¡Hola Amigos!

I am officially done traveling for the summer!

July 6th marked my first time out of the continental US; and will hopefully represent the beginning of more international trips to come.
Mexico was a blast.
We stayed at a huge resort in Riviera Maya called the Grand Palladium, which was one of a kind to say the least. There was tons of wildlife present and it felt like many parts of the area were still untouched despite being in the midst of a massive hotel group.

There were hundreds of these little guys running around the resort. They loved company and would stand on their hind legs to beg for food.

I spent the majority of my week being a beach bum or laying by the pool with my mom and her friend's daughters. We only left the resort for one day, and it was to go to Xel-Ha (pronounced "Shell-Ha"). Xel-Ha is a park in Riviera Maya where a freshwater river meets the ocean and, in turn, creates an incredible wildlife habitat for visitors to snorkel and tube through. The float down this river was only an hour long, but incredibly enjoyable since we spent the first half of our day exploring some nearby Mayan ruins.

The Mayans definitely knew how to pick a good location

The heat and humidity are borderline unbearable when you're this close to the Equator so getting to spend the remainder of our afternoon in a river was total bliss.

I couldn't think of 9 better people to share my first international experience with and am so thankful for the opportunities I had to travel to new places this summer. Stillwater, I'll see you in 4 days!

These next couple weeks are about to be extremely hectic, but I will try and keep this updated as much as I can.

Also, a huge thank you to Phil-C for the photos from this trip. You rock.

Until next time,
Lex

Lex in the City

What an incredible past several days it’s been!

Last Saturday I left Texas to meet up with my dad, step mom, sister, and 2 stepbrothers for this year’s family vacation. We try to do something fun together every summer and this year we have two destinations: New Jersey and NYC

I flew into New Jersey, where we stayed Saturday-Wednesday. This half of our week long adventure was focused mostly on the kiddos. With my brothers being 9 and 10, my sister being 5, and being 18 myself, it can be difficult to find vacation spots where we can all enjoy ourselves. We spent  a majority of our time at the New Jersey Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor parks. I would be lying if I said it was only enjoyable for the younger ones. I got to feed GIRAFFES (a dream come true!) and nothing makes me happier than wave pools and lazy rivers. Basically, despite it being a kid-orientated couple of days, I couldn’t have enjoyed myself anymore. Sometimes it’s great to just enjoy some Swedish Fish flavored Italian ice and sweat it out at an amusement park for three days. Although by the end of Day 3 I was absolutely exhausted...

We ended up becoming great pals.

In the middle of our New Jersey portion of the trip we took a break from the rides and chaos to have a relaxing day at Belmar beach. The boys got some private surf lessons while I napped in the sand and made my skin a bright shade of crimson just in time for our trip to Hurricane Harbor the following day.  The beach day was definitely my favorite part.  We ate 3 Brothers Pizza, enjoyed the sand, and went to the boardwalk to finish off our day away from Six Flags.

I sadly did not take any pictures at the boardwalk, but it was beautiful!

Wednesday eventually rolled around and, after I ate my body weight in fried food, we headed to the Big Apple. Before crossing the NJ-NY border we took a ferry ride to Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty. My sister, Karina, was so stinkin’ cute. When the kids found out we were going to Ellis Island via boat ride she exclaimed “Because we are fishing for liberty, right???” Absolutely precious.

Our hotel in NYC couldn’t have been better. We stayed at the Double Tree, which was right in the middle of Times Square. I have been to upstate New York countless times, but this was my first time actually seeing New York City. Even with the constant flash flood warnings it was breathtaking. I don’t think you could ever run out of things to do there. For the three days we were there we were constantly on the go, and it still felt like there was so much more to see and do. This is definitely a place I will need to return to in the future. Despite several changes of plans due to the rain, my first experience in the Big Apple was one for the books. 

If you're ever in NYC be sure to check out Ella's Stardust Diner. It's a really unique dining experience you could not get anywhere else. So much fun!

The pictures were limited on this trip because my iPhone can only do so much. I didn't have quite enough room for my camera this time around, but hopefully I will make up for the lack of pictures in my next post!

See ya'll in a week. It's 2am and I have to head to the airport at 5:15, but I couldn't just leave the country without posting first. Mexico, here I come!

Be back soon, 

Lex

And We're Back

Yesterday I came back from Stillwater and today: back in Dallas!

My pledge sister, Aidan, and I ventured back out into the wonderful city, but this time we explored Deep Ellum. What's great about this area is that it has a completely different vibe than the rest of the city. It makes you feel like you're in an Urban Outiftters ad. There's beautiful murals painted all over the buildings and everything has a really artistic feel that I can't really describe. The buildings of Deep Ellum have tons of personality and there's a lot to look at. I loved walking around, taking pictures, and appreciating the artsy vibe (until it got too hot to be outside any longer). I want to go back a lot earlier in the day sometime so my visit isn't cut short again. We headed to Dallas a little before 10am, but that didn't give us enough time to explore before the Texas heat began to take over. However, before we retreated to an air-conditioned lunch we managed to get some cool pictures. 

Aidan has taken a photography class before and showed me how to use some of the settings on my camera. I've had my Canon for a while, but I primarily used it to film segments for my high school's television show. I've never really played with it in a photography setting until recently. I don't ever aim to be a professional photographer, but it would be nice to know how to capture something beautiful without relying on the "full auto" setting. We have talked about going to other locations just to play around with our cameras and take pictures. I hope these little sessions help me improve over time, but I guess we will have to wait and see!

I can't wait to go back and explore some more. Hopefully next time I will finally get to eat ice cream from a food truck at Klyde Warren Park.

Thanks for stopping by, 

Lex

A Day In Dallas: My Personal Crystal Ball

If you stick with me, and this blog, you'll probably see "Dallas Days" become a relatively common occurrence. 

Those of you who live in Dallas, or any of the surrounding suburbs, I highly encourage you to not wait until you're 18 to start exploring this beautiful city like I did. I never realized how much Dallas truly has to offer. I had always taken the city for granted, but today completely sealed the deal of wanting to move into a cozy apartment in the city once I graduate college. I can already see myself walking the urban scenery with my golden retriever puppy, doing my weekly shopping at the Dallas Farmers' Market, and enjoying lunch with my girlfriends at Breadwinners or the Klyde Warren Park food trucks. Today was so simple yet so indescribably enjoyable. I got the most perfect glimpse of what I want my 20s life to be like. My day pretty much went just as I had described above (minus the uptown apartment and puppy).

Two of my pledge sisters and I started off our day with a delicious and perfectly portioned lunch at Breadwinners. I absolutely love little cafe style restaurants. This one is even better because on Sundays you get a free dessert with the purchase of a dinner entree if you go in after 5pm! (Perfect for a date. You're welcome, boys)

So. Dang. Delicious.

Afterwards we drove around and explored. I was determined to finally get a picture with one of the Dallas B&G signs. (Pictured below)

Throwin' what we know in D-Town

There are a handful of these letters scattered throughout the city. Locations include Klyde Warren Park (the one I'm pictured by), Victory Park, and Main Street Garden, among others. Sadly, we did not make any food truck purchases. I'll save that for next time.

We concluded our day trip with a visit to the Dallas Farmers' Market. 

My evening snack of fruit I bought today.

See you soon, Dallas! I'll be spending a day in Deep Ellum soon.

Until Next Time

Already Behind...

on this whole "blogging" thing. With only one actual post completed I am constantly on the search of something decently intriguing to write about. Then again, this is MY life (aka Lexpedition) so I feel obligated to update on here as such. Which leads me to my first "Adventures" post *drum roll*

I have officially gone to Sprinkles Cupcakes!

Now I know this isn't some cross country hike, but nonetheless I was thrilled to finally realize what my sweet tooth had been missing out on. Like any adventure, I could not take on this journey alone and was happily accompanied by two friends (plus, you never know what crazy danger we could have encountered in an uptown bakery...safety first). Sadly, we only got one picture out of the endeavor and it does not do the cupcakes any justice THEY WERE PHENOMENAL.

Behold my adequate and equally cliche photo of my first Sprinkles experience.

We all made the genius decision to go with not just any ordinary Sprinkles cupcakes, but each get a Sprinkles sundae. Holy. Wow. To sum it up, this bad boy is composed of your choice of one Sprinkles cupcake with a scoop of ice cream sandwiched in between. I went with a red velvet cupcake with vanilla ice cream. Brilliant. 

After our first bite Maddie and I decided we would be returning in the near future to try new flavor combinations. If you live anywhere within a 30 mile radius of a Sprinkles I highly encourage you to try it out for yourself (and document the experience better than I did). 100% worth it, I promise.