Christmas Eve was lovely once again. We headed out to do shopping and then dinner at the Asian Bistro for our traditional Chinese dinner. Hunan beef, steamed chicken and vegetables, garlic chicken shrimp and lobster sauce and a Thai curry. Yummy! Leftovers for the next day, well the day after Christmas. Getting home, Jim, Frankie and Mark headed out to find a tree after measuring the height in the bay window. Sure glad I had my knitting measuring tape handy! It did not take long for them to find the perfect tree and then we got to the business of decorating. [View Full Entry]

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Spent the day yesterday puttering around getting ready to drive to Fairbanks when Mark got home. We got on the road by 4:30PM in rather poor weather. Rain and we just washed the Element! Visibility was so-so and just past Wasilla we stopped to wash the windows and headlights. Did that a few times. By the time we got to Talkeetna the roads dried up and stayed dry till we pulled into Fairbanks by midnight. The only wildlife we saw was a lone red fox who was trying to cross the road in front of us but thought better of it [View Full Entry]

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To catch people up to speed who might be reading this and not know what has been happening in my life this past year there might be a surprising picture or two! Have fun, we sure are! This weekend Mark and I got to go to Seward and stay at the Seward Bayfront Cottage. A most wonderful vacation rental owned by Robin & Michael. It is right on Resurrection Bay, within walking distance from the Sea Life Center and downtown Seward. We drove down on Saturday arriving sometime just after noon. The beautiful fall yellows and greens were out, along with [View Full Entry]

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Cats, Cows, Carpets… Since I did not keep up the blog while I was in Turkey and am completing it after the fact, I’ve decided to write by topic… Cats Everywhere we looked, everywhere we went, everywhere we ate there were cats. Many of them were smaller, some were mangy, most were fun to watch. A few were so mangy that I did not get pictures of them, though another teacher did! Store owners and I think possibly restaurant owners fed the cats. I’m sure diners fed them too! We ate in many outdoor settings and there’d always be cats p [View Full Entry]

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An assortment of photos of the trip [View Full Entry]

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Monday, July 13, 2009 Arrived in Istanbul around 10AM, the Alaska contingent only. This turned out to be a good thing as we had the rest of the day to do as we wanted. Four of us took off together to head first to get some Turkish coffee. We sat at a little cafe where they made Turkish pancakes or crepes. We shared a spinach one and a potato one. A very tasty snack! Afterwards off we went to the Grand Bazaar. What a feast for the eyes! It is very brightly lit, clean and 4000 shops to choose from. Scarves, [View Full Entry]

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Just to let everyone know that my Mac ıs not workıng ın Turkey...at least not so far. I am on a publıc computer so I am unable to use ıt for long to type anythıng. As soon as my computer works I wıll update thıs. [View Full Entry]

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Arrıved safe and sound. My computer wıll not connect from the hotel yet so I am on a Turkısh keyboard, havıng fun gettıng used to typıng on ıt. We arrıved ın the mornıng and then washed up and headed out to the Grand Bazaar, but fırst we went to have Türk kahvesı,Turkısh coffee! Between us we dıd some bargaınıng and then wandered down to the Bosphorus to have a drınk and relax. Much of Istanbul remınds me of Israel wıth the same colours of buıldıngs and narrow streets. The narrow stree [View Full Entry]

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Avi made us a wonderful dinner tonight! He is quite the host...We'd planned on going to a movie but instead watched a movie being made when we went out for a walk after dinner... We'd noticed the last day or two that many streets had orange no parking cones out. Avi said it was for a movie that was being filmed in the area. There are a few movie lots/studios and lighting places. Tomorrow we'll go see a set for Atlantic City that has been left up. We were going to walk around the park but decided to head towards the [View Full Entry]

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Avi made us a wonderful dinner tonight! He is quite the host...We'd planned on going to a movie but instead watched a movie being made when we went out for a walk after dinner... We'd noticed the last day or two that many streets had orange no parking cones out. Avi said it was for a movie that was being filmed in the area. There are a few movie lots/studios and lighting places. Tomorrow we'll go see a set for Atlantic City that has been left up. We were going to walk around the park but decided to head towards the [View Full Entry]

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