September 3, 2010

Cleveland

We have been with our dear friends Suleyman and Tuba since Wednesday evening. Jan and I arrived on separate flights from Providence and Salt Lake City in the afternoon, Suleyman picked us up from the airport and we came to their lovely home. Their backyard extends into the woods with chipmunks, birds, and deer. Although we have not seen the deer we have seen the damage they do to Tuba’s plants outside.

The next day, May 20, Tuba and Suleyman took us to Pier W, a restaurant on the lake for our anniversary. The view was gorgeous with the city skyline behind. The observation platform you will see in the photographs is actually the roof of the restaurant. After watching the vista and taking a few photographs we went downstairs and enjoyed an excellent dinner.

Cleveland is a beautiful city with many museums, concert venues, and parks that seem to stretch for miles and miles. It leaves a very positive impression on the visitors with gorgeous homes, clean streets, well-maintained yards. There is a strong architectural presence from homes to skyscrapers, from overhead walkways to old theaters. Our positive experience was certainly due to a large extent to our friends Suleyman and Tuba and their welcoming home. We are enjoying our visit immensely.

Another Photo Shoot

I had a chance to photograph Mina again this morning. After that, other family members participated in the photo shoot. Lovely! Every one of them (especially the one with white hair, all natural you know.)

Mina in RI 2009

Mina and Elif have been here for just over a week, but school closing, paper grading, and running other errands have prevented us from having a photo shoot. This morning, after sufficient bribing with a promise to watch “Frosty the Snowman” DVD, she put on her nice dress, I carried my gear down to the basement and we had a brief photo shoot. The following are selections from that. She is standing in front of a dark back drop.

Happy holidays to you all.

Mimi and Dede in the Back Yard

Yesterday our friends Jim and Carol came, we had pizza in the back yard. Mina likes them, “Jim and Carol are really nice people” she says. Jim took some photographs of Mimi and Dede, we had fun. Thanks Jim for taking these photographs.

Anemon Hotel and Grifin Fish Restaurant

_MG_6416 Ergun, my brother-in-law and good friend, scouts the most interesting places to visit. On June 29 we visited the Covered Bazaar for some last minute shopping then went to the Tunel district in old Pera. The first stop was an interesting bookstore which seemed to specialize in historical publications. We saw some interesting books, Ergun purchased a few and we started walking down towards the Galata Tower. It was built by the Genoese in mid 14th century. Its walls are about 10 feet thick, no wonder it still stands tall.

The tower is very impressive from the ground level with a height of 220 feet. There is a hotel directly across from the tower, Hotel Anemon which serves food and drinks at its roof. We took the elevator there and the imposing tower looked even more so and felt almost touchably close. I could see the tourists on its circular walk taking pictures with the flash firing! As we enjoyed some drinks, I looked down to see a group of a cappella musicians singing to an audience. Also interesting was to see the darting swallows around the tower. [Read more...]

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