.... and then we went to Istanbul without a map.

Istanbul is a great place to visit.  Especially when your parents agree to front the bill for the flight.  (Andrew's Note: Thanks so much, guys!!)  Mooching off my parents is one sport in which I EXCEL.

Why Istanbul?  Said parents have a minor obsession with the city, I think this is their 10th time visiting.  Refer to THIS blog post for details on how we decided "as a family", read- "went along with my Dad's decision making", to visit Istanbul. 

And here are photos.  By the way, I got a crazy fancy new camera that intimidates the crap out of me.

These pictures ARE NOT taken with that camera. 
(Thanks, husband!)

So don't judge...my old camera still beats your iPhone camera.  And if you notice that Andrew is missing from most of these pictures it's because we had a huge fight about his growing a beard in November and I photo-shopped him out of every picture due to his unresolved beard issues.
Kidding.
Almost.

(Some of us raised money and awareness for men's health issues.  I didn't see you not shaving your legs for the whole month...  Oh wait.... ;-)

The real reason I'm not in these pictures is that I was busy putting BandAids on boo-boos and singing "Baby Beluga" over and over and over and over until the weekend when I joined them for about 24 hours.)

Ah, family vacations.  Get excited people, we're about to get to know each other.... REALLY WELL.
Notice the lack of a map in my Dad's hand?  That will be important later.  (All 8 of you look very happy)

The girl in the middle is Monica.
She's very funny and not related to our family, but we like her very much.
The story of how she came to be on the trip is really funny,
but you'll have to ask my sister Lindsey about it because it she wouldn't like me very much if I told you. 

This is the Cave Hotel where we stayed in Cappodoccia, Turkey.
We DROVE here.  Do you see roads?  Yeah....
And the DRIVER didn't bring a map.

Mom and I outside the hotel.

View from outside my cave-window.  (Kwindow) 

I'm really just showing off here... this place was amazing.  

There he is!!! The guy that didn't bring a map!
Not kidding.  And the cell phones didn't work.
So he followed another car that he 'hoped' was going the right way.  

Awwww... My brother Chris and his wife of one year, Hope.  (Chrope)

We look darned cute, don't we?

Chris and Hope look like they are posing in a previously bombed town.

Oh!  Then we rode in a hot air balloon.

It was terrifying.
 (She was more concerned with why she was not asked to be the captain of a balloon named "Voyager")

Do you see how tired I look?  We had to get up at like 4 AM.
Three mornings in a row.
Evidently hot air ballooning is inadvisable in fog.  Lame.

This is my fake 'I'm-petrified-of-falling-out-of-this-thing' smile.

This picture gives me the willies.

Two good things here:
1.  Back on land.
2.  They served us Champagne. 

Back to Istanbul, this is the Hagia Sophia.

This was the view from a roof-top terrace lunch we had one day.

This guy is a whirling dervish.
These men spin and pray for long periods without getting dizzy as a display of devotion.
(Does he have on garters made of twinkle lights, or is that the picture?)

We took a boat ride down the Bosphorus River.

Then Dad decided it was time to get a traditional Turkish shave.

Look!  He shaved too!!  Welcome to the pictures husband!  (Thank you.)

Inside the Hagia Sophia.
(It was a Christian church before it was a mosque...
you can see Muslim and Christian symbols all in the same place - fascinating) 

Wow.

Inside the Blue Mosque.

We went to the spice market on the second to last day.  It was sensory overload for Andrew.
I don't have pictures from the last day because I got sick.  

We bought...everything you see in this picture. 

 So yes.  You should go to Turkey.  Go now.

Now!!  And bring a map.  Your family will thank you.