Seven helicopters, 935 Greek salads, and 24 friends

Seven helicopters, 935 Greek salads. Seven helicopters, 935 Greek salads, and 24 friends.

Key points

• Yield: Regarding 2 1/2 cups Prep time: 20 minutes, plus draining and chilling Best produced: 2-4 hours before serving.
• The 24 individuals traveling with me had taken a combined 151 Yonderlust trips.
• From the beginning of Yonderlust Travel, I have remarked that traveling with 24 or 25 residents the way we do has never felt like group travel.
• We began in Athens, then moved through Samos, Patmos, Mykonos, Delos and Santorini.
• I'll remember the helicopters, Meteora, Patmos, the 935 Greek salads and enough tzatziki to float a fishing boat.

Robert St. John notes friendship has always mattered a great agreement to him. Next to his faith and family, friends are among the greatest blessings of his life.

Last week I chartered seven helicopters in Greece. I'm still not completely sure how my life obtained to a place where I can write that sentence, but there it is.

I was hosting 24 guests on our first Yonderlust trip through Greece, and I was determined to obtain them to Meteora. I had been there in 2011 and never forgot it. Ancient monasteries sit on top of massive stone pillars rising almost straight out of the ground. Photographs don't come close.

When we began planning the trip, Jesse, my Yonderlust Travel boots-on-the-ground guy in Europe, pushed back. "We can't do it." Meteora was too far from Athens. By bus, we would burn nine or 10 hours getting there and back. I kept pushing. "Trust me."

Then Jesse went there on an inspection trip and called. "We have to come here." I remarked, "I know." So, I chartered seven helicopters.

Watching them fly throughout the Greek countryside felt like something out of Apocalypse Now. All we needed was "Ride of the Valkyries" blasting through the headsets. We landed on a remote soccer field and spent the day exploring. Meteora was as magnificent as I remembered.

That was probably the most dramatic thing we did, but it wasn't the most significant.

We began in Athens, then moved through Samos, Patmos, Mykonos, Delos and Santorini. We explored ruins, swam in the Aegean and ate particularly well. We additionally ate approximately 935 Greek salads.

I didn't keep an official count, but 935 feels conservative. Apparently Greek law requires tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives and a slab of feta the size of a paving stone to be placed on every table before anyone is allowed to eat anything else.

I had forgotten how good tzatziki is in Greece. I've eaten plenty of it in America, and some of it is OK. But eating it there created me realize that much of what I had been eating back home was yogurt that had once heard a rumor concerning a cucumber. I couldn't obtain enough of it.

Santorini surprised me most. I hadn't cared much for it after my first visit 15 years ago. Turns out Santorini wasn't the difficulty. I just hadn't known where to go. On our final evening, we boarded a catamaran and watched what may have been the finest sunset of my life.

I could fill this entire column telling you where we went and what we did. But that really isn't what this trip was regarding.

Meanwhile, the 24 individuals traveling with me had taken a combined 151 Yonderlust trips. One guest was on her 12th. A number of had traveled with me five, six or seven times. A few were on their ninth. At some point, without my realizing exactly when it happened, a lot of these individuals ceased being guests and became close friends.

From the beginning of Yonderlust Travel, I have remarked that traveling with 24 or 25 residents the way we do has never felt like group travel. Around 1, 700 individuals have traveled with me over the past 10 years, and one of the things that has always fascinated me is how swiftly a group of individuals who may barely know each other can commence to feel like old friends. For years, I couldn't quite put my finger on why that happened. Then it hit me: it's the meals.

Most days we sit down together three times-breakfast, lunch and dinner. Do that for 10 days and you learn a lot regarding residents. You learn where they grew up, regarding their children and grandchildren, old friends, places they love, residents they miss and things that matter to them. That's what individuals talk concerning around a table.

Friendship has always mattered a great accord to me. Next to my faith and my family, my friends are among the greatest blessings of my life. I still have close friendships that began in elementary school-the kind where you can go two years without seeing someone and pick right back up where you left off.

I always thought that kind of friendship required decades. I don't anymore.

I have friends at home whom I love like brothers, but I don't spend 14 hours a day with them for 10 straight days. On these trips, that is exactly what happens. We eat together, ride together, walk together, sit on boats together, obtain tired together, laugh together and somewhere along the way become true friends. Then plenty of come back the next year, and we do it again. That changes a relationship.

Yonderlust Travel began as I enjoy showing individuals places I have discovered. Somehow it became a real year-round business. I obtain a lot of the credit as my name is attached, but much belongs elsewhere. Jesse and our team back home-Brittany and Simeon-handle a hundred details and create me look more competent than I am.

Notably, the strange thing is that I never went looking for this career any more than I went looking for the restaurant business. I grew up without a father steering me toward a profession. My mother was an art teacher and hoped I might become an architect. Though I suspect I eventually would have tried to put a restaurant in every building I designed, I probably would have enjoyed that for a while.

Instead, the restaurant business discovered me. Years afterwards, travel identified me too.

Three times in my adult life, at three different churches, I have taken one of those spiritual-gifts assessments. All three times I obtained the same answer: hospitality.

For context, the first time I was disappointed. I was hoping for wisdom. Maybe discernment. Leadership sounded good. Faith. Something impressive. I obtained hospitality.

Basically, God informed me to feed residents and create sure everybody had a chair.

At the time, I felt like I had drawn the short straw. Then I took the test again a few years afterwards. Same answer. Then a third. Eventually even I can take a hint.

I don't claim to be good at a lot of things, but I am comfortable welcoming individuals. I know how to feed them. I enjoy showing them a place I love and watching them enjoy it. For most of my adult life I have done that in restaurants. Now I additionally secure to do it while traveling.

I have two of the greatest jobs in the world, and the older I obtain, the more I realize they are really the same job: hospitality. I feel blessed to have landed in work that fits me, work I love and work I believe I was meant to do.

I am grateful for every person who walks through the doors of one of our restaurants and trusts us with an evening. And I am especially grateful for the individuals who hand us 10 days of their lives, fly halfway worldwide and trust us to produce those days count.

I'll remember the helicopters, Meteora, Patmos, the 935 Greek salads and enough tzatziki to float a fishing boat. I'll remember that sunset in Santorini. But I suspect what I'll remember most is who was sitting throughout from me at the table.

Seven helicopters create for a pretty good story. Twenty-four individuals around a table produce for something much better. This Week's Recipe: RSJ's Greek Tzatziki.

This is the style of tzatziki I fell in love with again in Greece – thick, cool, garlicky, bright and built around full-fat Greek yogurt and well-drained cucumber. The key is keeping excess water out of the sauce and giving it enough time to rest so the garlic, olive oil, herbs and acid come together. Once you eat the real thing in Greece, most American tzatziki tastes like yogurt that once heard a rumor regarding a cucumber.

2 cups full-fat Greek yogurt, preferably 5% milkfat 1 sizeable English cucumber 2 substantial cloves garlic, particularly finely grated or mashed to a paste 2 Tbl extra-virgin olive oil 1 Tbl red wine vinegar 1 Tbl fresh lemon juice 1½ Tbl finely chopped fresh dill 1 tsp kosher salt, divided ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper.

Grate the cucumber on the sizeable holes of a box grater. Toss with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and place in a fine-mesh strainer for 15 minutes.

Transfer the cucumber to a clean kitchen towel and squeeze it hard. Then squeeze it again. The cucumber should be almost dry. This is the difference between thick Greek tzatziki and watery cucumber dip.

In a bowl, combine the Greek yogurt, garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, dill, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper. Fold the drained cucumber into the yogurt mixture until thoroughly combined.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Four hours is better. Overnight is excellent.

Taste and adjust the salt, vinegar or lemon if needed. Spoon into a serving bowl and drizzle with a little extra extra-virgin olive oil.

Employ full-fat yogurt. This is not the place for zero-fat anything. You want richness and body. Drain the cucumber thoroughly. Most bad tzatziki fails here.

For now, seven helicopters, 935 Greek salads, and 24 friends remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.