Day 4 & 5: Crete & Rhodes

Oops! I did not mean to get a day behind! We are having so much on the Mary Kay Top Director trip! Yesterday we went to the island of Crete. The scenery really reminded me of Napa Valley back home. 

We saw the ruins of the ancient palace of Knossis then enjoyed a relaxing afternoon by the pool visiting with other top directors. I loved getting to know everyone! This cruise ship is so cool and I keep finding out new things every day! For example, the pool is a SALT WATER pool....no chlorine! So it’s like your in a crystal blue ocean pond! How cool is that?!?!

That evening we enjoyed wonderful meal at Prime 7, one of the ships specialty restaurants with Top Sales Director Holly Ennis and her husband Charles. It was so nice getting to know them both better and hear Holly’s Mary Kay stories. Cody ordered the BIGGEST Alaskan King Crab EVER and a HUGE steak. And yes, he did name drop the “Cornelia Marie” for all you Deadliest Catch fans! :-)

Today we arrived in Rhodes. I LOVED RHODES! Super cute little town. When I woke up this morning and looked outside I thought I was at a castle! Check out the view from our balcony!! 

All of the streets were cobblestone and we went and saw the Acropolys of Lindos (spelling??!?!) and the Palace of the Knights. It totally felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie! :-)

I spent the afternoon shopping with Mary Strauss (many of you know her from the Sacramento area) and then another amazing afternoon getting mentored by Top Directors Tara Mitchell (she was Queen in Pearl last year for sharing), Diane Detesco (funniest i-story EVER), Tracy Chavez, and New National Sales Director Jeanie Martin! Isn’t that just a fun mouthful??!?!?!?!?

We had a fabulous dinner with some other couples on the ship, Leah & Cliff Lauchlan, Tara & Adam Mitchell, Laura, and Kristen Rogers. It was amazing hearing their i-stories and swapping ideas. It was like the United Nations of Mary Kay!!! LOL

I know it’s short, but we have a packed day at Ephesus tomorrow!

Day 3: Santorini

Almost five years ago when I began my Mary Kay business as a brand new beauty consultant, I created a dreams list. At the top it read, “If I could have anything, be anything, or do anything.....I would:” Two at the very top read: “Go on a top sales director trip”, and “Go to Greece”! How cool is that? If you haven’t already made your list, I HIGHLY encourage it. Since starting my business I have crossed off almost 75% of my list. Dreams really do come true with Mary Kay. With that being said, I have officially added another item to my dreams list: Buy a summer home in Santorini. Cody and I fell in love with this island today. The colors, architecture, culture....AMAZING!

The day started with another breakfast on the balcony as we pulled up to Santorini. While we were waiting for our tour to board the tender, I had a chance to visit with some other directors. 

Brenda Bennett and Lia- Isn't she BEAUTIFUL?!?

Our tour was called, “The highlights on Santorini” which offered panoramic tour all around the island. Funny thing was, I noticed MOST of the sales directors took the “Santorini SHOPPING experience” LOL...I’m telling you, these directors are HARD CORE shoppers! :-) After boarding our tender we met up with our guide and a fun surprise! Our tour bus was a PINK mercedes!! Do you think that was planned?!?!? LOL. 

We drove up a REALLY scary zig zag road. I was so glad Cody was by the window! Every time I leaned over all I saw was the drop off the cliff! Then I realized why the tour guide introduced our driver and then said “And....just trust him, he is a very good driver!!”

We made our way to Ois. Now, Santorini is beautiful but most photos you see are from Ois.

It was such a charming little town! There were dogs and cats everywhere! 
I knew going on the trip that I wanted to find a fabulous piece of art! The blue and white colors of Santorini would go so perfectly in our living room! We took some gorgeous pictures! The highlight of this time for me was accidentally not understanding the signs and going into the men’s restroom. OOPS!! Lucky for me there were no director’s husbands in there, just a very confused Greek man. LOL. 

Lia and Million Dollar Director Lisa Ann Harmon!

We boarded another bus and headed to another city where we sat down and had a authentic Greek meal showcasing the traditional food. SO yummy!! I got to visit with 3 other directors....it was a great time of sharing ideas and hilarious stories. The one thing I do love about this cruise is that there are so many tour groups and on each one are 2-5 sales directors so it’s really given us the opportunity to meet one on one versus in a large group. 

We ended the day on the other side of Santorini where I found my painting (YAY!!!!!!) and we did some great shopping and had amazing Gelato!

There were 3 options of going down back to the ship: by cable car, by donkey, or to walk down. I REALLY wanted to go by donkey, but we decided to play it on the safe side and keep my back safe (from my car accident 3 weeks ago) so we walked down instead. I was SO bummed, but I’m sure I’ll be back another time! :-) Besides, with all of this food they are feeding us we really needed to burn some calories!! :-) 25 minutes later, and our legs shaking we reached the bottom!

Tonight we are getting all dressed up for a romantic dinner then tomorrow we arrive in Crete!!

Day 2: Delos & Mykonos

Today was a SUPER packed day! I’m not quite used to the 10 hour time difference yet so I was wide awake at 3:00am. Thank goodness for 24 hour room service! I enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate until Cody woke up. :-) We had a fabulous breakfast on our balcony as the ship was pulling up to Delos. 

YUMMMMY!

We boarded a tender (small boat) that took us to Delos.

Delos is the largest archaeological site in Europe. It is said to be the birthplace of Apollo. It once had a population of over 35,000 people in it’s day! Now, it has no inhabitants, restaurants, or stores- it is strictly a tourist site. We saw a theater, what once were considered luxury houses, and a museum with many of the archeological finds. 

I loved seeing all of the mosaics- many were made of precious stones. The detail was incredible! Cody is a MAJOR history buff so he was totally in his element! 

We boarded the ship for lunch and had a awesome time visiting with other top directors AND brand new National Sales Director, Jeanie Martin. We ate lunch with Mary Strauss (if that name is familiar that’s because she lives in Folsom and many of you saw Mary at career conference this year!) and Million Dollar Director Amy Allgood. Now it was my turn to be in MY element! Amy and Mary were a wealth of ideas, suggestions, and inspiration! I took so many great notes and really got to know them both better. This trip has been great so far but the friends I am making is so exciting!

NSD Jeanie Martin, Top Director Tracey Chavez, and Lia

The food has not been disappointing. We had a amazing feast and ended it with the BEST baklava I have EVER had (then again, this is the FIRST place outside of Costco that I’ve tried it- LOL) 

After lunch (and a short one hour cruise) we boarded another tender and headed to the island of Mykonos. I fell in love with the charming architecture! My favorite color is blue so I LOVED all of the white washed buildings with bright blue shutters and railings. I’m on a quest to find a painting by a local artist some sort of scene of Mykonos or Santorini (tomorrow). The colors would be PERFECT for my living room! :-) 

Lia and Top Directors Kathryn Engstrom and Holly Ennis!

We toured the city for about 3 hours and visited a monastery, fabulous beaches, and even got to sample some of the local food and drinks. 

Can you believe how HUGE this pelican is? He was very friendly and let Cody pet him! :-)

We are pooped so tonight is room service and a movie. :-) We might venture out to the pool later tonight if we wake up! Tomorrow is Santorini and I have been looking forward to this port the most! I am still amazed at how well Mary Kay is rewarding us with this trip. I knew it would be good- but ALL of my expectations have been blown out of the water- this has been BEYOND amazing and we’re only on the first day!

Day 1: Athens, Greece

HELLO FROM GREECE!!!

After 24 hours of travel, we landed in Athens and headed for our cruise ship. 

We are staying on the 5 star Regency Seven Seas Mariner! It's a beautiful ship!

The drive was about a hour and I had a great time getting to know Top sales director Shanna from the pearl seminar. In her VERY FIRST year as a director Shanna and her unit completed $650,000, and they offsprung 3 new directors!

We knew going on a 5 star cruise would be great but it turned out to be AMAZING! After checking in, our stewardess took us to our room. I’ve been on cruises before so I was blown away by our room! She showed us how to work all of the cool gadgets. There was fresh fruit, a complimentary stocked fridge, CHOCOLATE ON THE PILLOWS (if you know me well, you know how cool this is!! LOL), a beautiful bottle of some wine I can’t pronounce and a Huge plate of chocolate dipped strawberries- a gift from my director Lisa! THANK YOU! :-) 

We have our own balcony and are on the 8th deck. I can’t wait to show you the morning views in upcoming posts!

We quickly showered and changed and after a quick “drill” we headed to the First time trip winners and singles reception! It was so much fun meeting up with the staff (and our favorite - SEAN KEY!!) and meet all of the new trip winners. We also saw Mary Strauss (she lives in Folsom, CA ) and Patti Maxwell (San Jose, CA) 

This year the company also had Top sales directors Kim McClure, Auri Hatheway (that’s Auri and I below)

Kristen Meyer.....and many others there to greet us as well. They were SO welcoming and warm! We had dinner with Shanna and her husband, Rebecca and Stuart Milligan, and Kristen and her husband, Randy. Now, my husband..LOVES LOVE LOVES buffets almost as much as he loves when the 49ers are having a good season ( I know, let’s not go there...haha) so he was super excited to see a HUGE appetizer buffet. WOW.....Greek Olives (Lori..I’m working on getting you some!!), fresh grated local cheeses, hummus. HUGE shrimp, grilled garlic, artichoke hearts......OMG and that was just the appetizers!! We all ordered yummy main courses then headed up to see Kristen Meyer’s Million Dollar director’s penthouse suite. Their corner balcony of their room is the size of our entire room! MK really takes great care of their sales director’s...that’s for sure. We visited with Kristen for awhile- she is super sweet, very down to earth then called it a night!

Complimentary Room Service breakfast is on the menu tomorrow then a quick trip to Delos then the rest of the day in Mykonos.