Athens Marathon Part 3

We decided a great way to see the rest of the city on Monday was on the Hop On Hop Off Bus. 

Here is the amazing marathoner in front of the stadium he finished in the day before.

Gorgeous architecture throughout the city

The guys

The gals

One of many Starbucks stops during our trip

The kids found these lions to pose on for a picture

Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe

Tuesday morning before we headed back to Italy, we visited the National Archeological Museum

This place gets the award for our favorite meal in Athens.

So good, he had to go back and get another one!

Athens Marathon Part 2

Chris left before dawn to catch the bus to Marathon.  I hope all of you dedicated blog readers were able to catch some of his Facebook Live posts. Thankfully, Chris was able to text me his milage updates throughout the day.  The kids and I arrived at the stadium just as the first runner was finishing at 2 hours and 25 minutes!!!
The day before, we decided to buy an Elsa balloon from one of the many street vendors in the city so Chris could spot us a little easier in the crowd as we tried to meet up with him after he finished.
It was very windy up in the stands, so we all took turns holding on to Elsa.
(If you zoom in on this picture, you can see the Acropolis in the distance)

A group of Spartan Gladiators finishing the race

By hour 4 in the stadium, this was us...

HERE HE COMES!

Crossing the finish line

The kids raced around to the other side of the stadium to meet up with Chris

Proud finisher!

A painful walk down the stairs at the train station

Chris and his biggest cheerleaders

Celebratory dinner at Beer Time with Jack & Berri

Athens Marathon Part 1

Chris made the decision last spring that he was going to run the marathons of all marathons: Athens. After months of dedicated training, we flew from Rome to Athens on Thursday afternoon

Here we are at our neighborhood train station, ready to head out to the race Expo on Friday morning

After an hour of walking around at the wrong stadium, buying some of the BEST clementines ever off a street fruit vendor for 1 euro, and finding our way to the correct stadium...

Here we are at the race Expo

A family photo op near the expo

We met up with our friends, Berri & Jack, at the expo an had to go find the Rices' favorite falafel place in Athens: Falafellas.
It was a TASTY lunch!

On Saturday morning, we walked to the famous Acropolis

The life of an 11 year-old

After relaxing at the apartment for the afternoon, we met up with some friends for a delicious traditional Greek dinner.  I kicked off the evening with some ouzo.

LOVE this guy!

Our pre-marathon dinner crew

Oropallo Olive Picking

I love the Italian mountains in the fall. An invitation to go olive picking and have lunch with friends from school was a perfect way to spend a Sunday!

It was a little drizzly when we got to the Oropallo Olive grove.  Mel was kind enough to share her umbrella with me :)

Emma and Camden get to picking

Maria shows the kids how to use the electric picker

Emma goes to work

Selfie time!

Our gracious host, Antonio, and Mel

The kids and I used some teamwork on this tree

The grandma olive tree

Oh so good!