Black Sea, take 1

 It's been less than a month since we (Dennis) posted last!  Here's to maybe keeping this up...although it will have to happen in the few moments when Paul is napping and I've gotten everything else done, since blogging one-handed seems a bit too tricky for me.

Here's the latest on our travels:

First, we took a day trip up to Şile, which is a small Black Sea beach town about an hour from Istanbul (on the Asian aide).  Definitely a day-trip for many Istanbullus, not so much a touristy area.

They had a lovely old fortress thing (that you couldnt visit) on a little island. 

Sunscreen for Emily would have been a good call also.

 Then went for a walk on the beach.  It was fairly crowded, we thought the water was pretty darn cold.  Also we looked odd carrying this baby thing & wearing all our clothes.

The building at lower left is where we ate lunch. 

 The beach is a little ways around to the left, but this is basically all there is here.

Paul is learning to pay attention for photos.  Learning, I said.

Next, emboldened by a successful day-trip with Paul (complete with in-public feedings and Corolla trunk diaper changes), we decided to try for an overnight.  So, we set out for Kıyıköy, a(nother) small Black Sea villiage, this time on the European side, almost to the Bulgarian border.  Drive up was beautiful (scenic route), we stopped for a picnic at a deserted picnic area (there were tons of these on the drive up, I wonder when they're in use?  Maybe not in Ramadan?  Or when it's really hot out?)  Hotel was not much to look at from the outside, but had a really beautiful view and garden.  

Quite the view.  Food was awesome too!

It was pretty darn hot out, so we had a family nap time (well sorta, Dennis napped and I attempted to get Paul to nap in a room without air-conditioning).   In retrospect, our first glimpse of an interesting night to come.  He seemed a little fussy, but I figured he was just hot.  We kept the doors open so we could get a nice cross breeze.  Once it got closer to evening, we headed out for a bit of pre-dinner sightseeing. 

5th(?) century monastery dug into the rock in the side of the hill.  Bats!

Small beach, wasn't too crowded at 6pm.  Oddly warm water?

Paul had a rough dinner (lots of fussy), we spent several hours attempting to get him to go to sleep.  We learned 2 things:  1) he doesn't care for lots of wind, even when it's hot out, as he quieted down immediately once we put feety-pajamas on him.  2) We should stay in hotels with air-conditioning.  Needless to say, not a lot sleep for us.  Then of course there was the 5am thunderstorm (power went out 3 times), which Paul did not mind.  But the best part was, when headed out the next morning with a happy baby, we noticed that he'd started to cut a tooth!  What kind of normal 2 month old starts to get teeth?!  But it's been a couple more weeks now and that tooth hasn't moved much, so who knows.  He's just got a little tip poking up. (update: definitely not a tooth, just a fussy baby.  First tooth appeared at 6mos). Onward we went.

Maybe 1400's?  I waited in the car in my shorts & sleeveless shirt. (fail)

 We decided to take the long way home.  Here's an old Byzantine church turned into a mosque in one of the small towns we stopped in along the way.  This is why dennis should blog, I'm no good with places & dates :-)

Faces down though, seeds all picked out already.

 The valleys around this part of the country are FULL of sunflowers.  They use the oil for cooking, but it's really cool to see.  We did indeed drive over the mountains in the background, on a gravel road!

  The top of the cave, other entrance was many many stairs down.

 Our main reason for the long way home was to see these caves...about 500m total, wet & dry caves, with really cool formations.  But everyone knows cave photos never look good later, just take my word for it that it was neat.

This is the bridge over the stream that they used as the beverage cooler. 

 Paul was a fan of the woods.  It was pretty funny in the cave, he fussed as we walked in, then stopped slowly as we climbed up and the temperature rose.  Then the reverse on the way back down.  Maybe those Turks are on to something when they say babies don't like to be cold....the guy selling tickets was aghast that we wanted to bring him in there, and not even with any socks on!  Clearly it'll give him gas.

Next time....

Made it home after a great drive on a great freeway, topped off with horrible Istanbul traffic.  1.5 hours to go 5k really says "welcome home", right?  So, since this trip went so swimmingly, we're planning a 7-8 day long road trip along the Black Sea cost out east.  Will let you know how it goes.  Dennis has these Anatolian history lectures on his ipod...guess what we'll be listening to every day?  :-)