VACATION 2012 Bolu, Turkey

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 WE have some beautiful scenery around us.

 There are lots of Springs all over the place.  Many of them are fixed with a pipe and an area to catch the water below it.

 This is the area of YediGoller (meaning 7 lakes).  They are more like ponds about 5-7 acres each.  They are a system feeding one to the other.  They are all spring fead and very cold.  the elevation is about 4000 feet there 1150 meters.  There are trout in these lakes that people try to catch.

 Some huge lilly pads around.

 Megan has a nice place to get out of the rain.

 Beautiful scenery around YediGoller.

 This is Golcuk (little lake) and it is a national park.  susan thought it was funny that they let cows graze around there.  Later, some park workers came and shooed them off.

 We went to the top of the mountain and found black berries.

 We found raspberries too.  They were the best I have ever eaten.

 Brianna liked our hiking excursions, but she mostly liked the wifi in the cabin.  She spent a lot of time watching Justice League on Youtube.

 Megan loved the outdoors.  She said over and over, "I could live here."  She has watched about 50 episodes of Beverly Hillbillies at night.  She was using bad grammar being funny like Elly May, but I told her if she started talking like that, I would not allow her to watch them anymore.

 They are standing infront of a cut off a log that was harvested near this town.

 This is the side of a mountain that has been coated with many mineral layers.  Some of the layers have formed caves.   This all happened in 50 billion million years if it take 1000 years to do an inch.  LOL

 Quite colorful.

 this is an area where Christians lived when they were fleeing for their lives many centuries ago.  The caves are carved into the mountain side and a ladder system takes you from 1 to 4 stories.

 This is another area, way on top of a mountain

 It took us a while but we made it too the top.  It looked like we were on top of the world.

 I am on top of the world.

 Megan really enjoyed being outdoors.  There was always work to be done, and if we were at home she was Seth's shadow, or assistant. One of the Turkish ladies said, "She is a good worker.  Its too bad she isn't a boy."

 The heating in the cabins works by a radiator system in the floors.  One of the pipes needed repaired, so Megan had been helping Seth literally all day long.  She enjoyed squirting the expandable foam in the pipe.  there is a 1" pipe in the middle.

 Brianna taking care of the dogs hair, by brushing it.  She has about decided she wants to be a hair dresser.  She does a lot of French braiding around here and people love it.

 I did a lot of mountain biking.  I call Turkey, "The land of trails that go no where".  They make roads to do some selective cutting of an area and then the road just ends.  You have to know where you are going before you go.  Many times I would go a long way and then just hit the end of a road.  No system to it.  Also, no single track.  It's all dirt roads, and all up-hill.

 The girls discovered real baseball.   It's a lot harder than on the Wii.

Eating at an American restaurant was another enjoyment of vacation.  After once or twice, it gets old.

water buffalo

 Not sure what kind of buffalo this is, but looks a lot like a water buffalo.  We are told they have a lot of cream in the milk and they make butter from it.

The Turkish Hillbillies

 On one of our hikes we ran into this old house.

A boy and his dog

 The family that takes care of things here have a little boy.  He is five and the dog, "Montana" is a very friendly German Shepherd.  Megan has enjoyed the dogs here and is sometimes annoyed by the little boy.  He talks 90 miles an hour in Turkish and we don't know what he is saying, so we just answer as to what we imagine or make up what he is saying.

Vacation house

 We have had a great vaction so far here in Sakintepe, Bolu, Turkey.  the weather has been fantastic, which is nice from the 110 in the shade temps back home.  The first couple weeks it rained almost every afternoon.  You could set your clock by it almost.  Megan says, "This has been the best vacation every."  I pretty much agree with her.