Geo: 37.9166, 29.1126We're backing up one and a half days. The night before last we went over to Amishay's house for a visit. They had some Turkish friends that wanted to meet us. One of them spoke very good English and has just finished University in Ankara. She is interested in coming to the US for about 6 months to improve her English, but is confounded by US law on the matter. She'd like to come as an Au Pair, but would like to go to school too. Since my knowledge in this area is pretty scant and I don't need an Au Pair, I'm not sure that I was much help. We did extend an offer to Amishay to come visit us when he is older, maybe in a few years. Since he wouldn't have ... read more

Geo: 37.0391, 27.4302We've had a very social 24 hours. Last night we had Amishay and his mom, grandmother and baby brother over for tea and cake and had a very nice time. We had to spend a fair amount of time consulting the dictionary, but we also played with the baby and looked at some of our Turkey travel photos together. The children also gave me some anniversary gifts. Kate negotiated for a salt and pepper set that says, "Bodrum" and Josh bought a family of five cats sitting on a straw mat. They scare me a little--the eyes are a little creepy. I'm a terrible person to buy gifts for. Luckily, Josh understands that this is my failing, not his. He laughs about it. I will, however, dutifully carry the creepy cats home to share ... read more

Geo: 37.0391, 27.4302Since we were back a late from Ephesus, it was a slow morning Sunday. Grandpa spent a good part of the day gathering his things. I drove down to town to the internet café to send off an email for him and find a hotel room in Istanbul. I ended up getting him a great deal ($65, including taxes and breakfast) just off Sultanahmet Square at the Hotel Nena which has gotten great reviews from both people on the internet and people we have met. After that, Grandpa couldn't avoid it any longer: we dragged him to the hamam. He still insisted on washing himself, but the boys got the full-body giggle scrub. They came out to the waiting and refreshment area in their towels, so I got a picture (btw- lots of people ... read more

Geo: 37.0421, 27.131Note: I screwed up when uploading the Ephesus photos. They are all on the next blog entry.Today we took the first big road trip that we've had in quite a while. We struck out for Ephesus somewhere around 9 this morning. The drive was same-old, same-old through Milas since we've done it a number of times heading to and from the airport. It got more interesting as we turned north and reached out into new territory. Things continued to be very dry and rocky. The stone outcroppings from the mountains looked more like shale than what we have around our house, but truth-be-told, I took geology as an 8am class and I could be wrong on that. The amount of agricultural land seemed to increase significantly. It seemed to be primarily orchards over tilled ... read more

Geo: 37.0391, 27.4302There has been no internet at the house for the last several days. Luckily it has been timed with the arrival of a car at our house, but we've been out running around and haven't gone into town to blog for a couple of days.Nanny and Grandpa arrived Monday night. We were hoping that they would manage to make it to the house before dark so that they wouldn't have as tough a time as we had finding the place, but no such luck. They relied upon the kindness of German strangers to help them get to the house. There was much rejoicing. I believe there was an entire suitcase filled with books, movies, peanut butter and other assorted gifts. We all stayed up until past 11pm talking and hearing about their adventures and ... read more