family – Turknoy Travels 100!

Exploring Oslo, Norway: Det kongelige slott, Royal Palace

May 25, 2019May 25, 2019 by turknoys, posted in Family Satisfaction, Family Traditions, family travel, Norway, Travel Goals, Why Travel With Kids?

“I think the main task in life we all have received, is to become the best version of ourselves, no matter how difficult life can be. ” King Harald V of Norway

Det kongelige slot, or simply, Slottet is the royal residence home to HM King Harald V and HM Queen Sonja. Slottet is located at the top of Karl Johans gate, completed in 1849.

The Royal Palace Park surrounds the palace on all sides and features grassy areas, majestic trees, small ponds and statues. These grassy ares are perfect for a quick picnic/ hanging out in front of the castle while admiring the majestic neo-classical style with the facade of stuccoed brick.

Great fond memories in front of His Highness home residence

The building is in neo-classical style with a facade of stuccoed brick, and was completed in 1849.

Beyond hanging out during sunny days (or any cold days!) there are tours in summer, changing of guards every 1:30pm and service in the Palace Chapel every Sundays at 11am.

Our family believes the King Harald of Norway is THE coolest monarch. He is a champion sailor; he represented his country three times in Olympic Games; he support all genres and religions.

Not so long ago, he quoted Love Actually, in comparing Norway with United Kingdom,

“We may be a small country, but we’re a great one…”

He is certainly has more right to state this than Hugh Grant.

If you don’t think that is way too cool for a monarch, you should hear the love story between King Harald and Queen Sonja.

Once upon a time in 1950s…. so the real fairy tale starts King Harald saw a commoner, love at first sight, chased after her, courtship of nine years! King Olav V disapproves of the Prince not marrying another royalty from Sweden, a country of alliance. They defied all odds and eventually got married and live happily ever after ruling a great country… making it greater every day…

It’s a lot better than Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s story, right?!

the top of Karl Johans gate is the a Royal Palace

Obviously, lots of positive energy around The Royal Palace that our family wishes to absorb. And really, it’s a fine place to visit!

Don’t miss passing through The Royal Palace when in Oslo, Norway!

COUNTRY 32: USA, All Within Your Reach

May 10, 2019May 11, 2019 by turknoys, posted in Travel Goals, United States of America

“Here today, gone tomorrow.” – American Proverb

There are a lot of things to say about THE United States of America visit. At some point in both this traveling family’s parents life, The USA is The World. Well, for the dad, it was literally his world because he was in it. For the mom, that’s metaphorical. There was a time in her life that “living the American dream” is the best dream.

Delaying this country’s visit for several reasons, mainly enjoying the closest continent closest to our homebase, Qatar – Europe. Thirty-one countries after, off we went to USA!

First stop, New York, New York!

Seriously, we started humming… “Start spreading the news…we’re leaving today… to the City that never sleeps! almost a month before we actually go.

Of course, we enjoyed New York – Turknoy Family Style!

We are then ready to explore other cities and states at our will, after Washington DC ! With the free museums, if we are not on schedule, we would never have left the area.

There are a lot of memorable highlights during our road trip to half of USA with a lot of nostalgic moments for Turknoy Dad. He spent a five years in Denver,Colorado so off we went to explore the entire Colorado State to create memories with kids, and oh my, did we really have range of memorable emotions.

Several days spent in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Omaha, Nebraska and Chicago, Illinois are all pleasant to our traveling senses. Not expectedly, the Chicago Children Museum turned out to be a good refuge against the wind and rain.

Truth be told, our favorite State, to date, is.. *drum rolls* The Green Mountain State. We were never-failed floored every moment by Vermont’s fall colors, with the Ben and Jerry’s Factory Tour For Kids ,Vermont Teddy Bear for Kids, Factory Tour and Build -A-Bear , and more importantly the community and beautiful landscapes of Burlington, Vermont . Vermont-ing seems to be a nice future hobby for the family.

It’s was Fall 2017 when we visited The New World and since we didn’t blog about our travel goals. We are ready to go back again and now reminiscing our first visit. Our “Some Day, we’ll visit America” is now “It’s been a long time since we’ve been there; feels like ages ago.

For what it’s worth, our family travel stats for our first time visit to our 32nd country, The USA :

Travel days: 30

Days Full of Laughter: 30/30

Days Full of Siblings Fight:

States Visited:

Intercity Train Rides:

Delayed Intercity Train Rides:

Local Plane Rides:

Rent-A-Car:

Number of Mega Enormous, Gigantic Delicious, All-American Burgers Eaten:

Hotdogs From Hotdog Stands:

Apples:

Pumpkin Spice Latte:

Breakfast In A Bar:

Fall Leaves Collected:

Snowballs Thrown At Each Other at Bullseye:

Number of Days It Took To Get Over the Vacation HangOver:

Number of Days It Took Us to Blog About our USA Experience:

So, did we or did we enjoy United States of America?

Vermont Teddy Bear For Kids, Factory Tour and Build-A-Bear

October 31, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Travel Adventures, Travel Goals, United States of America, Vermont, Why Travel With Kids?

“A teddy bear will give you love. A grizzly bear will give you a mauling. Some bears aren’t just the same.” – Anthony T.Hincks

Do you know how a teddy bear is made and born? Well, these three traveling Turknoys definitely does now.

Vermont Teddy Bear For Kids, Factory Tour and Build-A-Bear — Deciding to have a Teddy Bear?! It’s a big decision to consider, think it through… 😘

Once kids made the big leap of choosing to own a best friend teddy, like life, they’ll be face with more decisions to make, not just for themselves, be for their Teddy Bears.

After making their own personal Teddy Bear BFFs, the Turknoys made a Factory Tour at the Vermont Teddy Bear to check if all the teddies are made in accordance to the quality assurance of all BFFs. Spoiler alert – it does!

We are definitely going home with more luggages than we want. Better yet, from family of five to traveling family of eight, 2 adults, 3 kids and 3 Vermont teddies. Luckily, the kids didn’t choose that big, gigantic bear.

When we travel light like an expert, along came three teddy bears! 😂😂😂

Do you own a Vermont Teddy Bear?

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.

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. 🤗

COUNTRY 31: Morocco, Land of Colors and Much Mor

October 7, 2017October 6, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Family Satisfaction, family travel, Morocco, Travel Goals, Why Travel With Kids?

“He who hunts for ostrich, will find ostrich.” – Moroccan Proverb

Oh yes, our family is hunting! Hunting hard for our life’s passions fueled by our yearning to be world educated by its unparalleled beauty, diverse culture and history!

Hunt ostrich, find ostrich. Can’t be more appropriate for our family’s ideals on setting family goals and traveling! Set goals, its necessary!

Our Country 31/ 100 Countries Travelled Together as Family is Morocco. Also, the second African country after our adventure in Ethiopia, Land of Origins. We’ll update this blog as we go on exploring this wonderful country.

We visited Casablanca, Morocco’s biggest and capital city, last March 2017 with only the parents for some travel hacking attempt. That attempt is not as successful as we have imagined. However, it turned out very romantic. It’s just us, though. We can’t state that it’s because it’s “Casablanca” but partly because traveling parents neeeds to be alone every now and then. So we said to ourselves, “we may have travelled Paris with kids, but we have Casablanca. ” Awesome, memorable couple traveling days!

Casablanca, Kingdom of Morocco — Travel date mixed with travel hacking in Casablanca! Can you tell we’re stoked and overjoyed?! (March 2017)

But what do we know?! Few months after, kids enjoyed Casablanca with us. Lots of gratitude, no complains. To explore the largest mosque in the country overlooking the Atlantic Ocean with our global children couldn’t be more perfect.

Worth noting a brief description of Hassan II Mosque from Wikipedia

The Hassan II Mosque or Grande Mosquée Hassan II (Arabic: مسجد الحسن الثاني‎‎; colloquially the “Casablanca Hajj”)is a mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. It is the largest mosque in Morocco and the 13th largest in the world. Its minaret is the world’s tallest at 210 metres (689 ft). Completed in 1993, it was designed by Michel Pinseau and built by Bouygues. The minaret is 60 stories high topped by a laser, the light from which is directed towards Mecca.The mosque stands on a promontory looking out to the Atlantic Ocean, worshippers can pray over the sea but there is no glass floor looking into the sea. The walls are of hand-crafted marble and the roof is retractable. A maximum of 105,000 worshippers can gather together for prayer: 25,000 inside the mosque hall and another 80,000 on the mosque’s outside grounds.

We just can’t wait to see more of Morocco 🇲🇦 for some serious “ostrich hunting.”

Type of Family Travelers We Know and Want to Be!

October 4, 2017October 4, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Family Satisfaction, family travel, Travel Goals, Why Travel With Kids?

“The journey not the arrival matters.” – T. S. Eliot

Since our family started our family adventures based on our family travel goals, we meet a lot of family travelers online and offline. Perhaps family travel will be the leading form of travel in the near future. Maybe (big maybe) that’s how Millennial will raise their families. Honestly, we see a lot of wins when kids travel early on with their family. It is our contention that family travel will pave the way to world peace.

That Big Family Traveler

More than big in number but more on big in ideas and big in luxury! Family travelers can aim for that one-time BIG adventure and they go all out. Disneyworld, Disneyland, Legoland, Atlantis – yes please! Mainly where commercial travel marketing go crazy at. Yes, after all, It’s A Small World After All!

Types of Family Travellers — That Disneyland Dream for Princesses

That Hairy Family Traveler

Shun all the risks, these family traveler will visit exotic places in a heartbeat! But of course, exotic is a relative place, it could be Asia for North Americans or Africa for Asians, either ways it is a dangerous, out of comfort zone place for this type of family traveler.

That Audacious Family Traveler

Daring, bold and brave, adjectives we don’t normally use at the end of a fairytale like “happily ever after…” That’s boring because family fairy tale doesn’t have to have an ending. Long term family travelers life their life without borders, that audacious! It must be really fantastic to wake up to days and days of something new and different which turns to weeks and weeks which turns to years to years.. up to , who knows, decades even.

That Goal (keeper/oriented) Family Traveler

Of course, that cautious family traveler who are vigilant to source out travel deals, who master the itinerary to ensure productive travel days with family because of limited time, limited resources or any other limitations. They are the family who does not make excuses, yet makes end meet in their own creative ways.

Our family is that family who is a little bit of everything, who lives by the acronym BHAG, that Big Hairy Audacious Goal of traveling 100 countries in every continent, who appreciate every family travelers we meet.

Any type, any form, any reason, any rationale of family travel. We strongly believe, all families are unique, so their travels should be.

Create your own family trail.

COUNTRY 26: Lithuania, Real is Beautiful

September 30, 2017September 29, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Lithuania, Travel Adventures, Why Travel With Kids?

Dogs cannot make dreams come true — people must do that. – Lithuanian Proverb

Well, we’ll, well.. Our traveling family has a dog. We kind of know that our dog didn’t make us travel to a lot of awesome countries and made us realize our travel goals. We are avid advocate of the necessity of goal setting. Set goals. Live the life you imagined.

We’re glad to have made it to Lithuania. Positively surprising, this country indeed is. We visited two cities, Vilnius (the capital city) and Kaunas. We walked around these cities and for whatever reasons, the kids were very playful and carefree. Even the traveling parents has lots of time for romance, in between churches, museums and monuments.

Lithuania, Real is Beautiful — Full Day City Tour in Vilnius means kids playing half the time!

We celebrated our youngest traveller’s 5th birthday in a very petite ice cream and cake shop.

Of course, we had fun exploring a new city for another year of our little explorer’s adventures.
Read books and drink coffee. Those words are music to our ears when we had a long day exploring. The locals and residents are still heavy on reading in this country, cafes are so beautiful to observe and to just relax and enjoy a good cup of coffee and books. We took with us a lot of books home, too.

Exploring another city in Lithuania, Kaunas is the second-largest city, former citadel of Russian Empire, temporary capital of Lithuania during the interwar period, point of intersection of all main roads. In addition to all historic infrastructure, plazas and monuments, the landscape is magnificent.

Lithuania The Beautiful — Oh, the Ant and the Grasshopper story, it may look like. But did you know that Vladislavas Starevicius is the first to creat masterpieces in puppet animation?! She learned that while eating a bag of fresh strawberries we got for less than a euro.

If this country is a person, Lithuania is beautiful inside and outside. Do you agree?

COUNTRY 22: Ethiopia, Land of Origins

September 26, 2017September 27, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Education, Ethiopia, Family Satisfaction, Travel Adventures, Why Travel With Kids?

Do not hesitate or you will be left in between doing something, having something and being nothing. – Ethiopian Proverb

Woohoo! Our 3rd continent and our first African country to explore with kids.

It maybe our love for discovering human history when our family travels that had drawn us in visiting Ethiopia. Our primary goal was to see Lucy, the 3.2 million years old fossil, probably the first evidence of humanity. The continent Africa is known as The Cradle of Humanity, then Ethiopia is its evidence repository.

Ethiopia, Land of Origins — Our Exploring Family with Lucy (model)

As a worldschooling family who sets SMART goals to travel to 100 countries in all continents by 2022. This is our attempt to live life to the fullest with kids. Ethiopia is our first country in Africa (our third continent, 30th country visited, to date.

When it comes to food and accommodation, we had the most unique experience in the country. Barely 4 hours away from Qatar, we were amazed with a totally different world. We definitely had a crash course in archeology and paleontology and how it works in the real world. Our three traveler kids had been to countless of Natural Museums in Europe and Asia yet we were impressed with somewhat “shabby” museum in Addis Ababa containing real human history treasures.

Lucy aside, here are 5 interesting facts about Ethiopia that everybody, yes, including kids, can appreciate:

1. Country History: Ethiopia is the only African country, which successfully fought against the scramble for Africa. It was never colonized, though Italians attempted to occupy it twice.

2. UNESCO Heritage Sites: There are nine, day trips from Addis Ababa possible! Most famous sites are Lalibela twelve-rock-hewn churches. We visited Christian Orthodox churches which gave an interesting perspective for a family with both Islam and Catholic members.

3. Religion: Ethiopia appears in the Bible 45 times both in Old and New Testament.

4. Origin of Coffee. Coffee is Ethiopian’s gift to the world. It was found in the Kaffa Region (South-Western Ethiopia.) Even before the visit, we are non-Starbucks coffee drinkers. Enjoying the real “coffee culture” experience in Addis Ababa with really strong and delicious coffee with local ceremonies

5. Abebe Bikila, a star Ethiopian marathon runner, won Africa’s first Olympic gold medal in 1960. Add in the country’s high elevation Addis Ababa is athletes’ heart’s working out paradise. Made us want to become runners and marathoners.

And oh, more pluses — the Ethiopian women are really gorgeous and almost everybody is kind to tourists. Ethiopia is one of the safest country in Africa to visit. With low costs airlines flying to Addis Ababa almost every day from Doha, Qatar where our family’s currently based, for sure, we would be back for some backpacking with kids.