She was a day tripper...

More ancient ruins. I know, I know. These were probably our favorites of all for the trip, though. And you know why? Because we had them pretty much to ourselves.

No need for creative cropping and shooting around other tourists. Score.

This is Priene, up on a hill, overlooking Turkish farmland. Nothing but us, the ruins, the wind and the sun.

Past this sign,

and raced each other up many stone stairs to keep it fun rather than drudgery,

to the remains of the city once known to the Greeks as Ionia, and the site of the Temple of Athena and Mount Mykale behind. It was magnificent.

It felt like so much time had gone by that the stones were a part of nature again, and nature made herself known. No particularly angry bees, but lots of lizards sunning themselves,

this funny bug, with whom Bethy fell deep in love,

close-up, isn't it elegant?

and, to keep the kids entertained, we gathered up as many black beetles as we could find, to hold a mass beetle race.

I kind of got the heebie-jeebies holding that many beetles with their legs all going...yeah.

Nothing like racing bugs on ancient stones. Sadly, the beetle races did not end well. An overexcited contestant inadvertantly stepped on one of the racers, and it went downhill from there.

Thomas, sitting in his lionesque throne, does not approve of such things. Thumbs down.

With the exception of the beetle tragedy, the afternoon was blissful and quiet, a hike in a warm forest, steeped in history and very much a part of yesteryear.



Personally, I enjoyed sitting in the throne and having the kids address me as 'Queen Mommy'.

That works .