Hi Everyone!  My name is Patty.  While growing up in a suburb of Chicago, I read a lot about different places in the world and dreamed of traveling one day.  Then, I met my husband, Enrique, who had the traveling spirit too.  We dated for a few years, married, and soon after started our travels.  We began with short day trips to explore our local area. Later we took longer vacations out of state during time off work.  Eventually we enjoyed living out of state (Texas) and even an entirely different country!! (Mexico).  My husband and I now enjoy regular travels throughout the U.S. and Mexico.  We often drive so we can fully take everything in and also to take our cat and dog along with us.  In the United States, we have been to Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas.  In Mexico, we have been through Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, and Michoacán. 

In addition to travel, we have lived in new places and met new folks.  During one winter, we lived in my husband’s childhood home city Morelia.  Morelia is the capital city of Michoacán in Mexico.  Michoacán is a beautiful state full of forests, mountains, and beach areas.  Then, we returned to the Chicago area but soon realized that in addition to missing our family in Mexico, we had enjoyed our winter without freezing cold air, snow, and ice as well.  When we were traveling to Mexico passing through Texas, we found that some folks in Texas were friendly and helpful.  Also, we liked the sunny warm weather and that it is in between Chicago and Morelia.  So, while catching the end of winter in Chicago, we decided to relocate to Texas.  I had my heart set on San Antonio.  Why San Antonio?  Well, I visited San Antonio back in middle school with my choir class for an America Sings competition at Fiesta Texas in San Antonio.  I had so much fun there going to the Alamo, SeaWorld, and Fiesta Texas with my lifelong friends during this trip that I always wanted to return to visit. 

However, we took a slight detour on the way to San Antonio and spent a little over a year in Houston.  We were very fortunate to have friends who helped us start out our Texas living adventure in Houston.  While in Houston, we explored the places in and around Houston.  We discovered all we could – from the bayous to downtown treasures to NASA to the warm Gulf waters of Galveston beach.  Houston was a good experience, but my heart was tugging toward the rolling hills of San Antonio.  So there we were!  Gorgeous San Antonio with so many events to attend with warm weather and so many friends.  Who knows where we will be next year?!  Update: we landed back in Chicago -brrr hahaha!!  The beautiful windy city is full of architecture and glistening snow.  

Every place has plenty of opportunities for learning and exploration!  We love traveling so much and never thought we would have been to the places we have seen.  We greatly encourage others to get out and explore!  We want to inspire you to take your dreams of travel to the road, air, water and get out there to live it!

Yay!!  Book two in the series is available for leisure reading enjoyment. A group of us ladies who have lived and worked in Mexico put together our collective experiences in the form of short stories. There are plenty of photos too!! If you want to see the photos in a larger size or read more stories by a given author be sure to follow the authors’ links at the end of our book! 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50602189-playing-tourist-in-mexico?fbclid=IwAR1EXEgoc8155yH2KTgZhk0LQd6R9QIgJoRK-eSwXA0Zq7erqFfwiLjyfkc