...made it!

For the 8 hour flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam we lost our full center section 4 seats in a row assignments and found ourselves paired up in the 2 middle seats.  This was not the end of the world. Patti and I landed between the bassist and the keyboardist for the band Kingfish.  They are lead by a guitar prodigy and will be opening up for the Stones in London's Hyde park this summer. 

It was fun talking to those guys, they spend a lot of time on the road, one year DeShawn, DeVibes as he prefers, spent 360 days on the road.  That is brutal.  We talked about a lot of things including theology and how it is hard for women to want to date him due to his schedule and the relational reputation his line of work comes with.

At one point he asked me if I was a pastor because I dropped a few verses on him about.  He grew up in his Grandfathers church in Commerce City, CO. He was talking about this crazy beautiful woman who was as equally the former as the latter. I reminded him that God has given his guidance on this one - It is better to live on the corner of a roof that in a house with a contentious woman.

Things turned out ok for our bodies and the bags that we carried as we were able to catch our last leg with 35 mins from landing to gate closing.  Our seats had to be reissued, they were released, maybe they had been getting ready to give them away?  I would not think that would be the case, but we already had cases with a few things during this trip that, as my Dad says, "you would think"...

Things are not so good for the larger piece of luggage that we did check. This was a last minute call on Patti's part to relieve some space in our carry-ons and allow us to bring copious amounts of my favorite hair conditioner. This bag is not just delayed, it is lost ;-(.  It is a tall, green and handsome bag - surely it is now mayor or the isle of unwanted bags

After checking into our accomodations (Patti nailed it again, right in the thick of things in old town Istanbul) we headed out to see to keep us from passing out too early.  We are right near the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia. 

After being propositioned for meals costing 5 times as much we settled for some sidewalk street food for our $2.00 entrees.

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