traveling family – 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. 😜

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!

Halloween Howl For Kids in Burlington, Vermont

October 29, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Family Satisfaction, Family Traditions, family travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Goals, United States of America, Vermont

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this may come. ” – William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Halloween Howl For Kids in Burlington, Vermont — 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!

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!

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.

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.

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.”

Baobab Tree in Aspire Park

September 20, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Qatar, Travel Goals, Why Travel With Kids?

“It is a question of discipline. When you’ve finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care. You must see to it that you pull up regularly all the baobabs, at the very first moment when they can be distinguished from the rose-bushes which they resemble so closely in their earliest youth…” (5.16).
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

In addition to traveling together as family, we are avid fans of reading aloud to kids. We collect classic books and one of our favorite is The Little Prince. Hence, our fascination to Baobab trees.

Baobab trees are the Africa’s iconic ” Tree of Life.” Kinda like our Asia’s Coconut Tree – we call our high rising coconut trees as Tree of Life as well.

Fun facts about Baobabs:

Baobab trees grow in 32 African countries.
They can live for up to 5,000 years, reach up to 30 metres high and up to an enormous 50 metres in circumference.
Baobab trees can provide shelter, food and water for animals and humans. A lot of savannah communities have made their homes near Baobab trees.
Baobab bears fruit! And based on what we’ve read so far, Baobab fruit is one of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world. Hey, that’s what we say to our coconut!

Soon, we’ll be visiting baobabs in Africa, we know it would be a fantastic experience and family travel bucketlist to tick and enjoy. We also know that we’ll bring our worn out Little Prince book with us. Every time we read that book, there are a lot of realizations in life thay suddenly sparks our minds. Just like traveling.

For the meantime, a more interesting information about baobab tree….

Drum rolls please!!!

Did you know that there are baobab trees in Aspire Park, Doha, Qatar? To touch a real love baobab tree is like meeting Little Prince in person. There’s always a lot of reason to explore Qatar. Or any nearby neighborhood, for that matter. With curious eyes and wandering feet, we’ll never know what we can discover.

Baobab Tree in Aspire Park — Our very own Little Princes and Baobab Tree with The Torch Doha in the Background 💜💙❤️

How to Make Your Travel Dreams Come True

September 16, 2017September 16, 2017 by turknoys, posted in Travel Adventures, Travel Goals, Why Travel With Kids?

Make your family travel dreams come true!

It’s easy to make travel wishlists, bucket lists of places we want to go, destinations we dream of! Even those creatures under the rock would want to visit some places they have never been. But most of the time, they do stay under the rock, left in wonderment of what’s like outside their world.

How to Make Your Travel Dreams Come True — May these three global kids find their hearts passion amidst life challenges and comfort zones ❤️💚💙

Why wouldn’t they, staying under the rock, is comfortable. It’s easier to just keep wishing to explore the world than actually travel. Similarly, it’s way easier to make the Eiffel Tower photo (or other places!) the desktop screensaver than actually book a ticket and go to Paris.

But bucket lists are meant to be ticked off, and not to remain list forever.

The secret to realizing going to these destinations are actually pretty straight forward.

1. Faith and Vision go together. A strong vision is backed up my breakdown of goals, yes, but more importantly, it’s main support and foundation is a belief system, a strong faith about something. It could be Jesus Christ for devote Christians, it could The Force for Star Wars Fanatic, it could be the unicorn for people who believe in the unknown, the extraordinary, the unseen. We believe in fate, God’s blessings and positivity. Those are the foundation of our Vision, family values, you may say. The thing is, Vision is something we strive for long term, hence, our faith, values and passion should support our own desire for the future.

2. Visualize. Visualize. Visualize. And Visualize Some More. Have you seen the movie Jumper? If yes, you know that it’s about a young man with a teleportation abilities, his travel adventures mixed with family drama and young love action. Making our travel dreams come true is similar to how he used his teleportation abilities. Focus on that one.. Did you notice that he can only go to a place if he can imagine it? Pictures of different places all around his room. If he doesn’t know what Rome looks like, he can never teleport there. It’s simple and actually neuro-science worthy!

3. Don’t be just SMART. Be SMART-ER. Our family is more of an advocate of setting vision and goals than travel addicts. Well, we are travel addicts, but all of our travels are part of our bigger plan… to travel more! Seriously now, we believe that setting goals is necessary for everybody!

Everybody has this “SOMEDAY!” Here’s the big open secret to getting to our “someday.” Not only we need to be SMART, but what really works is if we are SMARTER! This good, (very) old acronym works!

Specific

Measurable (no-brainier KPI)

Attainable (in life, all goals are!)

Realistic (make sense to YOU!)

Time bound (w/ deadline set)

Evaluated (periodically!)

Reviewed (evolving YOU!) .

Write down goals, most preferably, uninfluenced, own personal goals which echoes your deep inner desires and passions, and evaluate it periodically, make necessary adjustments (to yourself, to the lifestyle or to the goals!) Of course, you can change goals in life. Life is….life. Sometimes, there are changes in life which we can’t control. When we say, our family aim to travel to 100 countries together, we are declaring and sending our thoughts on how we want to live our lives. If, for whatever circumstances, the Universe, God or Energy have other megaplans for us and the world, then we will adjust our goals. Revision of goals is not non-achievement of living life. It’s driving the car and changing routes when a particular road is blocked.

We can see this in every work employee. They are almost always afraid to set high goals at work because they may not achieve it, get punished for non-achievement and be embarrassed about it. But such is not the case about life – setting goals and being open about these goal, means the intent to maximize one’s life potential and God given resources.

When you set goals, you set the tone of your day-to-day lifestyle, like ours – Turknoy Travels 100 is A Lifestyle and it’s pretty amazing, so far!

4. Positive Can-Do Attitude. The glass is not half full nor half empty. Oh the places we travel with that glass!

The reality in life – positive attracts positive. Positive multiplies positive is enormous positive potential. We are the sum or total of the positive influence we surround ourselves it. That may be the universal requirement for goal achievement.

5. Be Spontaneous and Just Leave. Action cures fear! The beginning of a thousand miles is a single step! Take the first bite is how you eat the entire cow.

A little trivia about our family? We started traveling right after our Traveling Dad lost his day job. That’s when we know for sure that life is off to good start the moment we say…”What the heck!! Let’s just go.”

So, do you have goals in life?

Our Five Favorite Kid-Friendly Places in Turkey

May 21, 2016September 18, 2016 by turknoys, posted in Travel Goals, Turkey

Turkey! Turkey! It’s great country to travel with kids!

Home sweet home adventures are the best! There is just pure joy in traveling in Turkey. This country is home for us. We don’t live here for now, but our hearts will always be thinking of family and awesome places in this majestic and historical country. To use Alexander The Great’s metaphor, The Capital of The World. (He’s referring to Constantinople, now Istanbul… but the entire Turkey for our family is, The Capital of The World.)

Since, we have been asked often what are the places to visit in Turkey, thought it would be a great idea to list our favourites, so far. Places we actually visited with kids, where it is possible for the parents and kids to enjoy both at the same time, while learning from the adventures.

There are a lot of places to visit in Turkey. This list is no way comprehensive (our five top favourite places!) and no way connected to any travel agencies.

1. Pamukkale – This means “Cotton Castle” in Turkish. Travertine thermal springs, pools and limestone walls can be enjoyed for several days in any season. We have visited the place during winter and we still enjoyed the springs with much lesser crowd. We also enjoyed the oldest swimming in the world.There are a lot of limestone fallen formation which makes the place look like a make-believe world. Discussions with kids can be focused on science or geography!

Exploring Turkey — Pamukkale means Cotton Castles!

The Ancient City of Hierapolis is also adjacent to the city which can be a huge playground for kids while studying archaeology and history.

This is number 1 on our list and seriously, an underrated tourist attraction in Turkey!

2. Cappadocia – This place is also number 1 in our hearts! Lots of first for our family. First Hot Air Balloon Ride, stayed in an actual cave for several days, can hotel, that is, explored the underground city, definitely seemed like a make-believe world like Pamukkale.

3. Troia – This maybe Brad Pitt influenced way more than Homer, but being the actual place of Troy, where the Trojan Horse maybe located for real, is just awesome baseline discussion about Homer with kids.

This is a personal choice for us and unless you really love history and archeology, this may be a bit of “tourist trap.” for those tourists who will get of their way to visit.

4. Temple of Athena – The place is close to Izmir and Ephesus, but the view from the Temple defines serenity. Not necessarily recommended for travel with kids, but for those looking for solitude. We were just lucky, we managed to enjoy the view and serenity with kids. Great moments.

5. The Capital of the World – Constantinople or modern day Istanbul – There are a lot of things to do. Full week exploring with kids may not be sufficient. The list just goes on.. Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and Bhosporus Boat Trip!

To stay in one continent and see the the other one from afar – this should be on everybody’s bucket list, don’t you think?! Visit Istanbul!