Well, here we go again. My father made an announcement at Thanksgiving that the family would be going to Greece in 2020.  He would provide the accommodations, the rest of us just need to get there. We will be visiting the island of Andros, the same island my great grandmother was born on and the island we spent nearly a month on back in the summer of 2004.

The actual arrangements were left to me as the family travel agent. I was able to get in contact with our old friend and realtor, Yannis, who has apartments to rent on the beach in Batsi. The small apartment is four rooms: a kitchen, a small living room, a bathroom, and two small bedrooms. I think the total area was around 600-700 square feet. We managed to squeeze about 10 people in there that summer. The best part of Villa Zoe is its location. You are right across from the “Exemplarily Beach at Batsi.”

“The Exemplary Beach at Batsi” – Andros Island, Greece

I did convince my father to book one of Yannis’ studio apartments directly above Villa Zoe as a space for overflow and the chance of some privacy.

The most important part about the trip is my father has offered to pay for all of his grandkids to make the trip and stay with them. I’m excited for them. The trip to Greece to experience our roots with my brother is one of the most defining experiences in my life. The photos that I took there were the first ones that ever wowed anyone and gave me confidence as a photographer.

I’ve been to Greece several times and the trip in ’04 was equally important. I took my girlfriend Amanda and we sat at the panorama café on Santorini and made calendars on napkins as we tried to decide when to get married. We hadn’t talked about marriage before, we just both knew deep down that was the natural course of our relationship. We each had found the one person in our lives we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. She had also managed to live with my family in very close quarters and not run away screaming.

I don’t expect anything so profound to happen to my nephews but Greece can be a magical place. After all, it is home to Aphrodite.

I will keep everyone updated on the planning of this big trip. I am sure that my entire family will rely on me to book everything. I’m sure you can look forward to some funny stories in the future about me being the travel agent for yet another big fat Greek family vacation.