Yes, it has been a while. But at least I have been missing IN ACTION. It could be otherwise... Life has gotten so very busy… I am involved in so many things I never dreamed I’d be involved in – but that is life – at least if you want to keep functioning. I still haven’t done half the posts I have started – especially the one about Lymes Disease, but I have a stash of half started ones just waiting. Well, waiting – unless my computer finally dies on me. It gets slower and slower. Yesterday someone sent me a video. It was not a real long video, about 3 and a half minutes – but it took the computer over an hour to open it. I clicked on [open] and went out in the kitchen and baked an apple pie and started a load of laundry. I get a lot of work done while I am waiting for things to open on this slow dial-up computer. I have been known to go out and cut the grass while waiting for something to load! In fact, I started this post at 2:30 on Friday afternoon, gave up at 7:30 (can't concentrate when Jeopardy is on) and came back Sat. morning!
Anyway, that is not the point of this posting. This post is to share last Tuesday with you. We have a new restaurant here in town and it is owned by some Turkish folks. As many of you know, I lived in Turkey many, many years ago. I was a kid in high school, graduated from high school in Ankara, Turkey. Those were the best and happiest years of my life! I got to travel all over the country and to many other countries as well, and to cities that have since been blown to smithereens. I am so glad I got to do those things before the “Meanness” took over and so many places became unsafe and Americans became the hated enemy by so many people. I loved Turkey and I loved the Turkish people. I was treated like a princess over there, never a moment of unkindness – people went out of their way to make me happy, comfortable… and I will never forget how well they treated me. So when the new restaurant opened, I greeted the new owners in their language, and after a momentary bit of shock, they returned the greeting. Since then, we have become good friends.
A couple of weeks ago, the mother in law of one of the owners came to visit from Ankara. She speaks no English and my Turkish is pitiful, especially since it has been almost 50 years since I spoke it. But, I thought it would be fun to take the owner’s child who is 3, his wife, and MIL across the Bay for the day and to a museum I think is real special.
I later found out they were a bit hesitant – I mean taking a 3 year old to a Museum of Marine Science????? In keeping with my policy of not totally identifying children in my blogs, I will refer to the child as Bebek (baby), the mother as Anne (pronounced Ahn’ ay) which means mother, and the MIL as, well, MIL. And I am here to report they had to carry the child out of the museum crying because she did not want to leave there, EVER! Did I mention this museum is very child centered, and Bebek loves fish. It is her newest love, and it was a fight to get her to move to the other part of the museum (mammals, birds, amphibians, marsh life) she wanted to see more fish! 
I took about 80 pictures and it is hard to put only a few on here – she is so cute!We started at the seal tank.
Look carefully, they are in there. Kids like to race them around the tank. 
Then thru the out doors exhibit with a few fish, local birds, turtles, etc…
and into the aquarium rooms.
There were lots of other kids in there, some even younger than Bebek, but she ignored them, 
unable to keep her eyes off the fish and turtles.
She even ignored the pelicans out the window starring instead down into the water to see if she could see any more fish.
She was glad when we moved on!
There are loads of hands on displays – like I said,
the place is very kid friendly,
How much fun is this?????
and she did not get discouraged when she was a bit too little to make something work
– she just moved on to the next thing.
As we moved thru the display areas, whenever she saw a tank with fish – she took off. 
I was glad her mother could run! The gift shop was only mildly interesting, 
likewise for the displays with the komodo dragons. The fun there was climbing into the bubble inside the display.
The otters were sunning themselves, how boring... “Where are the fish?”She put up a fight when it was time to leave - I had to promise more entertainment!
So, on the way home, I took a one block detour and took them to the ocean front. 
I thought they needed to see the Atlantic Ocean on a beautiful clear calm day. The other times they had taken the MIL to the ocean, it was either pouring down rain or it was foggy, so this was her first real view of the Atlantic from ground level. I don’t ever remember seeing it so calm! Bebek had a good time digging in the sand.
I will have to take her to the beach this summer.We also stopped at First Landing State Park, but the visitor’s center, unfortunately, was closed as that way makes it easy (for me) access to the boardwalk out over the swamp and thru the Spanish moss. By this time I could barely walk and had to use the cane, but we went up the path. I thought MIL should see the Spanish moss.
This is the furthest north one can find it. Bebek enjoyed the hike until she discovered the water between the cracks on the board walk.
I told them we needed to come back in May – the park is beyond beautiful then.Emotionally, I can’t wait for our next outing – physically, I’d like to sleep for about a week! But, it was the most fun I’ve had in a long while. Funny how you can meet someone and you feel like you found the sister you didn’t know you had! Sometimes life is great, but you have to take a chance. MIL can’t wait until I come to visit her in Ankara. I can’t either! Guess I need to get a new passport, eh?
What will I do when I don’t have to move the big green dinosaur in order to put the cat’s cages in the van… will I miss the sirens going off on the emergency vehicles every time I hit a bump in the road???? I won’t know what to do with all the empty space in front of the fireplace.
Now before you think these kids are spoiled rotten (even if that is the case) let me give you my excuse… several of the dinos were for Caleb’s birthday back in April. We were all packed and ready to go – cats in the kennel – everything – and his Dad called and told us Caleb had pneumonia. Trip cancelled. So, we made plans to go over for Briar’s birthday… Briar’s dad couldn’t get the time off in August, so we aimed for September. This time I was very, very sick. I was still going to try – Lyme’s is not contagious, but my doctor convinced me that if I tried, it could kill me. It is a long trip – 312 miles back door to back door. Once I got better – or well enough to travel – the weather turned very nasty, and we have had a nor'easter every week-end since, and now, there is snow. Sigh. Don’t remind me that I learned to drive in Maine – that was a hundred years ago! So, Ed drove his wife and the boys over here. 
Caleb finally got to play with his birthday dinosaurs and
his Christmas dino-bones.
He also likes snakes. We tried to keep this out of his grandmother’s range of vision…
Briar was mostly into grab and rip.
I guess that is typical for a 4 year old. 
A couple of times he just opened a package and threw the contents aside while grabbing the next package away from Caleb.
The men had fun just trying to figure how to get the things unscrewed and unfastened and out of the boxes.
Cousin Joseph liked the noisy ones with the flashing lights.
Men never really grow up, do they? I am still not quite sure what this is – just that it was high on Briar's wish list.
Caleb had fun with the dinosaur puppet.
Eventually they worked their way down to the books and school science projects. Since they were mostly about dinosaurs, they were a big hit, too! After the initial ripping open frenzy was over, Caleb very kindly cleaned the papers off the floor and put the stuff in a trash bag. Don’t you just love it when they get a little age and become helpful? I didn’t have to clean up a thing!
Her daddy is a friend of mine and we share books, mostly about Buddhism, and he has seen Hadji in his scarf. Hadji gets frustrated when he stops by because he does not sit on Hadji's "Therapy" couch! LOL! But yesterday, I told him that if he wanted Hadji to visit with his daughter, they would have to sit on the couch. What an experience! This is a very intelligent and insightful young lady. I don't know when I have ever met a child with this much innate sense of what to do, how to behave, let alone a 4 year old. The Princess sat on the couch very quietly while Hadji walked back and forth. He is not used to children. Snuffy was the one who would come and allow himself to be played with, or Punkin would if we were outside. Hadji walked back and forth. Hmmmmmm, someone was on HIS couch. They MUST need some lovin'! So, he got up and looked over the situation, Hmmmmmm, 2 people on his sofa. He jumped up. Nobody grabbed for him. Oh! So he sat down. Still, no one made a move. He flopped onto his side, peeking up toward the people. Nothing. So he wiggled up toward them... First came Daddy's hand.
Oh, that was good... slowly a little hand reached over a lightly brushed his ear. He wiggled harder, closer. She giggled. Finally 2 hands, one on each ear! Then his neck! Ohhhhh, Heaven. The perfect touch! His eyes closed in happiness.
There was not much wind, just a few bursts that got everybody's hopes and kites up only to come crashing down a few minutes later. 
And, typical of kids, half the fun was playing with the boxes! If only the postal services could move the boxes this fast! 
and playing with a "gun" that shoots marshmallows like a blow gun!
Caleb's favorite was the NASA exhibit.
You can see how excited he was in my favorite room!
Roanoke has some interesting architecture... this is from the window at the science museum. 
The new Art Gallery is on the right. 
