Team Wilco's Big Adventure Days Part Uno

One family goal we have is to always explore new places and try to visit a new (to us) country at least every couple of years. A second goal is to visit with our friends and family as much as possible. Given our remote living situation, these two goals are sometimes tough to reconcile. But we managed to meet them both on our most recent big adventure.

We combined our goals by meeting with our good friends Justin and Elle (The International Bowling Stars) as they wandered around the planet for 6 months. It just so turns out we were able to meet up with them in Istanbul, and travel with them to Cyprus, where we looked for tasty waves and seven dollar coffees. And on the way, we met with friends and family at every stop.

We barely got out of town on account of the weather. 90 mph winds finally relented only to be followed by a dense fog. We made it out 4 hours late, just in time to catch our connecting flight.

Side note: Hooray Bethel Warriors! State Volleyball Champs!

End of side note. Uncle Regan was on the flight, en-route to a confernece in Dallas, so we traveled with him and shared a hotel in Seattle (hooray for Priceline and Dawson's Flyertalk friends!). The duel between Regan's snoring and Paxson Revel's crying allowed us to garner at least a solid 2-3 hours of sleep, and we continued on our journey the next day well rested and full of vigor. Despite the lack of sleep, it was a fun treat to see Regs on the first leg of our journey!


The next stop was San Francisco, where our hometown Missoula friends Mino and Gilder picked us up. (That's Gilds giving us a Zoolander "sexy.") Our next connecting flight was cancelled, so we had an unplanned spendover at Mino's palatial Noe Valley apartment. Our law school friends Kevin and Chi-Chi also rallyed to come spend some quality hang out time, as well as Damon's friend Hozefa. Congrats to Chi-Chi on the move back to San Fran, and congrats to Kevin and his sweet new (to him) car.


Next came a 6 hour flight, a 45 minute layover, and a 12 hour flight. Too much for a one year old to handle? Not Boodah! He handled it with ease and was actually the star of the show. I can honestly say that his presence made the flying experience more enjoyable, not just for us, but for many of our fellow plane mates. Seriously. He was such a hit, and his gregarious and jovial personality really lit up the faces of many folks. It was to become a common theme of the trip. If you are thinking of traveling to Turkey with children, I can't recommend it more. So many people were so kid friendly, it was fantastic. I'm always reminded of Kurt Vonnegut's writings.

This is Boodah's little blanket bedroom we made to help him snooze. He also enjoyed the inflight audio options.
Here he is, enjoying one of many free rides about the plane from his Turkish plane mates.

When we exited the airport in Istanbul, our friends were there holding up a sign marked "SENOR." Nothing but first class for us! Then it was straight to the subway for the ride into town. We stayed near the Hagia Sophia, in a hostel in the Sultanhamet area. In contrast to flying with babies, staying in youth hostels with jetlagged babies is not recommended. I'm pretty sure we didn't make any new friends on that portion of the mission. Fortunately we left early enough in the morning so that we didn't have to personally face the people who's sleep we may or may not have disturbed all night.

Actually that first midnight jetlag wake-up was pretty awesome, one of those unplanned mystical moments that happen on trips. I took Senor out for a walk and we enjoyed the sights. The Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, all lit up in the dead of the night, are really magical. Nobody was out but us and a lot of stray cats. And when I tried to buy a treat for Senor at a little store, the shopowner goo-gooed at Senor for a while and then refused payment. Such good vibes!