My Travels: 1994-1997 Athens

Highlights:

Hiking Mt. Athos with Costas Abatzidis and Don Booth.

Road Trip to Peloponese and towns of Corinth, Epidaurus, Sparta and Monemvasia

Basketball tournaments and playing with Aires (Greek God of War).

Poker group trip to Kefalonia July 6-9, 1995.

CODELS Kennedy and Rogers in August

Walking the original route of the Marathon 26 miles in six hours and 15 minutes November 5, 1995.

Attended the Indian Wells ATP/WTA Tennis Tournament March 8-17 including some tennis lessons from a pro. Michael Chang won the men's singles and Steffi Graff the women's. I remember driving back direct to San Francisco in 12 hours.

Trips to the island of Spetses and a one day three island cruise to Hydra, Poros and Aegina during the visit of my nephew Bryan in July 1996. Also, road trip to the cliffs of Meteora and the monasteries with the boys. The plane he flew from Athens to JFK was the same as TWA flight 800 that took off for Paris and crashed 12 minutes after departure.

Jeffrey graduates from elementary school.

Cruise to Santorini, Crete and Mykonos with the Chavera's.

ICASS Conference in London September 22-25, 1996.

Weekend ferry trip to Corfu in November 1996.

Supporting numerous CODELs and visits by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke.

Transition from FAAS to ICASS and conference in London September 1996.

Travel to CGFS Charleston for FMO conference in March 17-25, 1997.

Vacation in Rome with Jeffrey to Rome and Vatican with church group May 25-31, 1997.

Hiking Mt. Olympus June 6-8, 1997

Trip to the island of Paros July 4-6, 1997

Pack out July 14, 1997 and Acting Management Officer.

Departed on direct transfer to Paris August 13, 1997.

Favorite Memories

We played poker at least once every two weeks and rotated houses. Besides DCM Tom Miller, there was Bill Rooney, Mike McLaughlin and a couple of other embassy staff, Stelios, a local businessman who owned is own pool company, John Priamou and a couple of other expatriates in our group. The most memorable was a weekend trip to Stelios' house on the island of Kefalonia in June 1996 with our poker group.

Playing tennis and squash at the Politia Tennis Club and being invited to lunches and dinners at the club on weekends.. Playing against Tom Miller and Nick Smith. Also, playing squash with Robert Wood and Andreas. Also, on occasion our Politia club members played against a group of visiting British sailors from their ship docked in Piraeus. After each tournament we had a fun dinner to celebrate.

The Management Counselor, Mike McLaughlin was an avid sportsman. He had a basketball court constructed on the embassy compound as well as a bar and restaurant named "The Upper Deck". I headed up a basketball league with different teams within the embassy but was terrible as a referee. I played with the Management team Aires "God of War" staring Mike and our Voucher Examiner George Hatziioannidis. I also had a bad experience trying to coach a high school basketball team. We played softball on the weekends out at the American school on a hard dirt field.

Mike left the summer of 1995 and was replaced by Anita Booth. Senior staff and Country Team meetings.

Boy scout camping trips with Patrick and other activities like field trips and Pinewood Derby.

Slouvaki dinners at local restaurants in Politia and Kafissia

One of regular parties to celebrate different holidays and occasions with Evelina, Olga, Irene, Flora, Xenia, and Toni,

In Paris attending conference and in a bar in the Latin quarter having drinks with colleagues Costas, Litta, Steve Hartwell and Dave Zarisky, my replacement.