15 inches and it is still snowing

And better yet, we still have power! Yeah!

Radio City Music Hall

Getting ready to watch the Rockette's. Beautiful theater.

Crazy girls

Statue of Liberty

Waiting for the metro

Goes against my NYC rule of walking everywhere, but I guess 5 miles may be a bit much.

Fortifying for a day of sightseeing

Enjoying a chocolate croissant at a French patisserie in NYC.

NYC visit

Saw Matilda last night. Fun!

Enjoying Apple tea after our meal in Sirince

Apple tea is the National drink of Turkey. We drove up to this old city on the top of mountain for lunch and the proprietor brought us complimentary apple tea to finish out the meal. Yummy food, too.

More Ephesus

Lots of walking today! The first photo is the Library of Celsus (it was reconstructed by the Austrians in the 1970s to its present condition). Multiple agencies from around the world are contributing to the protection of this site.

Ephesus

We visited this ruined city today. This is the theatre. We were able to climb to the top and take a rest in the seats.

Cooking in Kusadasi

We are fixing up a meal for dinner tonight. Dave and I went to the grocery store and picked up the fixings for a pasta dish. We are crossing our fingers. Nothing like picking out a cheese that looks like feta, but having no idea if it is any good. You'll notice the glass of wine. Dave says you need a glass while bullshitting your way through dinner. Wine is always a good idea. And bread.

Hagia Sophia

After dinner we took a short stroll.

Arrived in Istanbul

We arrived in Istanbul after a 10 hour overnight flight. We boarded at 11:20pm and were served a tasty Turkish delight right after take off. About an hour later we were served a great pasta dish for dinner (and two glasses of wine--because maybe it will help me sleep?) and about four hours later along comes breakfast! Great start to this vacation. We are going to eat our way through.

After checking into our apartment we went for dinner where we had a tasty Meze starter followed by kabobs and Turkish meatballs for dinner. Lots to eat!

Yes!

Bows in progress

Evening hobby time:

Marlee's bow is shooting

Marlee helped put the finishing touches on her bow with me Saturday and tried it out. Will still need a final coat of finish and a handle wrap at some point. She also made her own string, turns out she's a natural at that.

Bow Making

 

 

Last night Marlee helped me start cranking out a new batch of longbows. Apparently she thinks one is for her.

Look who is Parol of the month...

Archery sequence

Cailin's first comment on seeing the pictures below was, "OMG, my elbow is too high!"

Fellow Travelers

I think before I continue any further with my Guyana posts, I need to explain just a bit about my fellow travelers. In all, five of us were able to make the trip happen. Our fearless leader and the organizer for the whole trip was Andy. Andy has done quite a bit of travel over the years with work and for fun and is good at putting trips together. From what I understand, he was watching a show at 3am one morning called "River Monsters" and was fascinated by that episode's location on the Rewa River. And so the idea for this trip was born.

Andy's standard attire for the whole trip centered around his vest. He liked to use it instead of a daypack for all of his "stuff." If you needed it, he probably had it in his vest. He also often was identifiable by the GoPro camera around his chest to capture all of the action. Andy usually sat next to me during the boat rides. By the end of the trip, I was becoming jealous of his Tilley hat as well.

 

Grant is Andy's son, now in his early twenties. The timing of the trip needed to correspond to Grant's winter break from college. Grant was usually identified by the fact that he was sleeping. In the boat his head would be down on his chest. At the village he was curled up in a hammock. On a plane he'd be leaned to one side. I was amazed at how easily he could sleep in almost any position and situation. Grant and I shared a cabin during our time in the village. He was a fun guy to have around when it was time to be awake though.

Bruce and Susan were the official photographers on the trip.I was guessing they probably totalled between 15 and 20 thousand shots during the trip. Bruce is Andy's brother. While we couldn't resist cracking a few jokes about all of their camera equipment and electronics, we are definitely looking forward to their final set of pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know both of them and hope to hang out with them on another of Andy's adventures one of these days.

It should be noted that unless one of the daily downpours hit us, Susan and Bruce usually were in this position:

 

Our guides were great at pointing out all of the birds and wildlife along the river, and they had the equipment to capture it. Some of the pictures of the fish, wildlife, and general stuff that I've posted or will soon be posted are courtesy of their initial distribution of teaser pics. I would like to bring up the subject of appearances though. I couldn't stop chuckling one morning as we headed out for a walk to try and catch glimpses of wildlife. Bruce had outdone himself that morning:

 

 His cargo/travel pants were tucked into his white socks which were in turn visible through the sides of his sandals. He also preferred a vest, although his was full of electronics and trash bags to keep his camera dry. This particular morning, he also had an emergency space blanket shoved in the pouch on the back giving him a distinct hunchback appearance. His giant camera was slung around under one arm. His small video camera was under the other. His GPS was hanging from his neck. His camera bag with extra lenses, batteries, etc hung from his side. And his floppy hat and sunglasses completed the North American tourist look like I've never seen it pulled off before. (I probably owe him a beer for poking fun at him one more time, but at least he rolls with it gracefully.)

Finally, there was yours truly. I'm sure I looked ridiculous in my own right at times. And while I couldn't keep up with Grant sleeping everywhere, I occasionally found a spot to lay down and catch a few winks. Here I am in Port of Spain, Trinidad, outside the airport between flights. The ocean breeze made a 10am nap in the shade downright perfect -- even with the stone mattress.