Relaxation after some heavy retail therapy and a dedication.

After some very involved retail therapy for a couple of days, it was time to relax a little, Tony and Elva were very keen to take us on an expedition into the lakes district and countryside. DH and I were eager to participate in this little adventure as well. On Saturday we all set off for the Land between the lakes, after a visit to Walmart, as my youngest son Alex requested Jiffs peanut butter and some butterfingers we went o Walmart to stock up. Little did I realise that Walmart stocked fabric, so a quick shop turned into a couple of hours, my fault!

 A lot of goodies purchased, as well as some fabric.

A little delay, but off we set for the lake, Tony and Elva took us the long way round to the lake as they were being the perfect hosts and wanted to show us as much of the countryside as they could, it would normally take 25 mins to drive to the lake, but as we had a couple of stops on the way, we arrived 2 1/2hrs later.

One of our first stops was the Grand River quilt show.

Whilst Elva and I looked at the quilts, the boys went antique shopping, on a quest for our daughter in law- no luck.

Some nice quilts on display

This was interesting, quilt below

War times certainly does have some great stories.

This was my viewers choice.

A close up of the embroidery.

There was a miniature house / home challenge as well.

First prize.

After the quilt show we visited a Sanctuary for Bison and Elk, we were fortunate enough to see both as well as wild turkey. Thank you Tony for your perfect photos.

Wild turkey

BIson

A herd of Bison

Even a number of babies

Elk

Another stop on the way, don't you just love American decorating styles.

I found some little treasures in here.

On the way to the land between the lakes we stopped to get some lunch at Belews, this was quite a novelty, you do not get out of your car, it is curb side service and I must say, it sold the best southern fried chicken.

We finally arrived at the lake, AHHHH ! the serenity, we had lunch, and set up chairs to enjoy the scenery.

Had some visitors as well.

Chillaxing!

A very enjoyable day, was had by all.

Sunday, was our quite day and time to pack and see what overall damage that I had done with excess luggage.

My fabric stash and some extras

Walmart even had goop and the glue that I use, happy days

More fabric off course and some minature resin antlers.

Embroidery bits

Stencils, all in all a great time was had by me....

Let me share this morsel, with you, bought by Elva,for us said to be the best apple fritter that you can try, and I must say it was good, but you only need a small amount, very sweet and very moorish.

This ends our time in Paducah and I must say DH and I, had the most amazing time, we felt that we were blessed with our host's Tony and Elva, when we first met it was like we had been friends for years and we all just clicked. Our accomadation felt like home and we were very grateful for the extras tagged onto our stay, my every whim was catered too, transportation provided and a debt of gratitude to Elva for taking time away from work, to be available for us, a couple of Aussies a long way from home. Thank you for introducing your family and friends to us, we were made to feel so welcome and all that you did, was very much appreciated. Distance may divide us, but enduring friendship will prevail, this post is dedicated to you both, a heartfelt thank you and God bless.

Onto Ankara and some cultural education.

After leaving   Instanbul and a visit to the Grand. Bazaar,  we had a 5 hour drive to Ankara, with a few stops on the way. Tour group slowly getting to know each other.

The Grand Bazzar has over 4,000 shops and employs 30,000 people, you can easily get lost, so if you see something, buy it because the shop would be difficult to find again. DH and I did get lost, all part of the adventure. On our drive to Ankara we stopped at a salt lake and walked on it, an absolute amazing sight. We arrived into Ankara late evening. The next morning saw us going to The Ancient Civilisation museum. This is a beautiful museum and wonderfully presented, It was  refreshing to be educated in another ancient civilisation, Antolian.

Look closely at this marriage vase, pictured below, featured in the museum.

DH and I in front of the fyrigians wall,  Anatolian museum.

We also visited the sycophogus of Ataturk, we had to wait to enter the museum due to a visiting dignitary from Austria. Below the Turkish flag in a garden display.

Entry to the museum.

We departed for Cappodocia, everyone was amazed at the rock formation, of this place, welcome to Bedrock. 

on our fist morning in Cappodocia we woke to a wonderful sight of over 70 hot air balloons in the sky.

Some of the amazing rock formations in Cappadocia.

Rock formations. After a wonderful 3 days in Cappodocia we set of to Guneysenir for a home stay. 

On arrival to Guneysenir, we were ushered to where the local Turkish women were having handicrafts lesson and wanted to show the tour group their creations, as you could imagine I was excited to see some of the local ladies handiwork. this was also an opportunity for me to show them some of my English paper piecing techniques. I also left with the ladies some pattern pieces and some instructions on how to paper piece. Although language can be a barrier, quilting has no boundaries for enthusiastic learners.

Our home stay was a success and we sampled local Turkish cooking and hospitality, Guneysenir is a small village, with little tourism, just another addition to our adventure in Turkey.

Turkey, Istanbul, culture, food and world heritage sites.

May 30th saw us traveling from Cairo to Instanbul, our relief when we were picked up from the hotel to travel to the airport. A delight to see Ahmed, our driver from the first few days in Cairo to be our transport. We arrived on good time to Cairo airport a few hours before departure! time to eat and shop! then settle until our 1520 hrs flight. This time approached and went past, we are all sitting in the gate area to board and was told about no delays, on enquiry found out that we had missed our air space and flight was cancelled indefinitely. We departed Cairo at 1730hrs and did not arrive into Instabul until 1945 hrs, delayed and worried about transport as we were so late, but G adventures picked us up, relief all round. As it does not get dark in Turkey until 2030 hrs, we were able to see some sites of Instanbul, both DH and I were delighted with what we saw, so different to Egypt.

On arrival into Instanbul, just near our hotel, heaps of restaurants, a choice had to be made!, so late.

DH ambling along the many restaurants.

A Turkish delight.... Testi Kebap

We thought we ordered small.

On Saturday we woke to rain, cleared by the time we set off to explore the city of Instanbul and the Blue Mosque.

Inside the Blue Mosque, beautiful tiles and lead light features.

Still feeling overwhelmed with what to buy!, below back to waiting in lines, something we did not have to do in Egypt, time to leave Instanbul and into Ankara.