September 13, 2025 - Istanbul, Turkey

We were up around 7:00 and met Wendy, Shari and Bill for breakfast at 8:0am, before checking out of our hotel. We walked around the block to the Kent Hotel where we are staying for the next two nights and checked our bags before venturing out for the day. This is the view as we headed out this morning. I had mapped out some areas we might want to see and we were off.

We passed lots of shops as we heading to the first stop - this one catering to the big guys.

We are going back to this Turkish Delight shop at the end of the trip to get treats to bring home.

We passed by the Sehzadebasi Cami, one of the many mosques in Istanbul. It is a 16th century Ottoman imperial mosque in the district of Fatih, on the third hill of Istanbul. It was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent as a memorial to his son who died in 1543.

This was on one of the doors just inside.

Sarachane Park is next to the mosque and cats, cats, everywhere! This guy had about five cats following him. I'm sure they were expecting treats.

The Burmali Mosque is another 16 century Ottoman mosque in Sarachne Park. It was built in 1550 and is named for its spiraling brick minaret, a copy of a Seljug design that is unique in Istanbul.

This was a statue at the entrance to the park.

The large statue of a sultan on a horse is in the middle of the park.

At the end of the park are the Aqueduct of Valens. It is one of the oldest and most impressive structures in Istanbul. Construction began under Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) and was completed by Emperor Valens in 375AD! It was built to bring clean water into the city when it was the capitol of the Byzantine Empire. For over 1,500 years, the aqueduct carried water from the Belgrad Forest to the center of the city, ending at a large fountain near Beyazit Square.

Now city streets run through the arches!

Continuing on, we passed the Fatih Mosque.

It is a very large complex, which includes a mosque, a madrasah (religious school), a daruşşifa (hospital), a Turkish bath, a bazaar, a library, and the tombs. It was constructed between 1463-1470!


The small arch looking stings along the front of the mosque are washing stations. Muslims are careful to prepare themselves before praying by washing. The washing is called wudu and involves washing their hands, mouth, nostrils, arms, head, and feet with water. Most mosques have separate areas for men and women to wash. This was a peak inside.

We continued on to the neighborhoods of Fener and Balat which are known for their colorful houses (and steep hills!).

I loved seeing the different foods and spices for sale as we passed by the many shops.


This was really cool to see. It was a bakery and the bread was on a conveyor belt. It looked like it passed through the oven, then out and back through again until it was the right color of doneness.

We got a glimpse of the Galata Tower which is across the Bosphorus Strait.

Continuing on ....

More cats!


And we arrived to the colorful houses!

We were there!






We headed down the hill and walked along the Golden Horn heading back toward our hotel.

We spotted the Bulgarian Church and stopped to take a look. It was built in the 1800s.


We continued along the water and could see the Galata Tower which was built in the 1200s.

There were lots of folks fishing and enjoying the park along the water.

One family even brought their fancy chickens to the park with them!

We had to pass under the road along the tram tunnel and there were mural along the way. It was pretty interesting to see.

By now it was after 1pm and we were all getting tired and hungry so made our way back (now UP the hills) toward our hotel. We stopped for lunch at the Chef Murad Restaurant. Tobey and I split a cheese pide.

We watched several other people get this puffy bread so we ordered one to share. Ours un-puffed almost before it arrived at our table. It was pretty bland, but okay. It seems like the locals were served some kind of things to dip the bread in which would have been better - I think.

We arrived back at the hotel around 2:30 after walking over five miles and got checked into our rooms. We spent time relaxing and Tobey took another walk before we joined the group for our meet and greet with our local tour director at 6:30 tonight. After our meeting, Bill and Shari and Tobey and I went out to grab a small dinner since it was almost 8:30! We stopped at the Lalelim Bufe and had a delicious beef duren and fresh squeezed orange juice.

The meat was delicious and it was all we could do to finish the one sandwich between us!

It's almost 10:00pm and breakfast is at 7:30 and the tour begins at 9:00 so it will be a full day. Good night from Istanbul!

September 11-12, 2025 - Fort Collins, CO to Istanbul, Turkey

It's been almost two years since we decided to take this trip and we are finally on our way! We are taking a GoAhead EF Tour through Turkey with friends, Wendy, Shari, and Bill.

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.

April 13-16, 2025 - Cancun, Mexico to Fort Collins, Colorado

We started our day at The Grand with breakfast at the Habibi Restaurant on Sunday when we visited with our day pass. The food was good, but the service was SLOW!!! It took over an almost an hour before our food was delivered to our table! Crazy. After breakfast, we headed to the waterpark. We just found chairs and let breakfast settle before doing one of the waterslides and the lazy river a couple times each. We enjoyed seeing the kids area - lots of fun things to climb and get soaked on! We had decided to have lunch at Los Tacos, which we have eaten at before. Unfortunately, we were disappointed with the food.

Oh well. At least we got to see the hawk with it's handler working for a few minutes while we ate. VIDEO https://youtube.com/shorts/P5gLk7fcRQE?feature=share

We headed out to the beach and walked along a little before deciding to go back to The Sunrise and go sailing. Rather than wait for their lobby-to-lobby shuttle, we walked since it's under a mile. We walked through the Nizuc pool and beach area and they had a fun bubble machine on the beach for the kids.

Bubbles video https://youtube.com/shorts/QeXsHrME1Oo

After sailing and showers we headed back to The Grand for dinner. We had booked reservations at The Jade and their menu is very similar to Momo's here at The Sunrise, with the exception of a yummy beef dish they grill at your table. They were out of it! The head waiter was super nice and called to Caribeno and we switched our reservation there. Yummy seafood and a restaurant we hadn't tried before. We had a beautiful view as we left the restaurant.

We managed to get massages again, go sailing several times and went out in the 16 foot Hobie Cat. It is missing its jib sail, but was still faster and Tobey thought it was actually easier to sail than the 14 footers, and we had a great time. No more getting stuck on the beach for us!! :) Let's see, we ate more food - and more food, sat by the pool, read, relaxed, and got more sun than we probably should have.

Our last night's shows were a puppet show - geared toward the children, but still fun to see and the Michael Jackson show. It was fun and a good way to round out our stay. Michael Jackson Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/x9l2Ag87Ye4?feature=share

The wait staff in all of the restaurants are excellent and so friendly. On our last morning we had breakfast at the Gondola Restaurant. Michel, one of the hostesses, told us she would have something special for us this morning if we ate there - and she did! We were treated to a beautiful table and wonderful service! We NEVER saw anything like this during our entire stay.

She made us smile every morning - along with Vanessa - who usually works in the Boganbila Restaurant. Michel gave us many hugs and they both asked us to come back soon.

We were on the shuttle to the airport about 11am for our flight back to Colorado. The view as we departed Cancun was beautiful!

We were ahead of schedule arriving in Denver, but had to circle and circle because of winds in Denver and had a VERY bumpy descent into the airport. Then we had to wait for ground crew so we were not early after all! Oh well, it was a great trip but it is always good to be home. 

April 7-12, 2025 - Cancun, Mexico

Well, our time has been busy - but not busy, if that makes sense. We got here on Sunday and had the luxury of sleeping in on Monday. Our days are similar - buffet breakfast, lounge about, walk around the pool/property, go sailing, play putt-putt golf, have massages, eat lunch, sail, lounge by the pool, and after dinner they have a different show every night. Unless we go to the buffet for dinner, they now require you to make reservations at the restaurants, so we have been doing that, too. Tuesday it rained off and on all day, so we had a lot of down time to read - so I am almost finished with my next book club book.

We spot iguanas every day and have seen coatis (kind of like a raccoon) but didn't have my camera handy.

They are painting several of the buildings and are safety-conscious. The painters are all safety strapped to the buildings. You wouldn't get me to climb that three-story ladder!!!

Tobey had a seafood appetizers at one of the restaurants. The octopus was overcooked and a bit on the rubbery-side. He won't order that again.

This is a video of a special appetizer we had at the Agra, the Indian restaurant. Agra Restaurant special appetizer

There are different shows every night. This one was GLOW.

The Fuego (Fire) Show and a video of the finale.  Fire Show

We have been sailing several times. Yesterday the wind was weird and we had trouble tacking and ended up down the beach at The Grand Moon Palace. Our 30-minute sail lasted more than 2 hours by the time we were able to get back. Okay - confession here! We actually got beached at the Grand and I walked back to the marina (almost a mile) and a couple of the workers took another sailboat down and one of them sailed back with Tobey. We felt lucky, though, because three other boats capsized and they had to help with rescues! At least we didn't do that!

We had more fun today and were zipping along pretty good - so good in fact that when we came about, the sail clipped me in the face and I lost my sunglasses. Bummer!! And I only brought one pair with me. When we got back to shore, a guy asked Tobey if he would take him and his 8-year old daughter out. They were visiting the resort on a day pass and they hadn't sailed before. They had a great time and it was fun watching them. Video of Captain Tobey sailing

We do usually dress up for dinner. 

The full moon over the water.

Tomorrow we have a day pass to go to The Grand (another part of the Moon Palace Resort) so we are off to bed. 

April 6, 2025 - Fort Collins, CO to Cancun, Mexico

It has been a long day - but worth it! We were up at 3:00am and heading to the airport in Denver by 4:00 to catch our flight to Cancun. We originally didn't have seats together, but the gate agent was helpful and gave us two seats together. Unfortunately, they gave a family with two heathen children and a very loud mother the seats right behind us. Before we took off, the kids were screaming, kicking our seats, and flipping the tray tables up and down. Then the mother started reading to them and her voice was so loud we could barely hear each other! Just before takeoff, the flight attendant said we could move, so we did. The dad and grandparents were in the row across from them, and we moved in front of them. Then the kids bounced back and forth between the mom and dad - and the noise continued! I am glad it was ONLY a four hour flight!

We got to the Moon Palace about 3pm and checked in. We grabbed some lunch then changed into swimsuits and took a stroll around the pools and ended up napping on a lounge chair by the pool for a while!

We had dinner at one of the buffet restaurants before the "talent" show and Mexican show. The talent show was kids and some of them told jokes, others did some gymnastic moves or "danced." Fun for them. The professional show was fun and featured lots of traditional dances from Mexico.

We were reminded of the time we drove our RV through all the different Mexican states.

We strolled back to our room and will be calling it a night very soon.

I'm not sure I will be posting every day, but I promise we will be relaxing and enjoying the beach!