|  | | California Soap Company * Beaded Designs by Debora | | Bubbles and Baubles |
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 Denise finally found the handles.
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 Denise took a ride on the Simit Express. She couldn't figure out where the handles were.
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 Brandon on the verge of wiping out!!! He actually recovered nicely and avoided a wipe out.
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 Brandon on the edge of the wake. He caught some air.
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 Brandon's first ride this year on the Simit Express. Hold on Tight!!
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 We found this starfish at Catal Adasi after a long beach walk looking for sea glass and fishing line floaties.
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 We enjoyed a wonderful dinner in Gumusluk with Cansen and Paydar. Our dinner started with many appetizers ranging from octopus to eggplant.
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 We ran into friends from Los Angeles in a small fishing village called Gumusluk near our home.
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 Here is the baycus (owl) again. We took so much footage we couldnt put it all on here but he's just so cute. This is the first time in the 2 weeks we've been here that we've seen the baycus.
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 Every home in our little complex in Bodrum has these triangles on their roofs. This one, RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR PATIO, happened to have a baycus (owl) resting for the day. Mom got a ton of footage of the owl ruffling its feathers and preening itself. It is very cute. Mom and Denise were oogling it all morning.
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 Brandon's head is the same size as the Nutella jar.
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 We visited our aunt Tulin at her eczane (pharmacy) in Golturkbuku. We had watermelon and talked for a bit on the front patio. She does a very brisk business.. There was constantly someone pulling up and going into her pharmacy.
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 The sign translates to "no animals are allowed in the beach area".
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 This is a Greek windmill at the top of one of the Bodrum hills. Because it is an ancient ruin, no one is allowed to take it down.
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 Mom, Baba, and Brandon back on land. We walked through the Turgutreis shopping area.
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 This is a picture of our Turgutreis marina where our boat is kept. from the bottom of the picture, if you count 3 arms up.. that is E where our boat is kept.
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 Mom with her snorkel, mask and fins.
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 The family on the boat heading toward Akyarlar (another beach).
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 Baba is bbqing us sucuk (Turkish sausage) for breakfast on the boat.
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 This was taken a little after sunset off our boat.. The water looks pinkish.
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 Mom and Brandon fed bread to the fish right off the boat. You can kind of see the fish in the water.
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 We bought a handy little bbq for the boat. It has been working wonders.. We have cooked on it maybe twice a day and Baba is doing an excellent job with the bbq!
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 The first dinner of the Blue Voyage! We had chicken and potatoes and some turkish orderves.
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 The first day of our Blue Voyage. We stopped first at Kara ada, then papuch burnu and then a third stop. The second day the boat actually started to break down again so we changed our plans and started heading back toward turgutreis. We are still going to speng the full 5 days on the boat, but much closer to the marina so that if we need help we can get it. We havent taken many pictures. Mostly we have been in the water snorkeling. We have seen some really amazing beaches you can only get to by boat.
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 Brandon and Derin wearing their sunscreen.
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 Meltem and son Demir
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 Brandon and Derin are going swimming in Guverginlik. Derin was so happy to see Brandon because now he had an older friend to play with! He was so sad when Brandon had to leave.
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 They had a swing at their summer home in Guverginlik. Brandon liked it because it was so comfortable.
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 Both our families in their back yard... Derin, Brandon, Mom, Denise, Meltem,
Demir, Baba, and Meltem's mom.
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 Didem, Denise, Meltem, Demir, and Meltem's mom by their house in Guverginlik
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 Today we went to visit Meltem and family. It was about an hour's drive. Brandon and Derin got icecreams and swam.
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 This is catal ada (fork island). Denise took this picture on the way home after the day of sun. Turns out Mom and Denise both got pretty badly sunburned on their backs and legs.
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 Yasemin's last night with us. We took her to the nightlife of Bodrum. It is called Barlar Sokak (Bar street).
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 This is the first day we got to take the boat out in Turkey!! We went to chavus adisi (island) and spent the day swimming and snorkeling. Brandon even hiked the island and found some rabbits. Denise and Mom went snorkeling for a few hours and came back with quite a few beautiful shells.
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 Brandon, Cansen Hala and Baba
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 Denise, Mom and Baba
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 This is Cansen Hala, Baba, and Mom at Cansen Hala's summer home.
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 This is Mom and Baba at Baba's Birthday dinner at his sister's (Cansen Hala's) house.
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 There are no rules in Turkey. This is in the Bodrum Marina where anyone can basically drive straight up to their boat and hop on. The problem is... there are no curbs or anything in the way of the car falling into the water.
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 THis is Denise with the Bodrum Kale (castle) in the background. This was at the end of the day-trip on the yacht.
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 This is Denise diving in from the side of the yacht. You can kind of see the size of the yacht based on her body length.
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 On Baba's birthday, (The other) Yasemin's cousins invited Denise and her on their yacht. They left from Bodrum marina (you can see the bodrum kale or castle in the background). They enjoyed a day of swimming in "Aquarium" and being catered to by the hired help. They were picked up at the end of the day and we all went to Cansen Hala's house for a birthday dinner. While the Yasemins were getting catered to, Mom, Baba, and Brandon put our now-fixed boat was back into the water and they test-drove it.
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 This is Brandon playing Chess with Baba in Turgutreis. Brandon won.
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 This is the view from our summer home at night.
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 This is Yasemin and Yasemin again. Today we walked 20 minutes to get to a seculded beach called Bitez beach. After we got drinks and icecream at Palovera beach. Every spot on the sand was taken it was a very popular beach.
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 This is Yasemin and Yasemin. Yasemin is a family friend who lives in San Francisco. She took a bus from Istanbul to stay with us in Bodrum. We really enjoyed her company.
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 This is Brandon sitting poolside at Cansen Hala's (Baba's sister's) pool. It was olympic sized or bigger. We spent a lot of the day there and ate dinner at a poolside cafe with the family.
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 This is a picture of the summer home. It is the first mound on the left, about 5 from the end. (2nd layer down) 82A.
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 Here she is...Vive La Vida. We are waiting for the mechanic to complete a repair before we can launch.
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 Here is another view from the balcony. The little town in the distance is Kadikale and further up the coast is Turgutreis where the boat is docked. The owls make their homes in the pointed vents on the top of the homes. We are still trying to photograph the owls.
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 Brandon is emailing his friend Michael on our first morning in our summer home. I will never get tired of this view. It is about 90 and it is humid but there is a nice sea breeze that helps.
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 This image shows the location of the summer home and the expected route of our Blue Voyage.
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 Hey! So we're off to Turkey for 3 weeks.. Me, Brandon and Mom, and Baba is already there with the boat. It's going to be 22 hours of travel time to get there but its going to be glorious weather and absolute paradise in Bodrum where the summerhome is. We have internet access almost everywhere there so we are planning on updating the blog regularly.. hopefully every couple days.. with pictures and text keeping everyone informed on the vacation!
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