About

Hi, I’m Sunshine, and this is Sancho. We are the Virginia-based adventure duo behind WithSunshineSol. We aim to inspire you to get out of your comfort zone and help you plan your next adventure WITH your fur family members. We hope you’ll follow along and join us on our next adventure!

My Story

I was born and raised in the Philippines. Ever since I was young, I had dreamt of riding an airplane and seeing other countries. Then the opportunity came.

At 21, I got accepted for an exchange student program in the US. I first went to the US as a hospitality exchange student in Florida for a year. It was my first time living alone without my family, only relying on myself, but this experience slowly developed my passion for travel and adventure.

After my internship, it was time for me to return to the Philippines. I thought my adventures were over. But my mom surprised us and took us on a few of her company’s trips; Australia, Japan, Dubai.

I knew I wanted to travel more and live abroad, so after graduating from the University, I came back to the US for another internship, this time in Virginia. I met many amazing people, including my husband, and went on many adventures with them.

After completing my internship, I worked with one of the world’s largest hotel chains and only traveled whenever we got a chance. Then in 2020, the pandemic hit. I was furloughed, but I was happy instead of being sad about it. Perhaps because I knew this wasn’t the career I wanted, I did it because it was what I have been doing for a long time. I have put my dreams on hold for years because I was scared to start something new and get out of my comfort zone. 2020 made me realize that tomorrow is never promised. So I did what I always wanted to do; I got a dog and created WithSunshineSol! We brought Sancho home in June 2020, and after years of being afraid to fail, July 2020 is when I set my Instagram page to public and started this blog.

After five months of being furloughed, I got a call to report back to work. I wasn’t ready, but I also didn’t want just to quit. So for several months, I juggled content creating, road trips, hiking, and working my full-time job. Fast forward, I had enough of my job, I wasn’t happy, and it wasn’t fulfilling anymore. So in August 2021, I quit and gave content creation my focus.

I wanted to take Sancho on as many adventures as possible, but many places aren’t dog-friendly, and there were travel restrictions because of the pandemic. So we found ourselves exploring our own backyard, Virginia. We started going on road trips, hiking, and adventuring all over Virginia. We are fortunate enough to live close to a national park and national forest, which developed our love of going outdoors. I didn’t grow up hiking and traveling. I came from a Filipino family who worked very hard to provide for us but didn’t think about the outdoors and didn’t have enough resources to travel. The first time I rode the Airplane was when I was 21, and I didn’t start hiking until I was 27. We’ve picked up a few hiking and travel tips along the way, and we are so happy to share them with you.