A family travel blog meant to track our family goals and to inspire the world that anyone with vision backed with SMART goals are meant to have their dreams come to a reality!
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this may come. ” – William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Wonder Woman / Amazon Woman/ Traveling Woman
Okay, the traveling parents caved in with the kids with regards to participating in a Halloween party while in USA. It’s not that we don’t celebrate Halloween. It’s not that we agree that it’s anti- religion nor anti-God. It may be a country tradition but how we see it is more like a commercial manipulation while waiting for Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Bring on the pumpkins, the season spices, costumes and gazillion candies and the retailers had October and November sales covered.
Boy, did we see how customers shopped and crammed getting the costumes. It’s part of what made us want to be part of it – better to experience it once, rather than be nagging on the edge of being bitter about it every year. So, off we celebrate Halloween, kids costumes, party and sweets! Shopping done At Party City
Having said that, we choose a free Halloween event and oh boy, did we enjoy.. and the kids, too! It’s a family event in a great weather with friendly awesome people by Lake Champlain. It’s a fabulous event. We are very glad to joined.
Halloween Howl in Burlington, Vermont is a spooktakular good time on a hay ride and wandering through the haunted walk with costume contest, music and games!
Give it up to these spontaneous traveling parents – we planned attending the Halloween event early in the morning and attended late afternoon, not without a couple selfie 👫
Captain America with Dragon Slayer Ninja, Wonder Woman and Pink Power Rangers – Turknoy Travellers! 😘❤️These traveling kids enjoying the scary walk along the park. Superheroes inside out!
Feels like superheroes walking around in the park, the forest, by the lake and in bouncy castle, that’s one awesome afternoon spent in Burlington, Vermont.
Nature and Halloween really goes together… with little bit of scare here and there, of course!Turknoy Travels 100 in character for the day!
Our family members in character while one in nature is a perfect way to celebrate an awesome Halloween Howl in Burlington, Vermont.
What’s your Halloween plan? Do share Halloween traditions you do with your family.
“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.
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.
The Old Market, Omaha – lots of interesting to see with kids
Fall colors in Omaha, Nebraska
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.
Corn Maze in The Mid West In Fall… Hope we get that right about “American” fall activityPumpkin PatchThese girls love the suburbs and farm 😃Our little lady farmer ❤️
Going back to Omaha, we got tempted yet again to visit local bookstore and had another share of our family book haul. More books!Jackson Street Bookseller at Old Market
We didn’t want to leave the Bookstore, but dinner called and we enjoyed a very scrumptious local dinner at Upstream Brewing Company.
Yes, we make it a point that kids visit Brewing Restaurant in Omaha!Omaha Burger, isn’t this mouthwatering?!Dinner when we travel in local restaurants always turn out to be very intimate and quiet with kids 😃❤️
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‘s mission is to improve children’s lives by creating a community where play and learning connect.
Our contention: Every Family Should Have A Written Manifesto Like This. Don’t you agree?Big wild ideas are welcome in our Turknoy FamilyWe 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!
Balance in colorsEvery kids should have a photo with a T-Rex SkullThose busy little creative hands!Kids rule in play and learning in Chicago Children’s Museum. We have all raves and praises about this awesome kids place. Climb, jump, climb, cling and smileBuild For Real.Rest means a game of chessHappy faces for all.
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.
“Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
We were welcomed by a 100% probability of rain on our first hour in the city! Actually, strong rain welcomed our train from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania we were scared to get out the Station Union.
Rain. Chilly and windy rain. Okay, that surprised us. A lot. Well, it’s Chicago is not called “The Windy City” for fun or pun. Windy the city really is.
Nothing can stop our family from enjoying the beauty and architecture of Chicago. Not even 100% certainty of bad weather.
Our first stop, to get equipped. We don’t like to shopping (window shopping specially nor shopping for fun — any kind if shopping for that matter. On the side note, this is actually obvious in all our family photos, we are always wearing the same clothes over and over and over and over….), but for necessity, we do what we need to. Off we went to get our traveling feet warm while we explore. Although we make sure we know the weather for days and weeks of the place we will explore, we were caught off guard by the winds of Chicago!
Bloomingdales Darlings Getting Equipped to Explore, by Galoshes, not by Tutus 🤗
Armed with a lot of umbrellas and water proof shoes, we went to visit Cloud Gate Park and checked out “The Bean.” Oh boy, was it still crowded, amidst the rain. The Bean at The Cloud Gate, Millennium Park
We had a blast taking photos in this architectural wonder. Oh yeah, it seems that the phrase “architectural wonder” goes together with Chicago! The skyscrapers are extraodinaire when it comes to architecture design. Or it our visual description – fabulous and looks functional.
In addition to the Chicago skyscrapers, we visited the Chicago Cultural Center and checked out their extraordinaire biennial exhibition on Architecture! Arxhitects, designers and students everywhere socializing with our three traveling kids talking about design, construction and mine crafts. Minecrafts mainly from our Turknoys, of course. That counts.
MAKE GREAT PLANS, in Skyscrapers and in Life! Designs Come True Only After BluePrints and Models – Turknoy Travels 100
Then comes the bronze cow in The Windy City.Hear Ye Bronze Cow! A lot of statues worth talking a picture around this city!
The next day, we didn’t want to be overwhelmed with all the “must-sees” in Chicago, so we decided to visit the Chicago Children’s Museum. We didn’t realize we will be there for hours and hours of adult and kids fun! Chicago Children’s Museum
There are also lots of things to see and enjoy at the Navy Pier! Skyline from the Navy Pier
Top of our list, Chicago’s famous deep dish pizza! A pizza which takes more than an hour wait to bake. Our verdic -calorific! Chicago Raise Pizza is Deep Dish
If you think that’s loaded, try the glazed and infused donuts, another Chicago born and raised idea of culinary speciality!
Chicago Donut Fun is Glazed and Infused ❤️
We went to Grant Park and enjoyed a nice sunny and cloudy (and windy!) stroll along the Buckingham Fountain, one of the largest in the world and one that resembles Versailles Fountain. That sounds familiar, yes, the one in France.
CAN YOU SEE THE HAPPINESS ? We can almost touch it here! 😋
We spent our last day in the Water Tower Place – Dr. Seuss and Lego. Two things that these kids would want not to leave any place.
The Art of Dr. Seuss, small gallery, great ideas!We are counting this one as enjoying Chicago’s skyline !
We’ve seen a little of the city but the kids did a whole lot of Chicago loving their way!
Someday, we’ll return and for sure we’ll enjoy this city more, especially the must-sees.
Have you been to Chicago? What did you love most? Do tell.
“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. The Steel City is ❤️PGH ❤️ Pittsburgh Pirates It’s a Home Run!
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.
Carnegie Mellon University
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. Vincent Van Gogh, Wheat field After The Rain
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! Stegosaurus Fun for real The awesome Centre for Learning, view from Carnegie Mellon University
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 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.
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.
“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. ” – #AbrahamLincolnWe continued our walk down the other memorial and talked a lot about the Korean War Memorial and why freedom is never free.
By the Korean MemorialAdd in the weather and it was a fantastic walk to Martin Luther King Memorial. Like Martin Luther King , she, too, has a dream!
It’s amazing to see a lot of familiar quotes in Franklin Roosevelt Memorial and of course Eleanor Roosevelt and his dog are there. Theodore Roosevelt Memorial
And, opposite Lincoln Memorial is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.
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. We made it to Washington Monument! Elevator to the top of the monument is still not working because of you know- Spider-Man movie. It’s under maintenance indefinite time. 😀Now, this is some playground! 🤗
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.
A long walk has to end with airplanes!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.
The Capitol Hill
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.
Inside the Native American National MuseumAs 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. 🤗
“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 Woman With A Yellow Hair, Pablo Picasso
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.)
The Palazzo Ducale, Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore. Claude Monet
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.
Woman Ironing. 1904. Pablo Picasso
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. “Look up, look up, look up… “
“It’s a town you come to for a short time.” – Ernest Hemingway
Exploring New York City with kids for the first time is aggravating to say the least. Hhmmm.. just saying that feels bettter. Aggravation, in a good way for all senses. Well, maybe not for the feet and leg muscles. New York, the city that never sleeps, yet our hearts and mind fall into deep slumber the moment we our bodies touch the bedsheets. Back and forth using the Subway, we all know when, where and how to enjoy subways with or without crowds 😀
That feeling about New York is too familiar for our family, we had the same “sensations” when we explored “Paris, France with our many firsts” – there are a lot of kids activities to see and do, it’s way too overwhelming for kids and parents alike.
So, we took a shortcut this time. At least, that’s what we thought we did. We bought New York CityPass and MetroCard and we’re off!
Five days of feeding the kids curiosity, dragging them around Uptown and Downtown and off we went. We visited six landmarks using our City Pass:
New York City Pass
American Museum of Natural History (CityPass)American Museum of Natural History – those fierce faces ready to explore he very crowded museum
Top of The Empire State Building (CityPass)Top of the Empire State Building – iPhone only photos for our family. It’s those awesome memories we can’t capture that matters more 💞 Metropolitan Museum of Art (City Pass)
Metropolitan Museum of Art – another feet abusing, brain bleeding, senses overloading Museum of traveling family in New York CityStatue of Liberty and Ellis Island (City Pass)
There she is! Standing tall and proud.Guggenheim Museum (City Pass)Picasso, Money, China Arts and lots More!
We also enjoyed “famous” landmarks not part of our CityPass like: Metropolitan Modern Museum
Unique Kids, Unique Designs
Times Square
Time Square for a traveling family who doesn’t shop – odd 😋We also watched one musical based on kids choice – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A really fantastic musical, the best they’ve seen, by far. So the kids told us.
Golden Ticket to the Chocolate Factory for the Turknoys Please
Central ParkSssshhhh… We’re “dating” … kids said so! 😀
Oh boy, a lot to see and explore in the city. The trick, for us, is to enjoy every moment with kids and stop when they don’t want to explore anymore. We’re happy we get to enjoy a lot and no regrets for the places we didn’t get to see. After all, we can’t have it all. (Or can we?!)
“You see bookshops are dreams built of wood and paper. They are time travel and escape and knowledge and power. They are simply the best of all places. “ – Jen Campbell
During our USA trip travel planning, we put Amazonbooks in our of our Things-Must-Do in New York. We didn’t realize that there are Amazonbooks across most of the major states. That’s awesome!
Did we enjoy the Amazonbooks bookshop experience. It’s like browsing online books with recommendations but better. Amazonbooks, 34th Street Manhattan , just around the Empire State Building
Better because we can actually smell and touch the books before buying.
Now, this is a Haul 💞
Better because we can actually walk to different bookshelves like clicking “You Might Also Like” recommendations.
Better because the Amazonbooks staff are very friendly and accommodating.
Better because there’s no shipping fee! Hurray!
Better because Amazon Prime offers huge discount! Easy as online shopping with huge discounts minus the shipping costs! Blissful, that’s what this picture is ❤️
There’s also Kindle area where the kids had a blast checking out online books.
Inside Amazonbooks until almost closing time! That’s bookshop til we drop!
We’re easy to please as long as we are in New York.
Well, true.
Hey-O! Our family is on to our 32nd country of our family travel goals and we are going all out – Hello New York! Hello, United States of America!
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean, our first stop, New York staying in the heart of he city, The New Yorker Hotel managed by Wyndham Hotels since March 2014.
The New Yorker Hotel is family friendly for a reasons.
Location. Location. Location. The hotel’s addresss in 481 Eigth Avenue, literally a stone’s away from Penn Station, six blocks away from Empire State Building and eight blocks away (or less) from Times Square!
From the airport, we took Air Train and Subway to Penn Station and we’re all tuck in New York. Definitely a big A+ for family with kids.
The View From The Room. We booked a Standard Double Bed Room With A View.
This View. Look at our faces just after arriving from half across the world. Hello Empire State Building view! ❤️Her view of New York.. and then she sleeps soundly.
Famous People in History. One of the most effective way to teach kids about awesome, extraordinary “already dead or old” people in history and not get snores, name drop that they stayed in the same hotel. List goes on for The New Yorker Hotel.
Top of the list, Nikola Tesla. Tesla spent the last ten years of his life in near-seclusion in Suite 3327 at The New Yorker Hotel. Nikolas Tesla and our Lady Traveller
Muhammad Ali would recuperate there after his March 1971 fight against Joe Frazier at the Garden. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee… heal The New Yorker style
Rosa Parks in one of the hotel’s conference events
See the happy traveling dad in the photo below:
High Value for Money For A Family Luxury Travel. To be bluntly honest, the hotel is 3-stars at best when it comes to facilities (our room doesn’t even have fridge) and typical of city rooms, even the double bed rooms are way too small for family. But hey, for our family, this is pretty much luxury. We won’t hesitate to book again when in New York.
New York! New York! Now off to explore! More travel adventures from us soon!
Turknoy Travels 100! 