August 23, 2025
Before we left Uçhisar, we took an art therapy session at the hotel. It seemed like a random offering, but the front desk let us know about the free session happening this morning and we figured the kids, especially Lenny, would enjoy an opportunity to get back into art. The teacher’s name was Marta and just two other people, a mother and son, joined us at the class.
The class started with drawing pastel spirals to warm up. Len quickly devolved into scribbles as expected but he was so happy to be scribbling. Marta then led the group through a session with the clay (closing our eyes, molding the clay into a seed, imagining how we would plant and what it would grow into). Len and Ollie instead opted to ask for more and more clay to make their own creations. They were mildly disrupting the session but no one seemed to mind. They happily molded an owl (Ollie) and a motorcycle/boat (Lenny) that eventually turned into an owl. Everyone then took a turn presenting their creations and the inspiration behind them to the class. Len was too shy to take a turn but Ollie was proud to tell the class about his “smiley face tree” inspiration.
The shuttle to the airport arrived a bit late and we were slightly worried about making the flight. Our worries ended up being unfounded as the airport had just 1 gate and 1 flight leaving at a time so the whole staff was keen to get everyone checked in and through security as quickly as possible.
Our streak of leaving things on planes/cars continues as Ollie left his beloved adventure hat on the van. This one especially hurt as it’s got a patch I bought at an antique store in Lambertville, NJ that Meme sewed onto it. On the flight to Romania, Len lost his baseball hat and Kyle left his jacket on the flight to Türkiye . A few flights ago to Croatia I lost my water bottle. We’re on a roll! We emailed the hotel to see if they could find Ollie’s hat and they said the shuttle driver did! They’re going to mail it to Mehmet’s house in Balıklıova, I’m so grateful!
We had two flights today and the flight to Istanbul was uneventful but the flight to Izmir was an exciting one for Ollie. The plane was a larger, newer model with screens in each seat and Ollie was jacked up to see the same game he played for probably 4 hours during our flight to London. “What are the odds? 1%? 2% 5%?? That they would have these screen on such a short flight!! What??!!” The only bummer from the flight was that Ollie’s suitcase was left behind in Istanbul and that they would try and deliver it to us tomorrow. The boys wear the same size so not having his clothes for a day won’t be a big deal.
The kids were so exited to see Mehmet and greeted him with aggressive hugs on seeing him. He told them jokingly that we were “going to party all night long” which they loved and latched onto. They repeated this all evening and kept asking if it were true.
We stopped for dinner in Urla at a Michelin star restaurant, Beğendik Abi, that Mehmet said he frequents whenever he is home. The restaurant was super casual, family style with food cooked in the front so you saw all the dishes lined up as your ordered. Ollie was devastated they sold the last batch of grape leaves just as we got in line but Mehmet assured him there would be plenty at his house as his sister loves to make them.
We drove another ~45 minutes on to Balıklıova and arrived close to 10pm. Kyle kept pronouncing the town as “baklava” and Mehmet said '“close enough.” His family’s property is huge (with over 250 olive trees!) and right on the water. Mehmet said it used to be a boat house but was renovated to a barn and then a house a little over a decade ago. He also warned us that, “It might sound like our guard dog Johngo is dying in the middle of the night but thats just the noise he makes when he sees a wild boar.”
We met Mehmet’s Mom, Dad and sisters Denise and Eileen. Mehmet’s friend Dan from GS/London is also visiting this weekend. We checked out the dock before turning in and found a handful of crabs crawling around— the boys are excited to try and catch some this week. We learned the house has limited power as a few of the solar panels are broken but they hope they’ll be fixed this week. We’re also without WiFi this week so we anticipate getting behind on journal posting! The boys were excited to find that Mehmet left them a few Penn State themed gifts in their room. We were happy to have avoided the all night long party…
