We left Fort Collins on the shuttle to the airport at 3:30 (our dear neighbor, Dante, took us to the shuttle pick-up) and arrived at the airport after 5 for our 8pm flight on Turkish Airlines. The boarding process for Turkish Airlines is pretty unorganized, but we were onboard and ready for our 12 hour flight. Then we waited ... and waited ... and waited. The flight was delayed over an hour before we FINALLY got going. The staff was great and very helpful and friendly, thank goodness!
We were served two meals on the plane and I got a small glimpse of Istanbul as we approached the airport. Lots and lots of tall buildings. The city has over 15,000,000 residents and it is huge! Turkey is 9hours ahead of Colorado time, so we were able to text our son to let him know we arrived safely and he was already at work!
Leaving the airport we spotted a mosque and the Turkish flag. 
Because we were arriving a day before our tour begins, we arranged our own shuttle to our hotel. It took over an hour to get to the hotel and traffic was horrible! We checked in then found a little restaurant around the block from our hotel for a small dinner. Tobey and I shared the beef plate, Wendy had a chicken dunor, Bill had the chicken plate, and Shari had the lentil soup. 
Tomorrow we will explore parts of the city not included with our tour and move to the tour hotel which happens to be just around the corner! Good night for now.
