Here we celebrate, there we celebrate, everywhere we celebrate...

Thanks for hanging in with us gang...I've been spending all of my internet time watching the Tour de France, leaving the blog, and Erin, a little neglected. But oooh what a race it was. Those who know me have witnessed first hand how fanatical I can be. Thanks to all of you who let me take over your television this month so that I could support my addiction.

It has been a busy couple of weeks since the last post. We traveled to Oxnard to celebrate my grandpa's 85th birthday with a trip to a car museum. I enjoyed the walking around the cars and hearing grandpa's stories. When looking at the old Ford pictured below he told me that when they would visit a particular relative whose house lived on the top of a hill they had to back the car up the hill. It is fascinating to imagine the things my grandpa has seen during his time on this planet. I was happy to celebrate him.

On our way back north we stopped in at the ASI children's center to say hi to the children and have lunch with our friends that we have missed over this past month. It was great to see the kids, get some hugs and chat with the staff. It was good to see you all.

Our next stop turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable experience despite the oppressive heat of Bakersfield. The BOCPWE (Buck Owens Crystal Palace, Wendys Extravaganza) was the invention of our good friend Diana (follower #20) who introduced Erin to the Crystal Palace a few years ago and has always wanted to go to celebrate her birthday. BOCPWE involved a trip to Wendys for dinner and then to the Crystal Palace for drinks and dancing to a live band. On top of the original plan we added some Tuesday night Karaoke. Erin Sandra and Diana bravely regaled the crowd with a fabulous rendition of the Kenny Loggins hit Footloose while I acted as paparazzi.

The biggest news for our followers is the we finally have tickets for our flights. We will be leaving on August 4th, in 11 days. We will arrive in Turkey on the 5th and start our new lives. It is an exciting, adventure that we are ready to start! Retirement has treated us well, but we are ready to get this adventure started. I plan on putting in one more post before we leave so stay tuned for the final Tour of California post.

Something we won't miss

I have never been a fan of the southern half of my beloved home state, the air is dirty and the roads are ridiculously crowded. This week was the time scheduled in our tour to head south and the stress level was definitely elevated. After 3 weeks of living out our car Erin and I had our most tense moments. We both understand that the stress of moving and traveling around the state can create tension that seeps out in funny ways. Did I really mean to snap at Erin for asking me what street I would choose as a baby name? No, I was stressed about the traffic and not really knowing where I was going in the twisted maze of LA freeways. Uprooting you life and being uncertain about your future is one of the most stressful things a person can do in their life and it is of course going to create some tension and strain on a relationship.

Thankfully we were heading south to visit friends and family that could distract us and give us a break from our crankiness. Sandra, Chris, Brian Danielle, Smelli, Annamarie and Binesh played excellent hosts and tour guides for the southern california stint of our trip.

One of Erin's highlights was a stay in a 120 year old bean factory that was converted into a La Quinta Inn in Irvine. Sure the train was feet from our room, but it wasn't that bad, we enjoyed the novelty.

We also toured some of the more famous beaches of Southern California and even met a soap opera actor who was our bartender. The beaches were beautiful and warm. I liked visiting the Wayfarer's Chapel in Palos Verdes. This is an all glass chapel designed by Lloyd Wright (Frank's son) perched on a hillside overlooking the Pacific. I thought this was a fitting place for two homeless, jobless wanderers to visit. It was meant to be a place for wayfarers to contemplate life's spiritual journey. In such a beautiful setting it was easy to feel the peace that is necessary for contemplation to set in. I enjoyed it greatly.

Finally, we traveled to Riverside, a town with a not so stellar reputation. Despite the 106 degree temps, we found the downtown area to be quite a pleasure. Truly this week showed me that although some regions can be hot, dirty or congested having friends and family can make the difference between being miserable and happiness. This Tour of California has shown what a great network of friends we have and I hope that during our travels we will all be able to keep in touch.

Fun Fact # 2

I know what you're thinking...2 Days in a row?!?! How can I be so lucky? Well you can thank the hotel we are staying at for the free wireless access. I realized that you all deserve to your second dose of Turkey Fun Facts.

Mt. Chimaera

For those of you who know your Greek Mythology when youcome to visit us we can take a short trip to one of the places where mythology came to life. If you aren't up on your mythology let me explain. Chimaera was a fire-breathing mythical creature that Homer described in the Iliad as "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire".

Across the small bay of Antalya is Mount Chimaera named after the mythical creature. Here is the truly exciting part, as you climb up to the top of the mountain there are natural cracks where flames rise out of the cracks. This is a naturally occurring flame resulting from the burning of the natural gasses below the surface. The creature of myth is said to be living underneath this mountain. In talking to a family member who visited, we found out that if you cover one hole with a rock the flame will rise out of another hole nearby. We hope to make this mountain one of our first destinations, and we hope you will join us.

Happy Fourth of July

I want to start by saying that we know many of you wish you could read about us more often. I know you miss us greatly. The reality is that we do not have consistent access to the internet while we are on our trip so we are having to take advantage of every starbucks trip to catch up. In all honesty most of my starbucks time is being used to catch up on the happenings of the day's Tour de France stage, so that is leaving little time for writing. Please bear with us.

This week we put our bags in the car and staked a claim on the spare bedroom at Emily and Josh's house in Santa Cruz. For those who don't know Emily is Erin's sister and Josh is her new husband. Most of our visits with them involve so much laughing that I end up wheezing by the end of the night, this trip was no different. We will miss having them close to laugh with us. I may also miss shows like Tosh.O and Wipeout. On the last day of our visit we loaded up on Dramamine and went to Monterey to take a whale watching expedition into the Monterey Bay. It was a beautiful day and a great trip. I think we were all glad we had been properly drugged because the water was bumpy. We did get a chance to see two Humpback whales spouting and sounding in the gulf as well as some Risso Dolphins, Seals and a Black Albatross. It was a great way to finish off a fantastic visit with Emily and Josh.

After our stay in Santa Cruz we headed back north to Alameda for a slice of Americana on the fourth of July. It included your classic small town parade including veterans on the flatbeds, children throwing candy and horses high-stepping in their fancy clothes. My favorite float was labeled P.T.W.I.T.P.L.Y. People That Weren't In The Parade Last Year, poking fun at the feeling we all had by the end of the long parade. At the end of the line, the unsung hero of every parade that includes horses, the street sweeper. I decided to include him since he too is an integral part of the americana parade.

On a more personal note I ask that you keep my aunt in your thoughts and prayers this week. Yesterday after a brave and courageous battle with cancer Bev passed away in her home. Aunt Bev had a great smile and brought laughter and happiness with her where ever she went. We will miss having her at our gatherings, but her memory will live in our hearts forever.

Let the tour begin!!!

Wow. Sorry folks that it has been such a long time since the last entry, Erin and I filled our last few weeks with goodbye activities as well as packing, so by the time we got to the end of the night we were exhausted.

First off, Thank you to all of you SLO friends for a great 10 years of good times and experiences. We capped off our last evening in SLO with a trip to the Cliffs where we had a great time with many friends who dropped in. And check out the sunset that happened that night, gorgeous; a great way to end our residency of SLO.

Sunset at the Cliffs

So now the A & E Tour of Cali has begun. It started with some true SF experiences including being stuck in traffic waiting for the toll plaza on the Bay Bridge. A tremendously cold and misty night at AT&T Park to watch the Giants beat the Red Sox and watching a rally for some pride weekend activities; all of which we deemed a San Francisco Treat (Ding Ding), especially the topless yoga happening at the rally.

We survived the "Candlestickiness" Erin's crew from elementary school

The view from Dolores Park, SF

We then went to Patterson to help celebrate the 90^th birthday of my Grandma, a great opportunity to see family and say some goodbyes. There was a great turn out of people to honor a woman who has lived a great life filled with great friends, a wonderful sense of humor and so much life experienced. My grandma and several of my other relatives expressed excitement for our new adventure and they all encouraged us to experience as much of life as we can. The more and more we talk to people about the next few years the more I become excited for the trip.

Since we are so very excited Erin and I have broken into our Turkey books to map out the places we want to visit as well as to learn about the History and culture of the country we will soon call our home. Now that we know more about our future home we will begin sharing more Turkey fun facts or events. Hopefully one of these events will inspire you to come visit us soon. So here it goes:

Fun Fact #1: Camel Wrestling: December marks the beginning of the Camel-wrestling season in Turkey. Unlike its cruel cousins the dogfight and cockfight, this is a sport based on cunning and dominance as opposed to viciousness and bloodshed. During the mating season male camels naturally will wrestle each other in order to establish dominance and win the hearts of the prize females. When camels are very young they will be purchased from Iran and begin their 4-year training to learn their own strategies and special moves. During the wrestling season the camels are brought to a stadium where their prize (a female camel) is paraded in front of them. Like the once wild animals they started out as the camels are then placed in head to head competitions that last 10 min. each and eventually lead to one camel being named the winner of the match. The winning camel is awarded the female camel and up to $25,000. Now, come December, you will all know where you can find Erin and I, we’ll be at the wrestling matches. For a preview of the excitement check out this you tube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvq5gDuclS8

Don’t forget to keep checking the picasa we album below. I continue to add pictures to it. See you all later.

A SLO and Painful goodbye

Let the tour begin!!!. Now that we are basically done with work and are only 2 weeks from no longer having an address in SLO we have started to make sure and say a proper goodbye to the city we have loved and lived in for the past decade.

It started with a week of goodbyes at the school where we have lived, learned and grown over the years. It was an emotional experience saying goodbye to the women that have acted as friends, mentors and on occasion stood in as mothers (when needing advice on dealing with Charter, or whether or not to go to the ER for stitches). ASI has been a place where we grew as teachers and gained the skills that we will carry with us in our future adventures.

Now that we are down to 10 days in SLO we have kicked in to high gear on the central coast bucket list (things to do before leaving town). Instead of telling you all about it I have put a link below to a Picasa web album. Check out the pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/102431173849443461259/ItSSoHardToSayGoodbye?feat=directlink

How many more things will we squeeze in? Stay tuned?

Leave your cranberry sauce at home...It ain't that kind of Turkey

After considering your feedback, and weighing the offers from both schools the decision has been made. I hope you are all ready to come visit us in Turkey.

Before our Spain offer fell through I never would have considered Turkey as a place to go, not know anything more than it was in the "Middle East" (a moniker that seems to provoke a little anxiety in our relatives). As we have talked to people and done a little more research on the area we are getting more and more excited every day.

The sad news is that we have to start saying goodbye to some of the place and things that we love about the central coast. This morning as part of a birthday present for myself we went and purchased a new DSLR (for those who need to know it's a Canon t2i). The woman that owns The Photo Shop downtown was so kind and helpful and truly excited in our upcoming adventure. I knew Peggy from back in my film camera days and she still remembered me today when I walked in. I will miss living in a place where you know people and they know you.

We also went out to Avila to enjoy the beautiful weather. We stopped at Salisbury to wine taste and I said goodbye to an old friend Devil Dog Red. Then we met Andi and Dave for drinks

and a walk on the pier. We both agree that it is a good thing we are going to a beach town when we are in Turkey, we would both miss the beach too much.