Meet Frank, Julia, and a bucket list family
Hi! We are Frank, Julia, and Victoria, and this is our story:
Summer 2014: We went on our first date, in a cute gelato place in downtown Gainesville, FL. During the sparkling conversation, I (Julia) nonchalantly mentioned, “I want a life of adventure.” Frank took note of this offhand comment. A mutual dream was born.
By the following Valentine’s Day, things grew rather serious. I thought it might be fun to take a deeper look at possible shared hopes and dreams; “Let’s make ‘Our Adventure Book,’ like from Up!” This yielded our first rudimentary Bucket List, of sorts. Things like, “Get married, have kids, spend Christmas in Ireland” populated the list. Shortly after this exercise, we got engaged at the end of March. During the engagement, a temperamental snuggle bug bull mastiff named Augustine made us a family. Several years later, after marriage and several moves, the list took on a life of its own. Some down time in spring 2019 gave me the chance to virtually explore the world and discover thousands of possible bucket list activities and destinations to add to the List.
We began the nomadic life long before we even realized it. Within the first five years of marriage, we moved five times! The fifth move brought an additional travel buddy into the mix with the birth of Victoria, right at the beginning of 2020. Naturally, COVID-19 limited the travel options available, so our little family enjoyed lots of quality time together for the first year or so, especially since Frank worked from home. That initial dream of a life of adventure continued to grow, and a bucket list family was born.
Why We Do What We Do
The year of COVID proved life is too short to keep waiting for the “right time” to start pursuing one’s dreams. The world offers so much beauty, good food, different perspectives, and adventures! We could not wait to start sharing that with Victoria. Plus, with 2000+ Bucket List items to experience, we figure we had better start sooner rather than later!