______DeStefanos______: Part Two (Continued): Naxos Day Two

All right, people--Day Two--the best day of the trip. Naxos.

"Come on, Lewis, let's go to college." Katy booked a sailboat adventure for this day, and it was a total blast.

We were initially worried. The wind had arrived, the water was cold, and Captain Panos, albeit an able helmsman, was flying solo, which he told us was highly unusual for him. Scout's clear dread and unremitting honesty made her the visual representation of all our misgivings.

I think she was pretty certain that we adults had finally done it--we had finally delivered her and her brothers and cousins unto their utter doom.

"Get me off this thing!" But we loaded up anyway, set our course, and took on our fate.

Our first stop was a little cove with a cave.

We swam inside the cave, and jumped from the top of it,

and played awhile in the water around the boat.

We tried to get Scout to admit she was having fun.

Come on, Scout, smile.

Then we went to a little island that had already shut down for the season.

Captain Panos arranged our lunch there, nevertheless, and we ate with the family that owned the restaurant.

Again, delicious.

Then we hit the waves again. Panos, I think, was still anxious that the day might, in sum, not go well, especially with the rough waters and gusty winds ahead of us, but Maggie took her position at the front of the boat,

and I came up next to her, and, together, we took on Poseidon. Man, was it fun. Whether taking off over some great implacable wall of water or diving down to split the the sea in half, we were screaming--with joy! Maggie even sang. Eventually, the kids all joined us, and Katy and Suzy,too; and then Captain Panos started hunting down the biggest swells. Yahoo! We were all loving it.

A thrill, yes, but the greatest thrill was just about to happen: dolphins! Scout was the first to spot them. Or was it Maggie? Didn't much matter, because they spotted us and b-lined it for our boat. They were right in front of the prow, flying and leaping with and over each other--four or five of them.

Captain Panos cycled back again and again, one time for each dolphin, and we could not get enough of it, partly because they seemed to freely reciprocate our own joy. Charlie's foot, at one point, was inches away from the rainbow arc of their leaps.

We dropped anchor a last time in another crystal-clear cove, swam a bit, and Carmen jumped from a huge rock, and we settled into the realization that the day was going to stick with each of us forever.

Wait! What's that?! Yes, not even Scout could deny the truth: it was a day, indeed!

But the sun had descended far enough, and the wind hadn't slackened at all, and, at last, we were pretty cold. We headed back to our beach, wave-jumping as we went.

Wonderful! In fact, Captain Panos was so excited, he thought he would call up his grilfriend, and take us all out again, the next day--for free. But, as all good things must do, our day had ended, and with it our time in Naxos. We watched the sun set,