pa on stand-by.  A pain but no one was panicked by this...except Connie.  She had a meltdown at the airport.  And since she was upset, Pa worried about their flight the whole time.  On a positive note, the kids were FANTASTIC during the flights!  We got so many people coming up to us and commenting on how wonderful they did during the trip.  Considering it took us 23 hours to get home, I am amazed...and thankful...that they did so well!  So proud of my 2 little ones!

Anyway, I sent a text to Jay while we were still in Athens to see if he could pick us up from Reagan and drive us to BWI.  Once we got to Philly, I saw a text from Jay that he could do it.  But Connie refused to go any further and insisted that they drive home.  I didn't want to be stuck in a car with them for that long so we continued on to Reagan.  It all turned out fine.  Pa and Connie got home around 9pm.  We got home around midnight.  Except for this one little snafu...it was a PERFECT vacation! 

Athens: Friday - Aug 19

Woke up pretty early on Friday to get ready to head to Athens.  Finished cleaning up the house and then we boarded our little mini bus!  Took about 3 hours to get to Athens. Checked in at the Holiday Inn near the airport and relaxed for a little while.  Then climbed into 3 cabs to head to the Acropolis. 

Visiting this site was one of my Must-Do things while in Greece.  I couldn't imagine going to Greece without seeing it.  We were a little worried earlier in the summer because there were a lot of riots going on in Athens with people protesting the government and its handling of the country's finances.  We were all monitoring the situation to decide whether or not we'd be able to tour Athens or not.  Luckily, most of the protests had ended already by August.  The Acropolis, Parthenon, Temple of Athena and Theatre of Dionysis are all next to each other.  We spent a couple of hours walking around.  It's amazing!  I've always been in awe that these buildings have managed to still be there.  The stones are huge and it's truly crazy to think of the effort...and time...it took for these building to be made.  They have been in the process of renovating the structures for a while so, unfortunately, there are cranes in most of the pictures of the Parthenon but I'm still so glad we went.  As with all touristy sites, there were women selling their services as tour guides.  Of course, having Greg with us, we didn't have a need but the women didn't realize that he was related to us.  They thought he was some rogue tour guide trying to steal their customers - LOL!!!  Greg had a little "discussion" with one of them to set them straight.  The kids, of course, didn't realize what an awesome place they were in.  I'm hoping that in the future, they'll look back at these pictures and realize how cool it was that they were able to see these sites at such a young age!

Tue Aug 16-Thu Aug 18

These 3 days we spent at either Psani beach or Giliadou beach.  It was lovely!  Weather was great every day.  Warm enough with a slight breeze to keep you comfortable.  And the water temp was perfect!  Such a relaxing time!  Ate more souvlaki, fries and toast (greek version of a ham & cheese sandwich but 10x yummier!).  The kids had such a good time with each other.  Sofia was like a fish...you couldn't get her to leave the ocean!  And she kept wanting to go deeper and deeper.  At one point, Mario took her out pretty deep and she was able to swim all the way back in.  Of course, she wanted to do that over and over again.  :) 

Thursday morning we actually took a few hours break from the beach to shop in downtown Nafpaktos.  It was a bit hot but so nice strolling around the streets and going from shop to shop.  We were able to buy gifts from people back home and Sofia found a cloth doll to add to her around-the-world doll collection.  With it being our last day in Nafpaktos, of course we had to spend the afternoon at Giliadou beach.  Ended the day with dinner on the balcony eating gyros.  What a perfect way to end our time in Nafpaktos!  We spent the rest of the night packing and cleaning up the house because we were headed to Athens in the morning!

Monday, August 15

What a fun day!  This day was a holiday in Greece.  It's Virgin Mary's day (my name day!) and we spent all afternoon at Greg's aunt and uncle's house.  What a feast they had for us!!!  And everything was so delicious!  My favorite (and I think everyone's considering how much we drank) was Uncle Harry's homemade wine.  It was so so so so good!  I think I drank a liter myself.  After eating, there was dancing of course!  Greg's family is so nice and it was great meeting them! 

We finally rolled out about 7pm, relaxed a bit at home and then headed to downtown Nafpaktos.  I was finally going ot have my crepes!!!  Relaxed at the Limani for a while and had frappes (the kids had limonada).  Amazes me how folks stay up so late here!  It was close to 10pm and it was packed with people...including their little kids.  We then headed to the crepe place.  Had a cheese and ham crepe...so delicious!!!  It was definitley worth the wait!