Friday, April 10

While Brian went to school, Rob and I and the kids went shopping at Armada and to McDonald's for lunch (had to have Rob taste the Turkish McNuggets!), then came home to pack for the adventure to Cappadocia. Just after loading up the van, I realized the tire was nearly flat again and called the rental agency. He sent out a driver to pick up the van again to have the tire fixed. We asked for a new tire, and certainly did not receive one. We asked for a different van, nope, no others available. So we went on faith that they really did do something to the tire this time to fix it, and we headed off. Clearly I'm getting too comfortable here, as there is no way I would have accepted this scenario when we were leaving for Izmir (I was petrified with "what if's" about our road trip before that trip...but everything was great).

So we were off to Cappadocia (kap-uh-dok-ee-uh), a region in central Turkey full of geographic oddities and ancient ruins. There are a handful of cities in the region, including Nigde, Urgup, Aksaray, Kayseri, and Avanos. "Cappadocia" doesn't even appear on many maps since it is an historic regional name.

The drive took us out past Brian's school atop a hill in a distance, and then along the shore of the Tuz Golu (Salt Lake) which felt like we were out on a coast because of the marshes and beaches. The lake dries to a salty shimmer in the summer, but right now it is very similar to the lake just east of Snoqualmie Pass. And the sun was setting just at that time, making the scenery pretty stunning. Add to that being out of the city, and things felt pretty good.



We arrived in Urgup without any troubles and got started inspecting our digs for the weekend: #5 at the Assiana Cave Inn (www.AssianaHouse.com). The suite was so awesome--the kids just kept wandering around discovering new things and trying out new pillows and stools to sit on. We settled into bed and were asleep in no time.