Istanbul, Turkey

A 10 hour layover in Turkey gave me a chance to hit the highlights of Istanbul. I don’t love visiting a country without doing much research before, but this quick tour was opportunistic.

The Blue Mosque … massive, impressive, and being repaired. Scaffolding on site like these always hurts a bit but I did love walking around its gardens and eventually visiting the courtyards.

The mosque was closed for most of the day (muslims only) and then opened to the public for a couple of hours. I appreciate the fact they let tourists in to visit something special and a place of worship.

From my naive POV, the courtyard was much more beautiful. Inside was less impressive but more importantly an active worship site for muslims.

Below is inside the Magia Sophia, a separate mosque directly east of the Blue Mosque. It was massive and also beautiful. It was a bit difficult to capture on my camera. It was so crowded, I would get bumped each time I pointed up to get a shot of the massive dome-shaped structures.

What as most unique inside the mosque, were the chandeliers that hung low, connected by long chains that reached the top of the ceiling. The effect worked, making a massive structure feel a bit smaller and comfortable.

Istanbul was beautiful but I will admit all the muslim countries are starting to feel more and more similar. Almost difficult to differentiate beyond the large and numerous mosques inside the city.

Londontown!

After our week-long visa delay in NYC, we weren’t sure we would still be able to squeeze in a visit to London. But, Brian managed to pull it off and we got to visit one of our very favorite places in the entire world. Our huge van picked us up eeeearly in the morning at our hotel in NYC and we loaded our 30-plus bags in and headed to the airport for our flight. So excited to be visiting our old stomping grounds again, I don’t think anyone even minded getting up at 4:30 am.

We landed late in the evening at Heathrow and Brian whizzed right through customs, but the rest of our passports got flagged because our old UK visas were never cancelled. So, we waited forever in the holding area while Brian grabbed bags and rushed to make it to a luggage storage store literally seconds before they closed. He barely made it, begged them to stay open until a porter was able to bring the rest of our stuff (he could only lug 2 bags with him), and safely got all of our luggage stored for our trip. We only brought our carry-ons into the city. We finally got to our hotel in Belgravia, where we crashed hard after a long day.

DAY ONE- TWO: We forced ourselves out of bed our first morning (jet lag is real!) on a very typically English cold and rainy day and walked to grab a late breakfast/early lunch across from Harrod’s. We waited out the rain while walking all over Harrod’s and then got ourselves to Queen’s Theater, where we had tickets to see Les Miserables! The show was amazing- although Tessa thought it was “so annoying” that they only sang and there was no talking. LOL. I’m sure I would’ve had similar thoughts when I was 6. It was still wet and yucky after the show, so we got home and ate some Indian food close to where we were staying. We checked into our airbnb near Paddington, where we’d be for the rest of the trip. On Sunday, we got to go to our old chapel on Exhibition Road to watch a session of conference. To be honest, we were a little bummed we wouldn’t be able to attend regular meetings because we were looking forward to seeing so many old friends. However, the session was great and we were able to catch up with the Checketts afterwards, who are the mission presidents there now. Brian stayed back to check out the renovated Victoria and Albert Museum (it was boarded up the entire time we lived there and its gorgeous now!)

DAY TWO: Freddie! Tessa and Freddie were in the same class at The Vestry Preschool in Maida Vale. They really loved each other and she has always talked about wanting to visit him again. Plus, they have some shared memories playing together at the park across from our our flat, so thats where we met up. Tessa got to play with a dear friend and we got to go back to our legitimate favorite part of the city…St. John’s Wood! It was SO nostalgic and happy being back where we used to live!

After getting off the tube in SJW, we excitedly pointed out all of the things we remembered and loved and even stopped to get some warm quarkinis at the Bread Shop on the way to St. John’s Wood Park to meet up. Once Tessa and Freddie spotted one another, they ran so fast and embraced for a full minute! It was the sweetest meeting of two little friends. They played while I caught up with Freddie’s mom and then we had to race off to meet Brian in Regent’s Park across the way. Brian’s phone had run out of batteries though, and we could not find him in the park. We didn’t know at the time that his phone wasn’t working, so we walked all over and ended up in Queen Mary’s Rose Garden, feet from where he was sitting on a bench waiting for us. We never saw each other though! Frustrated about not being able to connect, we headed off to eat dinner at Nando’s in Marylebone with just the 4 of us. Brian had to buy a charger, get his phone working again, and by the time we got ahold of each other, we were both headed back to our place for the night.

Queen Mary’s Rose Garden is the best place to take a gorgeous walk. The roses were still blooming all over and the park was sooo green. It was stunning. We smelled the roses (literally), chose our favorites and relaxed on a bench there while the sun set.

DAY THREE: Brian and I got up to do a long run in and around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. We trained for a marathon together on these paths and it was so nice to be back seeing so much of the same scenery after two years away.

There were several times when we all made verbal lists of things we wanted to make sure and see and Borough Market was at the top of everyone’s. So many good, yummy memories! We explored our favorite market where we indulged in delicious custard-filled donuts and then hot ham and mozzarella sandwiches. We then walked over to the Tower Bridge, past the Tower of London and tubed to Big Ben (sadly, covered in scaffolding). We walked down Whitehall over to Trafalgar Square, where we hung out for a while just taking it in. This was always one of our favorite places in London and the weather today was amazing. So, we took advantage of just being outside in this glorious city. We made a quick stop in the National Portrait Gallery, where we split with Brian and Kate. They wanted to stay longer at the museum, and we wanted to take a bus from Trafalgar, through Piccadilly and Oxford Circus and down Regent Street (the best ride- and we even nabbed top deck front seats!).

We got out at Notting Hill and I stopped at my favorite cafe in the entire world, Ottolenghi. That place is a-maz-ing. I got a medley of their unique salads, a dark chocolate cookie and a slice of their molten chocolate cake for Kate. We sat by the flower stand on the High Street while we all nibbled on my salads and ate the most delicious cookie of my life (sorry, Levain, Ottolenghi has you beat by a mile!). After that, we walked down Portobello Road admiring all of the shops and made our way to the famously adorable Biscuiteers shop, where we met back up again with Kate and Dad.

We had a dinner with our friends, The Beesley’s, later that night, but we had some time to kill and the girls needed some “kid friendly” stuff after all of that walking. We found a nearby park, where they were able to play and run and climb. London has the best playgrounds and they’re surrounded by the most gorgeous neighborhoods. I could walk around this place all day long every day and never tire of it. We walked over to Nando’s to meet our friends and had another delicious dinner with them…it was so fun to see them again and to catch up on the last two years and hear about all that they had going on.

DAY FIVE: Our last day in London was actually spent outside the city. We rented a car and drove to the Cotswolds near Cambridge. We love this area and its a close drive from the city, so its justifiable on such a quick trip. It’s also one of the most gorgeous places on earth. ;) This day, the weather was unbelievable—a local even said it was the prettiest day he’d seen in the area in years. We drove to Stow-on-the Wold, parked our car and rented bikes for all 6 of us. We biked through Stow-on-the-Wold and over to the Upper and Lower Slaughters through the most gorgeous scenery. Man, this place is like nothing else. The quaint cottages, little streams, bridges, horses, green rolling hills and huge estates made this bike ride pretty unbelievable.

In the Slaughters, there is this huge descending hill that ends in this water-covered pass. If you’re on a bike, you can bypass the water via a little side path, but these girls decided that wasn’t going to be good enough for them. They rode through as fast as they could and as many times as they could, getting pretty soaked by the end. It was the perfect sunny time of the day and we were totally alone out there. It was a pretty perfect moment with lots of laughs and memories.

The weather, outside of that first rainy day, was perfect. We ate a lot of our favorite Hob Nobs, Digestives, and Cadbury Bars as well as a multitude of other delicious things. We walked a lot and saw a ton. This quick trip just re-confirmed what I already knew…London is such a magical place. There really is no better way to describe it. I thought I was over you, but I just don’t think I ever will be. We were so grateful to get to go back!

LAST WEEKS IN NYC … BUCKETLIST

Its been a couple of weeks since we left NYC and now, looking back on these pictures, its making me so homesick for this place. We left at the best time in the city…autumn. The weather was gorgeous and that always makes it a little tougher because you have to remind yourself how bitter cold the loooong winter is so you feel better about leaving. Weather aside, this city has become a big part of our lives- it taught us so much about who we are and how to always strive for the very best. Here are some adventures from our last couple of weeks….

Boating in Central Park…I was hoping the leaves would start to change before we had to leave, but it was still as green and lush as I’ve ever seen it. Definitely not a bad thing ;) Brian and I took the little girls to the Loeb Boat House while Kate and Taylor played with their older church friends. It was such a relaxing (Brian did most of the rowing!) and beautiful ride- can’t complain about this scenery. This pond is is literally across the street from our apartment on 76 and CPW. Ahhh, what a fun time we had living right there!

Tessa and Lauren love to dress like “twins” whenever they can and they have loved these matching twirly dresses. Brian jumped out of the boat for a minute to get some of these pictures while I took a turn rowing. Also, do they dye this water green??? It’s so bright!

On our last weekend, we borrowed the Todd’s van and drove to an apple orchard upstate. We always wanted to go apple picking and this was our chance! The farm was so cute and they had fresh apple cider donuts…yummy! The girls loved picking the apples and then got to go through their corn maze.

After apple picking, we drove further north to West Point Academy. We had heard how gorgeous this area was, but we were not prepared for just how much! I can only imagine how stunning it is when the leaves turn. I mean…can you believe these views??

The campus itself was so beautiful and so clean! It was so neat to see the student body come to a complete standstill at the lowering of the flag- literally people stopped in the middle of the road, got out of their cars and saluted until it was over. So disciplined and respectful.

They had all of these cute homes lined up in the middle of campus- I think it is where the Dean and other academy leaders live? At any rate, the homes were so cute!

A couple of months after we moved to NYC, I gave Brian a gift certificate for a helicopter ride for him and I. It was a birthday gift, but it ended up storming on the date, so we had to reschedule. We were finally able to find a morning that worked with Brian’s crazy schedule- a couple of weeks before we left! It was a chilly and cloudy morning and such an awesome way to see the city from up above. We left from New Jersey and flew right over the Statue of Liberty, up the West side, over Central Park and then to the East side and Brooklyn Bridge. I don’t think I could ever tire of these views!

Just when you feel like you know Central Park by heart, and then you go at it from another vantage point and see so many new things!

Blows my mind how huge this place is…and how many people they squeeze into every nook and cranny.

Governor’s Island is another place we wanted to make sure we saw one more time. We all love going downtown and taking the ferry over to this place that feels worlds away from the hustle and bustle, but still with incredible views (see below).

Its really hard for me to express in words how much this city means to me and my family. There were many times in the days leading up to leaving that I was brought to tears by the kind actions of others on our behalf. We met some of the very best people I know, who inspired me and my kids to live our very best. Not cliche, it is the truth. I have never seen such a huge concentration of good people who do good things and would never judge others. If you needed help and sent an email to the ward, you’d have more responses in ten minutes than you knew what to do with. The people in our ward just sincerely wanted to help and it inspired me to give more and be more to those around me. We love NYC with all of our hearts, but its not the physical places that mean so much, its the people that live there.