family quest – Turknoy Travels 100!

How family travel memories helped us in 2020 Pandemic

December 28, 2020 by turknoys, posted in Travel Goals

Our family has a clear conviction that family travel is one of the best gifts we can give to each other. From planning the travel itinerary to long after arriving home, this has proven to be true. Indeed, during the pandemic, our family travel history has proven to be quite beneficial to strengthen the family bonds, personal relationships and every family members’ resilience and strength in dealing with adversity such as the quarantine and loss of loved one.

Family travels enables us to form a much stronger relationship with each other. We all benefit from exploring familiar culture and not-so-familiar ones. Family travels give a better appreciation of the big picture, the fine, intricate and sometimes overwhelming details and, of course, love of life in its entirety – glory and gory!

Our traveling family has a huge gigantic desire to travel. #happyfeet

Who would have thought that these family travel memories would have us equipped in dealing with the pandemic? Here’s how it went for us:

Memories are forever. A lot of ice breakers. A lot of “DO YOU GUYS REMEMEBER WHEN…. Inserts a funny anecdote.” A lot of inside family jokes. A lot of “blackmail” materials against each other. Priceless. We could get stuck at home for a year (hey, this happened!) and we won’t run out of stories.
Global education in any form. We have been using Zoom, Teams and other online means way before the pandemic. Nothing new to see here. Reading books for days and days – oh yes please! Learning is everywhere. Besides, with all the “souvenir” books we have been accumulating from our 40+ countries of travel, we have plenty to read for the next months or so.
Strong family bonds. Been there, done that. We already annoyed each other to death during our family travels. What’s almost a year of quarantine stuck in a small space together? Cabin fever for a year? That’s nothing. We have already endured days and hours in flight delays and travels in all transportation mode.
Appreciate the little things. It’s in the detail. Devil is in the details. Art is in the details. Full focus on every day blessings is good for the soul. Appreciating each other and showing them. “Please,” “thank you” and “How can I help?” are few of the phrases we are used to saying to each other again and again during family travels – short or long travel itinerary. These words mean a lot in confined space – saved a few lives and hormonal outbursts!
Life is enriching. Every day. No Matter What. Yes – say that several times over. Looking at life as an enriching experience is natural for travellers. The perspective of looking at the huge wide sky and realizing that the a lot of other places have the exact same sky with variety of perspectives, is a fantastic blessing, not a limitation nor a curse. And this happens, we look at the window from our home during the quarantine period, and there’s appreciation; there’s a deep knowledge that life is always enriching.

When the world is wide open again for family travel, we will continue realizing our family goals. Until then, we will keep utilizing the benefits of our previous travels. There’s a lot t hang on to.

BIG YES to “Never let your memories be greater than your dreams.” YET, memories can be a strong powerful tool NOW to dream some more for the future.

We are barefoot and in our pajamas at home… we’re happy together and we’re thriving. On to family time and realizing dreams! No to “SOMEDAY” wishes. We seize the days, now and the future 🥂👊🏽🥳🍾❤️

On Family Values: Hope and Experience

Featured by turknoys, posted in Canada, Family Blog, Family Satisfaction, Family Traditions, family travel, Travel Goals, Why Travel With Kids?, worldschooling

“And patience [worketh] experience; and experience, hope” (Paul, Romans 5:4).

As Malcolm Gladwell argued in his bestseller book, Outliers, it takes 10,000 hours which is approximately 10 years of deliberate practice to become an expert.

With the goal to travel to 100 countries in10 years, that would make us seasoned family travellers. We’re onto our six years of happily traveling the kids along our family adventures, and by far, explored 36 countries, including the new territory we are currently exploring at the moment, Canada!

Yes, there are certain traveling tasks that feel so routine, like appointment with embassies, visa applications, packing, adjusting to jet lag and body clock. These are great expertise to have as a working professional. Patience with documents, mastery of own body sleep and up close encounters with countries diplomats… necessary skills of a future CEO or founder of a corporation, and we can discuss further why!

However, more importantly, though skills which we are yet to master, there are hormones, grumpiness and boredom.

Hormones, there traveling women vs. two patient men makes a team. This means at the very least, two weeks of PMS (premenstrual syndrome) of emotions, the struggle is real. Acknowledging this, makes the battle easier, though we can only monitor, not control. Experiences on the pattern makes it understandable and yes, conquerable, if not tolerable for the surrounding men around these women.

So you think you can balance girls’ hormones?! 😘

Grumpiness, or bad hair day moments, or waking up at the wrong side of the bed, is also normal during family travels. One day something too personal embarrassing the other. Too close for comfort takes patience and experience, too.

This traveling little man in the middle, gives a lot of patience to the family. He’s smile always cure anybody’s grumpiness!

Boredom, because what parents may find interesting, may be so very boring for the kids and the other way around. We would not be telling the entire truth to our traveling adventures, if we would lying if we say “everybody loves visiting .. insert name of place/ country/ region… Nope, most of the time, there’s someone who will rain on somebody’s parade when family travels together.

Kids these age will pick Legoland anytime over any museums, that we know. And parents don’t particularly enjoy Legoland. It takes a lot of give and take among family members to enjoy a long period of travel!

BUT, there are also the AHA moments, the wonder-at-first-sight moments, laugh-out-loud-together-moments, we-actually-saw-what-happened-together-moments.

AND… these moments turn into memories. Memories that would be from imprints on their lives and define the decisions and actions they would do in the future, what will define who they will be by choice.

Experience together over any material things… no argument there. We’re armed with experience-building patience, even if it takes 10,000 more hours together!

Living up to our main family value, we really are a hopeful bunch.

Peace on Earth is possible. Travel with family?! Maybe possible. 😜

Exploring Oslo, Norway: Nobel Peace Center

May 31, 2019 by turknoys, posted in family travel, Nobel Prize, Norway, Travel Adventures, Why Travel With Kids?, worldschooling

I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am skeptical as to its results. – Alfred Bernhard Nobel

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish businessman, chemist, engineer, inventor, and philanthropist. Nobel held 355 different patents, dynamite being the most famous. The synthetic element nobelium was named after him.

Reading intently on what it takes to be a Nobel Peace laureate

The Turknoy’s favorite Nobel Peace laureate – finally a realization that it takes a lot to become President of a Great Nation – far cry on what they always see in the news lately (fake or real …but but but BUT Disclaimer — there’s no such thing as a fake news — it’s news or not news at all!

Reflection Questions for the kids during their visit to the Nobel Peace Center.
1. Who is Alfred Nobel? Why was the Peace Prize named after him?
2. Who are your top 3 favorite Nobel Peace Laureate? Why?
3. What would you do in the future to win a Nobel Peace Prize? How? When?

The Nobel Peace Center is a showcase for the Nobel Peace Prize and the ideals it represents. The Center is also an arena where culture and politics merge to promote involvement, debate and reflection around topics such as war, peace and conflict resolution.

On the 5th April we at the Nobel Peace Center opened our new Exhibition KlimaLab, a vibrant exhibition about the climate, nature and people. It is an interactive experience for children and adults consisting of art installations you can touch, feel and even eat.

Quote on Obama’s Nobel speech acceptance ..on climate change..apparently, the kids favorite topic on how to win the Nobel Peace Prize for their generation.

…the world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, famine and mass displacement that will fuel more conflict for decades. For this reason, it is not merely scientists and activists who call for swift and forceful action it is military leaders in my country and others who understand that our common security hangs in the balance.

Exploring Oslo, Norway: Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology

May 28, 2019 by turknoys, posted in Family Satisfaction, Family Traditions, family travel, Norway, Why Travel With Kids?, Wordschooling

“All men by nature desire to know.” – Aristotle

There’s always a time to explore outdoors and explore indoors… not fun learning experience for our worldschooling kids! So off we go to … indoor museum! With great pleasure. Oslo have lots!

Norway’s largest science center has installations that let children explore natural science and technological principles in energy, physical phenomena, the body, mathematics and space.

There are exhibitions about value creation throughout the ages, dive into oil history and try energy sustainable productions.

The exhibition Grossraum illustrates war stories in a very creative way for kids.

The medical history exhibits cover everything from the inside of the body to operation techniques that will make kids shudder – that’s a great things! In Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology, there’s a lot of opportunities to see Norway’s first passenger jet, as well as cars, bicycles and vehicles from different eras.

Oslo Science Center is the place make sure kids have fun while learning.. a lot! All can be tested.. from green screen, seeingYou own colors and testing reaction time!

In Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology, there’s a lot of opportunities to see Norway’s first passenger jet, as well as cars, bicycles and vehicles from different eras.

Traveling outside Earth from Oslo. Astronaut mode.

Yes, it’s always great to be in a museum. Yes to travel. Yes to museums! That’s worldschooling, a school without boundaries or border in learning!

What’s your favorite indoor museum in Oslo, Norway?

Road Trip In Colorado With Kids

November 10, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Colorado, Family Satisfaction, Family Traditions, family travel, Travel Goals, United States of America

“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way! “ – Dr. Seuss

Ohhh my! Time flies when we our family is on our goal realization/ exploring mode. It seems ages ago when we left Omaha, Nebraska on an overnight train to Denver, Colorado.

In Denver, we have walked the nostalgia lane with the Turknoy Dad as he reminisced his good old days as a working bachelor in the city. Has it been eleven years already since he left US just to meet the Turknoy Mom? Gosh, are we on some time warp speed loop?! ❤️

After two days in Denver, meeting old friends and enjoying Denver Children Museum, off we went for a road trip around Colorful Colorado! And indeed, it was a colorful road trippin’.
First road trip in the USA and off we passed by State Highway 5, the highest paved road in Road America. What a scenic route it is towards Mr. Evans with an altitude 14,264 feet (4,347 m)!

Road Trip In Colorado With Kids — This traveling couple has their kids as photographer! At Independence Pass. Freeeeeeeee!!!

Aspen, Colorado

We head on to Aspen, Colorado hoping for fall foliage. We got that and way more, four seasons! We arrived in Aspen in a very gorgeous fall weather, and woke up to several inches of snow in the morning, summer-y mid-morning, spring in the afternoon and fall again in the afternoon.
The snow didn’t stop us from hiking the Maroon Bells. The most photographed peaks in North America, so we’ve read.

We also experienced our first family snowy hike, up to the Maroon Crater Lake. It took us more than two hours to hike up the Crater Lake, barely few minutes before the sunset. We were the last one on the Crater Lake, it feels extravagantly majestic and terrifying at the same time. The kids needed to answer nature’s call, figuratively and literally. After the pee-pp and the family selfie almost every corner of the lake, we had to rush to go back down. We made it in the dark, using our mobile phone as flashlights, of course, not without scary stories and grateful fun ramblings from all of us.
We have blisters in our feet, and the fantastic traveling dad carried our youngest traveller/ hiker up his shoulder almost all the way! Such strength. We didn’t tell anyone that adventure with young kids is easy, right? It’s worth it, but nothing worth it comes easy, right?

The Turknoys and the Crater Lake And Maroon Bells! A perfect place and time to say Thank You God For All The Blessings with all our hearts together. Solemn, fun, sincere, full of love. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

The hiking we’ve done, the weather conditions, the challenges we’ve overcome will always be fondly and profoundly remebered. After all, this is what Turknoy Travels 100 is all about. It’s about realizing milestones we never even considered yet together because we are still part of the matrix of society’s rules.

Of course, after the adventure, we explored the very fancy city of Aspen, Colorado and off we went to two places we almost always go in any city we explore – bookstore and playground. If any city or town doesn’t have any of these, it’s really an indication of the village, isn’t it?

Basalt , Colorado

Although we explored Aspen and Snowmass Billage quite extensively, we stayed the nights in a nearby city, almost one hour drive away from Aspen, Basalt. Basalt turned out to be a like Aspen, and better. Roaring Fork Valley is a river paradise for us. Basalt sits at the confluence of two Gold Medal rivers, the Frying Pan River and the Roaring Fork River, which is Paradise!!!

Vail, Colorado

Known as “Little Aspen,” Vail, Colorado is another fancy, skiing and snowboarding, gorgeous, beautiful little town tucked away at the base of Vail Mountain within the White River National Forest.

Colorado Springs, Colorado

From West to South, we drove almost three hours to enjoy the magnificent landscapes of the Rocky Mountains to visit the Garden of Gods in Colorado Springs. A drive worth every minute.

Road trip with kids in Colorado? We’ll do it again in a heartbeat!

Omaha, Nebraska for Family Travel With Young Kids

October 26, 2017October 26, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Family Satisfaction, family travel, Nebraska, Travel Adventures, Travel Goals, United States of America, Why Travel With Kids?

“I love it. You know, I was born almost a mile away from here, and I’ve never have a bad experience in Omaha. Omaha and Nebraska are home to me. It’s a pace. It’s relationships. There’s a lot of continuity. There’s a lot of community. There’s a lot of friendship. It’s a very solid place, a friendly place in which to grow up and in which to conduct a business. ” – Warren Buffet, Becoming Warren Buffet, on why he chooses to live in Omaha.

We tried to find where Warren Buffet, the world’s richest multibillionaire, lives. We managed to get to his mailing address and we tried to get all the billionaire vibes in the area. Omaha has lots of gorgeous houses, it’s easy to imagine Warren Buffet’s home in the city.

To be able to get around Omaha, Nebraska, we needed to rent a car and realized that fact later on after walking from the train station wee hours in the morning, coming straight from our Chicago, Illinois family travel and waking up way too early walking around the very quiet, almost deserted city, with not even a single cab is available.

Off we went to the city’s airport and rented a car to roam the city. At the airport, we realized the the city has lady Mayor! Yay, raising global girls needed a discussion of a little bit of governance of the world and what part do ladies of power play.

Omaha, Nebraska for Family Travel With Young Kids — While waiting for the car rental… the best way to go around Omaha is by car. The City Mayor is a woman so we have this little girl power photo!

We then hang out at the Old Market after realizing that we won’t be able to find Warren Buffet’s house.

After driving around the city and the nearby cities in Nebraska, we went to do exactly an “American” fall/ autumn tradition… Visit a farm, explore a corn maze and pumpkin patch. We picked our pumpkin but of course, didn’t buy any.

Going back to Omaha, we got tempted yet again to visit local bookstore and had another share of our family book haul.

We didn’t want to leave the Bookstore, but dinner called and we enjoyed a very scrumptious local dinner at Upstream Brewing Company.

If Omaha is a glimpse of Mid West USA, then we definitely need to be back soon to explore the region.

What cities in the Midwest USA would you recommend?

Chicago Children’s Museum

October 23, 2017October 23, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Chicago, Family Satisfaction, Travel Goals, United States of America, Why Travel With Kids?

Did You Know:

Chicago Children’s Museum‘s mission is to improve children’s lives by creating a community where play and learning connect.

We arrived in Chicago when it was rainy! We underestimated the windy and chilly weather about the city so we decided to enjoy the city from the indoors. We planned for a quick stopover at the Chicago Children’s Museum for about 1-2 hours only yet we ended up staying until closing time!

Kids rule in play and learning in Chicago Children’s Museum. We have all raves and praises about this awesome kids place.

The staff were friendly, the place is ergonomically designed for kids to play and for parents to enjoy their kids play; or better yet, to enjoy playing with their kids.

Now, let’s talk about Mission. Obviously, our family is advocate of setting family goals linked to one own’s Mission Statement. With the mission statement, “to improve children’s lives by creating a community where play and learning connect”

We have articulated our family goals Turknoy Travels 100 is A Family Lifestyle based on our family’s mission to raise global citizens by family travel and worldschooling.

Children’s Museum and other family recreation facilities State their Mission quite clearly and concisely. We believe every family should, too.

Do you have your own unique family mission? Do tell us.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for Family Travel With Young Kids

October 15, 2017October 16, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Pennsylvania, Travel Goals, United States of America, Why Travel With Kids?

“Pittsburgh. I’d been there. One of the most underrated cities in North America. People who’d never been there thought of it as a graveyard of abandoned steel mills, but it was a beautiful city, and it would be good to have it back.” – Steven Brust, Lord of The Fantastic, Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny

Steel bridges – checked. Pittsburgh Pirates – checked. Square Market – checked. Beautiful skyline – checked. Friendly locals – checked. We all had fabulous time in Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for Family With Young Kids — The Steel City is ❤️PGH ❤️

In addition, as part of our worldschooling, we had a blast at the Carnegie Mellon University and the two Carnegie Museums close by the university. Seeing all the university students and professors runabout their busy schedules probably amazed the kids and had them dreaming of their university days. Probably.

The worldschooling highlights of our trip to Pittsburgh are the two (out of four) Carnegie Museums. We went to Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Carnegie Museum of Art offers a lot of paintings and sculpture by Picasso, Monet, Normandie, Van Gogh not to mention all the American contemporary art and architecture.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History has its varied collection of dinosaur bones and fossils including rare gems. Great interactive activities for kids of all ages!

We know there’s more to see in this city! More than Steel City and mainly for us, it’s Learning City. What is Pittsburgh for you?

Washington DC for Family Travel With Young Kids

October 13, 2017October 16, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Family Satisfaction, family travel, Travel Goals, United States of America, Washington DC, Why Travel With Kids?

“Washington DC is a city filled with people who believe they are important.” – David Brinkley

Our traveling family enjoyed a long stroll of memorial, in the country’s Capital District, of very important people who are foundation of The New World’s freedom.

Washington DC for Family With Young Kids — The White House area (not inside!) our first stop!

We started with paying a visit to the White House. The kids had a blast playing with squirrels at the La Fayette Garden.
The next day, we started our stroll at the Lincoln Memorial.

We continued our walk down the other memorial and talked a lot about the Korean War Memorial and why freedom is never free.

Add in the weather and it was a fantastic walk to Martin Luther King Memorial.

It’s amazing to see a lot of familiar quotes in Franklin Roosevelt Memorial and of course Eleanor Roosevelt and his dog are there.

And, opposite Lincoln Memorial is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

We ended our stroll for the day with kids playing their hearts out by the Washington Monument where we have a good view of both sides of the Capitol Hill and the Lincoln Memorial.

The highlight of walk would be the feee museums right after the Washington Monument. We chose to visit the National Museum of Air and Space. The kids had a blast with a lot of jaw-dropping moments looking up st airplanes and rockets.

The day after, we started from Union State to the Capitol Hill and spending the rest of the day in the American Indian National Museum.

There are other museums to enjoy in the area. We chose to learn a little bit of Native American history and the kids enjoyed with the handson activities and videos in the museum.

As a home educating family, living in the city would be fabulous with all the available museums. At the moment, we can only dream.

Do you live in Washington DC? Is it as fabulous as we think it is? Talk about family satisfaction. 🤗

Guggenheim Museum For Kids

October 11, 2017October 11, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Family Satisfaction, family travel, New York, Travel Goals, United States of America

“To get such beauty from something that has been produced from the artists’ own imagination appealed to me enormously. ” – Solomon R. Guggenheim

Guggenheim Museum is modern art museum located at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It’s a stone throw away from Metrolpolitan Museum of Art on the other side of the street. We were very impressed with the paintings we found in the museum. The museum was established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim, hence the name. He is a philanthropist and quite obviously, art lover.
The kids enjoyed the paintings we saw inside the museum and these are their favorite.

Woman With A Yellow Hair, Pablo Picasso, 1931. We read a lot about Pablo Picasso and one of our favorite is “The Girl With A Pony Tale.” Okay, the note about the painting is a little trolling because the little girl was only seventeen when she met Picasso and became the object of a lot of Picasso’s art works. Despite that fact, this painting our little fierce traveller’s favorite in the Guggenheim Museum.

The Palazzo Ducale, Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore. Claude Monet. Who loves Venice and Impressionism Paintings? Well, obviously our future scientist in the family. The one who loves Venice since he visited when he was three ( and of course, he remembers.)

Woman Ironing. Pablo Picasso.1904. Since our eldest traveler is the master of shades, she knows good art when she it. She’s happy being in the Guggenheim Museum.

Top of the cherry in this Museum is its architecture and design which the kids never got tired of looking… and climbing up and down.