Autumn Adventures

We had a rental car delivered to our house at the end of September.  Nicole thought it might make a nice 16th birthday present!

I used the rental to drive to the airport in Istanbul to pick up Cam's friend Ray.  I was grateful for Nicole's good navigating. This was the first time I've driven in Istanbul without following Cam and I was not sure I was up to the challenge.  We enjoyed a Starbucks treat while we waited for Ray's flight.

Cam about to enjoy some of Nicole's birthday cake.

Ray with a "slice" of cake. Ray spent about a week with us. I took him to the market one day and introduced him to our pal the cheese vendor as "yeni adam" which might translate as "new man".  The vendor (Yildrim) often asks me if Cam is with his girlfriend when he doesn't come to the market with me.  Yildrim thinks this is riotously funny, so I enjoyed turning the tables on him, though he didn't get the joke.  I made Cam go to the market with me the next time I went in order to set the record straight.  

After Ray left, we had the car for a couple of days.  Nicole and I went on a little adventure one afternoon.

A village on the peninsula.  Many of the village houses don't really look like anyone should live in them.  However if you look closely, the windows are spotless, the curtains are lace and the plants on the sill are in bloom! You'll have to take my word for it, since this picture was taken on the go!

The other side of the mountain.

Typical Turkey - somebody has dumped a collection of household trash beside a field.  There's a holiday village in the background.

At the Erdogan (with the boss!) playing with their baby rabbits. We met a Canadian family for lunch.  They have a daughter Nicole's age, but they are being transferred to Ankara which is 8 hours from our house.

So little and so cuddly

Cute and cuddly once you catch them!

Turkish Transportation Options in Two Photos

Sacks of what appeared to be potatoes loaded carefully on this truck.  Cam passed it quickly so we didn't have to help play pick up when gravity happened. On the way home from this trip to Kesan, we saw two men working on a fuel tanker which was parked on a side road.  There was a roaring fire on the road under the tanker, of which the men seemed unaware.  Once again Cam used the accelerator to move us out of the danger zone.

Marmara Sea - Turkish Navy(?)  We often see military jets fly over the peninsula.  They regularly patrol the Marmara Sea shipping lanes and over fly the Saros, but it's rare to have such a good look at a boat.

Nicole's Birthday

Nicole's birthday fell on a Turkish holiday, but we were able to find just the right cake

A big breath to make sure all those candles get blown out!

This is Nicole's realization that mom managed to bring from Canada something she wanted!
(Special paper for using a computer printer to make iron on transfers.)

And something she needed - an external hard drive.

S

A Frozen movie poster from Sam

Ray's helping with the candles.

Sam is ready to use the knife!

16 candles and one happy girl!

Birthday supper at Erdogan.  Dad was able to sneak away from supervisory duties at the rig just long enough to join us for supper.