Enjoy a million pictures from my camera and camera phone of our trip to Turkey. We took a bunch of videos too, but getting just a picture post up took long enough, so don’t be waiting on those.

Our trip started out a little rough with a delay in Salt Lake City of all places. That two hour delay pretty much screwed the rest of our well planned flights and we ended up getting to our final destination, Antayla Turkey, eight hours later than we were suppose to, making it a 25hr total trip. We were SO happy we didn’t have the kids with us at that point because delays and traveling through an entire night was painful enough for two adults.

This is Geoff calling our travel agent in the Paris airport. We ended up being there for six hours and since France is one of our most favorite places, we were excited to take advantage of the extra time and go into the city. It happened to be May Day which is a day of demonstrations throughout Europe. Everyone advised us that it wasn’t a safe time to go out. We were disappointed, but nothing a delicious tarte aux abriocts and an Orangina couldn’t fix.

The first day we were there, it was gray skies, but still nice and warm. Clearly no one else thought it was laying out weather. Good thing, because we were so tired we just slept out there like vagabonds who had never seen the light of day.

Here’s when I discovered that our little hotel was actual an all inclusive resort…with icecream. Probably a total of two people spoke English there, so we never really knew what was going on other than you could eat and drink as much as you wanted.

And there was a mini water park which no one went to except for us.

The front of Cesar’s Temple. It was a really nice hotel right up to the Mediterranean sea.

Did I mention that Air France lost my bags? I have the worst luck. After two days of walking around in Geoff’s Chacos, we finally made it into a little nearby town for some shopping. I came across these beauties and I was sold, literally. The man checking us out told us he sells to “losers” all the time. Thank you sir.

We ate a traditional Turkish Doner in this beautiful square.


Geoff gave a really good presentation about Innovation in Technology at the conference. I’m always so impressed with his presenting and teaching skills as are all those in attendance. The World Conference of Business and Economics was so interesting to be a part of. Educators from literally all over the world were there to learn and present. We met people from places I had only heard of and we both really enjoyed learning more about what life really is like in places like Iran, Malaysia, Estonia, Tunisia, Cyprus (to name a few) outside of what the television tells us. It was heartwarming to be among a group of people so dedicated to the furthering of education and learning.

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The conference was to provide a tour into Antayla, but as far as we could make out from exchanged hand signals and a little English, it was canceled. We decided to do it anyways. The bus driver from the airport to the hotel was a very nice man and took us part of the way, dropped us off and told us his friend would take us the rest of the way. We didn’t really know what to think when this pimped out car came and got us. Check out the inside. I was a little worried about putting our lives into yet another stranger’s hands, but aside from the fact that he blasted the raunchiest rap music I’ve ever heard the entire way into Antayla, he was very reliable and picked us up and took us back at the agreed upon time.

Antayla was just beautiful. It was a foggy day, so you can’t see well, but this is looking out into the ocean.


I’m standing in the doorway of a mausoleum built in 1377.


Hadrian’s Gate, a triumphal arch which was built in the name of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who visited Antalya in the year 130.


After walking around the older part of the city and through the markets (see previous post about Turkish Rugs), we decided to go back down to the harbor.




We ended up taking a boat to see Lower Düden Falls. These drop right into the Mediterranean. It was just gorgeous.

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Our final days there we spent relaxing at the pool. I think we read a total of five books between the two of us. I celebrated my birthday there and was treated to a Turkish massage which was royal treatment. We took a tour with a group from the conference to some of the old Roman sites. Unfortunately, the bus driver got lost and fouled up the timing so we had very little time at Perga which I was not happy about.


Then we were off to see the lovely Kursunlu waterfalls where I also got to check something off the bucket list, riding a camel! It was short lived, but really fun. Getting up and down was hilarious.





And lastly, to my most favorite spot of all, Aspendos. The theater was built in 155 and they still use it for concerts to this day. It was jaw dropping beautiful and so mind blowing to think we were standing in a structure built so long ago.






But, my favorite part of the whole trip was having my feet in the Mediterranean sand with my best friend. It was wonderful not having a schedule or routine and just having all the time in the world to talk, laugh and spend time with the man I’ve loved forever. Can’t wait for our next adventure!