Saturday morning began with Barb and Doug waking up to celebrate their 39^th wedding anniversary in separate hospital beds here on the Island of Santorini.  What a memorable way to celebrate 39 years of marriage!  This is one anniversary I am certain they won’t soon forget.  Here are some photos of the special honeymoon suite they slept in overnight. 

Physical surroundings notwithstanding, they were sure glad they were able to celebrate their day.  Barb texted us first thing this morning to bring food since the hospital didn’t have anything for their patients.  We gathered up food from our hotel restaurant and took a taxi into the hospital.  The doctor had ordered more blood work this morning and Barb walked it over to the private lab.  The results came back as we arrived with their breakfast.  The results showed that Doug’s situation had improved but that it was not normal.  Of course not.  Doug is not normal, he’s exceptional!  The doctor wanted him to fly to Athens for more extensive cardiac testing and Doug said no, he will get those tests done when he arrives back in the States.  They made him sign a release saying he is not following their advice.  He did and he put on his shoes and walked out the door with us.  We went back to the hotel and rested.  That was the order of the day.  After a while at the hotel we went to the restaurant and had a nice “Yay, Doug is still alive lunch!”

After lunch while everyone rested once again, I caught a cab to go back to the dive site and get some commemorative T-shirts to mark our near fatal dive experience.  The road was too steep and the cab driver would not go down it.  I told him fine, I’ll walk.  So I got out and walked down the long steep narrow road only to find at the bottom that the dive shop was closed up.  So much for that great idea!  I walked back up the road where obviously the cab driver was still waiting for me because he had not been paid.  At the end of the trip I had only a 40 euro cab fare to show for it.  As I paid him, the Bob Hope melody of “Thanks, for the memories” played in my mind.

Back at the hotel to catch up with folks back home on Doug’s status took a while.  Lynda and I then walked across the street to a Greek mini-mart where we bought a bottle of champagne (sort of) and a vacuum packed bag of spicy olives to take to our upstairs 39 year newly weds to celebrate their anniversary.  You have to improvise when you’re on a secluded island in the Mediterranean.  We had a great time of celebration and reminiscing about this trip and the highs and the lows.  It was fun.  We leave tomorrow morning to start winding our way home.  All flights from here on out: Santorini to Athens; then Athens to Frankfurt; overnight in Frankfurt, then we board an 11:40 a.m. flight in Frankfurt to Seattle which arrives an hour and a half after we leave at 1:10 despite a 10 and a half hour flight.  We are planning a final farewell dinner and anniversary celebration tonight at the hotel restaurant which has been simply amazing.