Saturday after our visit to Vergina, we visited with Tony, Taylor, and their children Yianni and Athená in their village of Methoni. After a delicious fish lunch on the waterfront, we went to their beautiful hilltop home.

The children were distracted at lunch, but when we got to their home, they wanted to show us their new kitty, and the dogs and the horses. Their home is at once spectacular and comfortable, blending Greek and Southerwestern US influences gracefully. The children clearly like each other very much, squabbling, of course, as a brother and sister will do, but also seeking each others' company and evidencing great mutual affection.

In the early evening, the children entertained themselves part of the time, and clamored for adult attention. They mostly wanted to read to us. They are very smart; Athena was "reading" books although she has only mastered the first two letters of the roman alphabet. She sang "Old Macdonald" from a book while pointing to the correct words. For a 5 year old, she's amazing.

Yianni read a complicated book to Michael, correctly reading captions and difficult written parts of the illustration with apparent ease. Michael asked him for a conclusion at the end of the book, and after a bit of orderly thought, Yianni came up with a correct answer. They are wonderful children, very sociable, extremely bright, and clearly benefiting from the complex and rich bi-cultural environment in which they're being raised.

They worked together on the computer for some time, with Athená offering useful suggestions that Yianni would immediately apply -- we noticed that he did monopolize the controls.

At bed time -- always a telling moment -- the children took themselves off to their wing with only a few reminders. Although they each have rooms, the have decided to have their beds together in Yianni's room. They appear to rely intensely on each other for amusement and intellectual stimulation.