Yesterday was one of those days where at night you look at each other and say, “I can’t believe we did this.”

We are in Santorini, a most picturesque place. We are staying in the little village of Pyrgos. When we got here on Tuesday-basically a 30 minute plane ride from Athens-we went into the local village for a late lunch. We ended up staying quite a few hours talking with the locals. Always one of my most favorite things to do. I promised the guys at Kantouni that I would give them a raving review on Trip Advisor.

But, yesterday we went to 2 winery’s for touring and tastings, and at the 3rd one we did a cooking school. Dennis from Santorini Wine Tours was our guide. He was the best, informative, knew his wines, knew what to pair it with and loves his country.

The first one was Boutari opening in 1989. We sampled dry white wines and pairing them with local cheeses and sausages. Dennis had us sipping the wine with the food, without the food, swirling, swishing. But what I loved was he took his time with us so we could enjoy what we were doing.

Next up was Gavalas Winery. He took us into the old grape room where they use to stomp the grapes. The Gavalas family has been making wine for 3 centuries and as the matriarch use to say, “Wine equals life.” Again good wines and great pairings.

And now Aroma Avlis Food and Wine for our cooking class. We chopped, we stirred, we purée, we mixed with our hands, sautéed, you get the idea. We made, pork fillet in a Vinsanto sauce (their sweet wine. They use this particular wine for the communion wine in the Orthodox Church.) A Santorini salad, Yellow Split Peas-Fava and tomato fritters. When we finished learning and cooking we went up stairs to eat what we made. It was a lively bunch, full of conversations, and just getting to know one another. Bryant and Beth live 70 miles from us in Columbia, Andi and JC live in Northern California in the Bay Area, and were just married 5 weeks ago, and Rod and Carol live in 2 separate places, he works in Iraq and she lives in Minnesota. And Rod is a graduate of the U of A. We both agreed we support the PAC 12.

Such a great experience. And I got the recipes. Today will be a leisurely day.