Thanks to The Traveling Gingerbread blog for nominating me for the Real Neat Blog Award! The award was created in 2014 to bring attention to newer or undiscovered blogs. Mitch and Stephanie of The Traveling Gingerbread chronicle their travels and beer tasting adventures across the world — I hope you check them out!

As part of the nomination, I get to answer 7 questions asked by The Traveling Gingerbread and then nominate a few others for this award. This has been a nice surprise and a fun way to mix up my daily social distancing activities.

Q&A time!

1. What was the inspiration for your blog name? Wish I had a good answer for this — I was looking for something short and snappy. I liked the alliteration with “Seeking Stephanie” and figured it was vague enough to apply to nearly anything I write about, which is mostly travel.
2. If you could travel to one place anywhere in the world with no restrictions, where would you go? The Galapagos Islands. In fact, I was scheduled to take my dream vacation in May 2020, but as you might have guessed, that’s currently on hold thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. What are 3 things you consistently do to help save the planet? Reduce my plastic consumption (e.g. reusable water bottle and grocery bags); incorporate vegetarian meals into my diet; and try to educate others to make small changes. I recently convinced some family members to stop using plastic silverware, which made me so happy. (I’m pretty sure they’re reading this blog — hi!)
4. Where would you take us if we came to visit? Houston is a phenomenal place to live, but not the most interesting place to visit. However, it’s the most diverse city in the U.S. and the food is incredible, so I’d take you on a food tour that showcases those 2 things. And maybe a pit stop at a brewery. 
   
5. What has been your most memorable travel experience? I have two: visiting a Guatemalan jungle in the pitch-black-middle-of-the-night and watching an orca family swim along the coast. Both are detailed in this blog post.
6. What has been your biggest challenge with maintaining your blog? I work in communications, so I already spend a great deal of my time writing and being ultra-connected. So, it’s really hard for me sometimes to write even more for this blog, even though I started it to give me a creative outlet from the “corporate speak” I do daily.
7. When did you become hooked on traveling? What was the defining moment or experience? I am a naturally curious person, so learning about other cities and countries has always been interesting to me. Also, I prefer experiences over things, and I believe there’s no greater experience than immersing yourself in a new-to-you place.

My nominees for the Real Neat Blog Award

• Devin — Deventuretime
• Pedrol — World Wide PedroL
• Kenneth — Explore with Kenneth
• Heena — Travel and Hike with PCOS

Questions for the nominees

1. Which destination would you visit over and over again and why?
2. Most memorable travel experience?
3. Favorite restaurant — both in your hometown and from your travels?
4. Best vacation planning tip?
5. What would people be surprised to know about you?
6. Top tip for solo travel?
7. Where are you currently planning to visit (once we’re all able to travel again!)?

Rules for the Real Neat Blog Award 

• Put the award logo on your blog.
• Answer 7 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
• Thank the person who nominated you and link their blog.
• Nominate any number of bloggers, link their blogs, and ask them 7 questions.
• Let them know you nominated them (by commenting on their blog, etc.).