We packed up the weird jungle Airbnb (photo below) and set off.

We had an ocean view for 90% of the 2.5 hour drive. Halfway through we decided against stopping at another old set of ruins. Too hot.

Millie silently watched her iPad for the drive. I have such mixed feelings about it; it makes travel days so much quieter, but then she turns into a bit of a demon for the 30 minutes after we put it away. With so many travel days, she is getting way more screen time than she had at home. Tonight she was able to act out almost the entirety of Frozen because she’s watched it so many times recently. She quotes movie lines as if they are inside jokes we should know about. I had big dreams of teaching her to read and having her silently reading chapter books to herself by the end of this year. It’s not looking good.

We arrived to our new hotel in a small little town. Everyone was hungry so we first went out to get a light lunch at one of the only places. We watched an older woman prepare our gözleme, which I had seen referred to as “pancakes” but are more of quesadillas. Millie wasn’t too sure about her fresh pomegranate juice, and stained her shirt after one sip.

Cucumber and tomatoes are on the short list of vegetables she likes, and luckily there are a lot of them here.

We couldn’t handle getting back in the car so we changed our plans of going to a new beach and instead just had a chill afternoon at the hotel. Nick researched some upcoming stops and Millie and I swam in the pool. I know I say it every time but her swimming is so impressive. She swam back and forth over and over again.

Once she was fully exhausted we walked to another restaurant for dinner. Even though it was very simple, we all agreed it was probably the best meal in Turkey yet. Fresh summer tomatoes over a crunchy salad, well-spiced meatballs, buttery rice, and a spicy minced meat pide (Turkish style pizza).

We walked back to the hotel and played by the pool until it was time for bed. We really didn’t do much today and it was just what we needed.