Turkey, part 1a: Istanbul

As you know, it was a long cold winter here in Tajikistan. Through it all, Jen had three things to look forward to in the late spring/summer:

1) Seeing her mom (Earlene), who was coming to Tajikistan for a visit,
2) Going to Turkey for our company's conference (held every three years), followed by some vacation time there, and
3) Seeing her sister (Laurie), who was coming to the conference in Turkey to help with the children's program, then spend some time with us afterwards.

All three of these converged last month over two glorious days in Istanbul. On June 12, Earlene traveled with us to Turkey where she had a 48 hour layover. Later the same day, Laurie arrived. We all had nearly two days together before Earlene flew home and we went to the conference.

So first we had a few hours with Earlene before Laurie arrived. Here she is standing in front of the Aya Sofia, the 5th century church-turned-mosque...

Then Laurie showed up. That is another of Istanbul's famous landmarks, the Blue Mosque, in the background...

With two women who wanted to see as much as possible, and with less than two days to do it, we were very busy tourists. No time for naps in the pack-n-play, Ella had to make do with the sling...

Istanbul is a city filled with stray cats, and Ella made a few friends along the way...

We stayed at this cheap little B&B where we had breakfast the next morning on the roof overlooking the Bosphorus...
More of our time with Earlene and Laurie to come...