Final Full Retreat Day (September 22, 2026)

 

Last full day at the retreat house. I had a friend join me for my run! Ro came with for my mile, we did the same route I did the day before, it was my favorite. We didn't go all the way down to the lookout cuz we needed to get back for yoga, but we did get to see the sheep. 

I watched these paragliders during our yoga time, so peaceful. 

Our word for this session was Meraki μερακι

which means doing something with passion and creativity 

After yoga I got my laundry going and we had a silent journal time where we were also invited to pick out a paint by number. 

After some time a car load and I drove into town to the pharmacy before it closed for their early evening closing time. Passed some chickens! 

 

When we got back we did a little drone yoga for one of our leaders for her PR :-) that was fun. Then we had a real afternoon yoga session. 

The focus of this yoga was partner yoga, I got to be with my roomie: Jaime. The word for this session was parea παρεα 

which means community or close-knit group of friends

 

Little photo sesh after yoga as it began to sprinkle. 

I finished up my painting while others continued to work on theirs. Then we got dressed for our final night in. We had a blue and white dress theme, a personal chef was hired to come in and cook for us and we had a deeper reflection time where we shared joys we saw in each other the past week. 

 

  

Beautiful sunset. We started outside, but the forcast was showing rain and we could see a storm coming. (this is the resident cat we named Fred) 

Photos with each other :-) 

  

    

Dinner started outside, the appetizers. The chef warned us to save room but we all wish we would have had more of this because the main dish was kinda bland....

  

  

  

Moved inside before the rain started. Had a dance party while we waited for the main course. Which was a rice dish and boiled chicken. The dessert was amazing though! Loukoumades is what's it's called they are little greek donuts. 

Fred wishing he could come inside and hiding from the rain. 

This marks the end to a wonderful, amazing, much needed reset of a yoga retreat. 

Adventure Day on Crete (September 21, 2026)

Got up and did my mile, went down toward the water on this run, it was probably my favorite (did it again the next day). Went a little farther than a mile to hit this beautiful look out, then saw sheep on my way back grazing under the olive trees. 

There was no morning yoga this day because they wanted to allow us more time if anyone wanted to travel farther. Some gals were doing a wine tour, some just went to a nearby beach, they wanted to leave enough time incase anyone wanted to travel back to Chania to site see. Me and two gals from Wisconsin (Kira and Carrie) decided to do an adventure inland and find some hiking and ruins. This was an AI itinerary and Google Maps said there was a straight over route... however Google Maps also took us through really washed out gravel roads. We ended up turning around before we got stuck and went out of the valley and around to get to the place of ruins. 

We went to a town called Polyrrhenia where there were some ancient ruins. We walked this area for a little bit. 

Finished at a little shop that had all these things made of olive wood. I got the kids souvenirs. I confirmed with the guy working there that the road to Koukounara was paved, he said "yes good road" so we trusted him and set onward in our adventure. 

Lunch at a cute little spot in Koukounara. 

Then continued inland to a town called Topolia where there was a cave: Cave of Agia Sofia

Climbing 257 steps to get up to the cave, it was beautiful. And honestly felt so good not having to hear complaining about the trek the whole way. I even mentioned to Keri how nice it was that no one was complaining. I love my kids but if they were to do something like this with me they would whine about being tired or hot or thirty or the air was too fresh or the steps were too rocky, you know the drill with kids. 

Flew my drone to try and capture the hike up to the cave but it's kinda hard to see. 

Back through the one way tunnel, we took the route via Kissamos to get back to our resort house. 

We made it back to the house to get cleaned up for our dinner out as a group. We were going out to eat in the town of Kissamos. So many greek cats everywhere, can you spot them in these two photos? 

Allison ordered family style for us, so a variety of food came that we all shared. We went down to the garden to get a group photo before the sun went down. 

The many cats of Greece. 

It was a cool building, I loved this sink trough in the bathroom. 

A couple girls wanted gelato, so one car headed back to the house, and two other cars headed to the bakery arriving just minutes before they closed. 

Since morning yoga was skipped we had a late night evening yoga under the moon :-) We didn't have a word or intention this night, we'd get two the following day.