Cappadocia for the Finish: Starting the Week

We've been in Turkey many years now. And we've seen many beautiful and amazing places. We knew that this Spring Break would be the last one for us as a family of 7. Of course, Firstborn will come back to visit. But really, this would be the last holiday for us as a family here. For our last time, we decided to do something we've done many times and loved every time: Cappadocia. It just seemed right to go to a place that feels like our own after so many visits.

We finished up the third quarter on Friday, took a day to breathe and pack, then headed out on Sunday morning. It's a short drive to this beautiful place.

As we walked down the street from our cave hotel, this little kitty made a beeline for us. (Sound familiar?) We noted how pretty her markings were, how friendly she was to us, and how cute her little squeak meow was. "Ah, Papa, we should take her home...." they started saying.

He always had a comeback. We just lost the best cat that ever lived. No kitty will be as good as Phassey. She loves Cappadocia...this is her home. (But it was very nice to see a little smile on this girl's face after such a sad week.)

A bit later, we walked past her little spot on the street again. She treated us like old friends.

We walked out on to the terrace that first night as the sun set. This is the picture Firstborn took. So beautiful!

Just as the sun was about to go down....

We got dinner at our favorite place (which lists its prices, ha!). A specialty food in the region is a claypot kebab. The clay is made from the Red River in the region. Potters are the local artists. This pot, however, is strictly functional. They put the ingredients in, seal it, put it in a fire oven, then crack it open at the table.

The next day, we started with the yummy Cappadocia breakfast. When Firstborn got in her papa's lap, I knew I had to get a picture. 

We headed down to the village and, of course, the little kitty came to greet us. She seemed so needy. She seemed like she was looking for a family to take her in.

We began a long, several hour hike. CC had done some research on the Internet and felt pretty sure he use GPS and navigate us to a cave church that Miss Middler stumbled on years ago. There were also 2 other churches we'd never found and wanted to try to see.

The only problem came when CC's cheap Walgreens readers dropped and broke. He had to have them to read his phone, so he picked them up and read with a monocle all day. We could not stop laughing. He thought it was wonderful.

It's such a beautiful time of the year to visit this place. The almond and cherry trees are in bloom.

 We found it again and made our way in, creeping and crawling. All except Firstborn who is still trying to protect her ankle injury so she can finish out volleyball season.

It is called the Church of the Three Crosses. Inside this cave dwelt people who were being persecuted for their faith in Christ about 1900 years ago. They carved beautiful crosses which stand today.

Getting into and out of this cave is perhaps the reason this cave is not on the main trek for tourists. That's the kind of cave we like! Jump, slide, crawl. That's how we got in and back out.

On the way out, CC found some wild irises (our Tennessee state flower) and dug some up to bring back home.

There would be more to the hike later! But I've overloaded this with pictures already, so I'll post the rest tomorrow.