Once in a Lifetime Travel Experiences

With the travel industry coming back to life I am constantly daydreaming about our next trips! It also has me thinking about past trips and past once in a lifetime experiences. 

Seeing the Northern Lights in Iceland
We were so fortunate that even on a cloudy night we were able to see the auroras! To view more pictures and read more about our trip to Iceland, click > here!

Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef

I have a like/dislike relationship with swimming or snorkeling in the open ocean. On our trips to Hawaii and Florida the water is typically colder and I really don't like that. But I like seeing all the fishes once I get in! But the Great Barrier Reef was a different story, the water was warm and felt really nice! This was a fun, possibly once in a lifetime experience. I say possibly because we are already thinking about our next trip to Australia and this time taking our daughter. Read about it > here!

Seeing the Twelve Apostles 

This was a MAJOR bucket list item of mine! I'm not sure why but I just had to see the rock formations before they disappear. It was the main reason we visited Melbourne during our 2019/2020 trip to Australia. Read about it > here!

Christmas in Italy 

A long time ago, in 2008, I was fortunate enough to get to take a trip to Italy with my then best friend. Since we were both in college we only had Christmas break as an option for travel. We took a Trafalgar tour called, The Best of Italy, and it was wonderful! It also marked the first time we were both away from our families for Christmas. But Christmas in Venice, Italy! 

Traveling with my Husband

As sappy as that sounds, this man has followed me around the world because I love to travel and see new things. When we first got together it wasn't easy to get this guy to take a vacation. Our first vacation was a quick weekend trip to Key West, Florida and then the next year I FINALLY convinced him to go to Hawaii and we haven't looked back. A few years after our first trip to Hawaii is when we started "the points game" and now we travel on points 80-90% of the time! 

So far, I haven't found a place I don't want to go back too, I'm always ready for a trip! One of the biggest dilemmas right now for us is wanting to take our kiddo along. She is officially in school and we don't want to be those parents who pull her out of school for a vacation. But I am also not one of those people that wants to pay ridiculous high prices for travel during traditional holidays... oh, what to do?! 

Do you have any amazing travel experiences? 

2021 Bucket List Update

With traveling starting to tick back up I thought it would be fun to update my travel bucket list!

Within the United States, where I am from and currently live, I have 12 more states to visit in my effort to visit all 50 states that make up the United States! I will add another state to the "Been There" list later this year. I also have in my "Been There" list two sates that I have only been to the airport. Do you count airport layovers as a visit? 

{map created at https://www.amcharts.com/visited_countries}

In addition to wanting to visit all 50 states I would also like to visit a good portion of the National Parks. To date I have visited 10 of the National Parks in the Untied States. We're visiting Glacier NP later this summer and I am hoping we can take a road trip next year to visit the Dakotas and see Badlands, Wind Cave and Theodore Roosevelt National Parks. The problem with this bucket list is that it is always growing! The National Parks Service adds new parks every year! The latest, New River Gorge in West Virginia, was added to the list in December of 2020. 

Other destinations that are on my list to visit next are: Puerto Rico, St. John, USVI, Croatia and Slovenia. I would also LOVE to visit Austria and Paris again, but this time around Christmas, and we are hoping to visit Australia again and take our daughter this time.  

{map created at https://www.amcharts.com/visited_countries}

Where are you heading to next? 

A Reintroduction

Hey y'all, let me reintroduce myself! My name is Alexa and I have been blogging on and off since the beginning of 2011! I started with my blog, travel mi amor, and it was all about travel. On that blog I talked about pervious trips I had taken and I created a few "regular posts" like a Travel RoundUp where I would talk about what happened in the travel world that week and some Pinspiration posts too. And I will admit, some of my fluff content wasn't my own, I got ideas from others. 

But in 2014 I became pregnant and I figured I wouldn't be able to keep up with the frequent posting and the topics would venture away from travel. So in the summer of 2015 I created The Spotted Bulldog as more of a lifestyle blog and named after our sweet English bulldog, Lola. She was almost all white with one spot on her head...but, her skin was COVERED in small black spots that you could see on her belly and when we gave her a bath. That's how the blog got its name! And although Lola passed over the rainbow bridge back in 2016 we still have joy in our new spotted bulldog, Daisy! 

I think I did a pretty good job at keeping up with my posts...until I didn't. After looking back at pasts posts it seems that when we moved up to Wisconsin in 2016 things really tapered off. And I think one of the main reasons was that we had a basement office with no windows and no sense on inclusion with the rest of the family. So blogging and chronicling my life came to a stop. 

{Lola to the left and Daisy in the middle and right}

And now here I am in 2021 starting this bad boy up again in a time where people really don't read blogs anymore...whats up with that?! And guess what...still typing about travel! I am currently working on my posts from our trip to Australia in January 2020! 

Do you still read blogs? 

Year Two

Raspberry picking, tulip sitting and ice cream eating

We have been in Wisconsin for two years now...whoa! This past Monday marked the day that Alana and I finished our drive from Texas to Wisconsin (along with my dad who accompanied us on the trip). Its always fun to think back and reflect on what brought us up here and what we have been up to. Check out the review of year one here!

We moved up here because this is where some good jobs were/are. We were both in the oil and gas industry and with the downturn we saw the inevitable and decided to jump. We were also over the Texas heat and its two seasons, hot and hotter. Was Wisconsin our top pick on location? Of course not, but it seemed to tick a lot of boxes.

Alana has spent more birthdays up here than she did in Texas which kind of makes me sad because I am a Texan and will always associate myself that way. When people ask where I am from I say I am from Texas but live in Wisconsin... Texan for Life! But Alana will most likely say she is from Wisconsin; when we practice our states I remind her that she was born in Texas and is from Texas, but, the reality is she only spent 16 month of her life there. We also correct her on silly Wisconsin pronunciations and will continue to do this all her life, lol, or at least until we move again.

Up here in the cooler weather I am able to run and enjoy it and not have to worry about getting a heat stroke or a syncope flair up. I have made a handful of amazing friends that share this love for running too so that helps on the long training runs! I even completed my first half marathon this past April in Nashville, TN.

Christmas feels like Christmas! Our first Christmas here we got really lucky and it snowed December 24th so we had a white Christmas. Christmas 2017 we had some ice and snow but nothing major. But there is snow on the ground, the fire place is on and its all just very cozy and wintery. So far, we like it. We also got to experience our first blizzard this past April when a crazy storm came through dumping over two feet of snow April 14th and 15th. We were just glad it was on the weekend and didn't have to try and drive to work in that!

April 2018 Blizzard

We have been fortunate enough to have family visit us often with my family and in-laws visiting 2-3 times a year (usually not at the same time). They come for Alana's birthday and Christmas and my brother and dad visit for the annual EAA air show.

EAA AirVenture: Airplane pictures taken by Zach Mayer

What do I miss about Texas? I miss the food and HEB. I miss having my family close and I miss our forever home we built and only lived in for three years...But, Wisconsin has been good to us these past two years, I like the lack of bugs and snakes and the soft green grass. They don't have the monstrous rain and thunder storms that cause severe flooding and power outages. I like the slower pace and lack of rat race and the fact there is no traffic. We get to go to farms and pick fresh fruits a few times a year and eat things right from the source! 

Did you leave your home state? How long have you been away? What do you miss? 

...lately...

So I have been MIA here lately and its not for lack of having something to say, I have posts typed, but I don't have any pictures. Ugh, the pictures is what it time consuming for me. And these last two weeks have been CRAZY! Last week I had a fabulous Nerium/Lexus event, my bff visited, I headed to ATX for the day Friday, had a Nerium party at the house, went to a Tupperware party in the evening, woke up the next day with pink eye and headed to urgent care. That was literally only 5 days in a row!

And then today, as my husband drives out of town I lock myself and my daughter out of the house! 45 minutest later the locksmith arrives and then lectures me on how I should have a spare key...ugh, duh! We usually do! And then he kindly takes $200 from me for 5 minutes worth of work. Clearly I am in the wrong business!

{Party Planning on the Left, Nerium/Lexus on the Right}

We have been very busy. I have been working on stuff for Alana's birthday party and we have also been applying for new jobs. Its no secret who I am and what I do, I work in Oil & Gas and its also no secret that that industry is at the bottom of the barrel right now. I just read that Chevron will be laying off 655 people in Houston and BP will be letting go 500 people in Houston... Saturating my job search even more. This is also making me realize how incredibly lucky we are to still have a job at this moment. Even though it might not last much longer.

This weekend will be another crazy one too.... God give us strength!

Welcome to The Spotted Bulldog!

Hey y'all! Welcome to my new blog, The Spotted Bulldog. I am excited to start this new blog which will be more of a lifestyle blog than a travel blog like travel mi amor.

I choose the name The Spotted Bulldog as an ode to my little girl Lola, she is after all my first baby. We got Lola back in 2009 and she has been an absolute joy! I don't think we could have asked for a better dog! She snores, farts and sleeps all day - what a life!

So take a look around and come back in a few days when I start posting about babies, diy, baking, and travel.