The Meaning of Summer

When I was a little kid, summer meant three things: The Sun, Sea, and Sand Castles!

This year, an unexpected vacation brought back the joys of those carefree days of my youth. Accompanied by two good old friends, my son and I had a great time along the Aegean coast.

My civil engineer friend, an avid Fenerbahce fan, got a swimming vest (see picture) for my son, and took him on a sailboat trip for his birthday. My Operations Manager friend organized couple of side trips to the Greek ruins nearby, and to Bozcaada, which is one of the only two islands Turkey has along the Aegean.

Unfortunately, the three of us -the Engineer, the Manager, and the Doctor mommy- were unable to built sand castles at the island. It seemed impossible to get the optimum ratio of sand and water mix!

I put the blame on the engineer, who has supposedly built multiple airports and shopping malls around the world. The two of them ganged up on me and questioned the credibility of my

PhD, in light of my obvious incompetence at sand castle projects...

In the end, we all blamed the sticky sand of the island. We lamented that even the sand is no longer like the sand of our childhood times, and moved on to drinking ice cold beers against the sea breeze...

Not all summer went by idling along the beach. We had some sophisticated activities as well, including several visits to the museums in Istanbul.

The Fernando Botero exhibit at Pera Museum was particularly entertaining for my son. He seemed to have enjoyed Botero's chubby figures and circus scenes...:)

By far, his favorite museum was the Rahmi Koc Museum of Transportation and Industry. The place had an amazing collection of anything that moved: from antique bikes and baby strollers to Model T, steam engines, tractors, trains, planes, boats and a submarine!

It was comforting to see that finally the bourgeoisie in Turkey had achieved some level of sophistication as well.

The Museum was an impressive undertaking, displaying an excellent collection in terms of both scale and scope. The Koc Family, who regularly makes it to the Forbes 500 list, have managed to come up with a world class project that contributes to the public good.

Hope your summer was fun and educational as well. Enjoy the last weeks of sunny skies,

The gift-shop lover Academic Mommy

Rahmi Koc Museum: www.rmk-museum.org.tr

Pera Museum: www.peramuzesi.org.tr

Below: The Fowler Steam Roller @ Rahmi Koc Museum