Monday, May 15, 2006
A Room with (an Alpine) View
At Third Place Books in verdant Lake Forest, Washington we were joined by EH contributors and local residents Wendy Fox (“Coming Clean in Kayseri”) and Dena Sukaya (“The Business of the Bazaar”).
Dena now is the proprietress of Ottoman Trading Company in Bothell, WA, carrying treasures from Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. Earlier in the day we met Jeffrey Altaras at her shop whose family has Sephardic Jewish roots in Tekirdağ, Turkey.
A crowd of 23 included Eleanor Jones, a woman who has traveled the world as an international teacher for 35 years and just returned from a trip to Turkey; Joanne and Danny White who were Peace Corps Volunteers in Ankara teaching chemistry at Middle East Technical University; King County Public Library staffer Jessica McClinton and İlker Cengiz; Heidi Heidenreich who will soon be traveling to Turkey and her friend Margy; Tracy, who was a history of religions student in Iran in the 1980s; and Sean Finney from Cingular Wireless who is entertaining the idea of working in the cellular phone business in Turkey.
Dena, our long-time friend from Istanbul and an excellent hostess, served us whisky and donuts as an after-dinner celebration as we giggled over "old times"...
Her home on Stevens Lake has a breathtaking view of Mount Baker pictured above.
Mile Marker
Anastasia and I are now on our 6,000th mile (!!!) and 22nd state. Tonight was our 20th event, and our overall audience total has hit 610 for an event average of 30 people per event--not bad!
