DOMINIQUE VON RICHTER
Some girls are just born with the beach in their soul, but Canadian born Dominique developed a taste for the heat as a child when she spent three years in Puerto Rico where her father was posted on assignment. “I fell in love with the heat, the sun and the beaches”.
After growing up in Montreal and graduating from McGill University, Dominique began her career with Imperial Oil and is still with the company today. Her position is a global assignment involving lots of business travel. But that alone isn’t enough to satisfy her taste for sun-drenched beaches.
She consciously lives her life to the fullest, seizing every opportunity to wear a bikini. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that she married Canadian Olympic swimmer, Owen Von Richter. Today, they have three children: Parker, Chace and Skylar.
DOMINIQUE VON RICHTER
Some girls are just born with the beach in their soul, but Canadian born Dominique developed a taste for the heat as a child when she spent three years in Puerto Rico where her father was posted on assignment. “I fell in love with the heat, the sun and the beaches”.
After growing up in Montreal and graduating from McGill University, Dominique began her career with Imperial Oil and is still with the company today. Her position is a global assignment involving lots of business travel. But that alone isn’t enough to satisfy her taste for sun-drenched beaches.
She consciously lives her life to the fullest, seizing every opportunity to wear a bikini. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that she married Canadian Olympic swimmer, Owen Von Richter. Today, they have three children: Parker, Chace and Skylar.
TRAVEL FOOTPRINTS
Favorite beach: We have a beach house in Florida – Madeira Beach. That’s my happy place. I love to spread the joy of it with family and friends so we can all make memories. My tattoo marks its co-ordinates.
Your best business trip: One of the most exciting places I travelled for work in the last couple of years is Buenos Aires, where I go at least twice a year.
Last place you travelled with Owen: He recently completed the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Hawaii, giving me an opportunity to explore the beaches with the kids while he was preparing. I have also done recent hiking trips with my husband in hot and sunny places like Arizona and Utah.
How do you keep up with an active husband? I run marathons with the ladies in the neighbourhood. It’s kind of a social outlet and as a prize for all the hard work we do in preparing for a marathon, we always do them in an exciting city – Boston, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco are some of them.
How do you keep fit when traveling for work? To stay in shape while I’m on business trips and in hotel rooms, I stream on demand workout videos to my phone from Beachbody on Demand.
If it’s a short trip and there isn’t much time, I try wherever possible to walk to restaurants. We go down to Houston quite a bit and it’s probably about 2kms to most restaurants. I encourage colleagues to walk there and back with me.
What’s on your music playlist? Well actually I love live music, so I try to go to music festivals and concerts wherever and whenever I can. One just north of Toronto is Boots & Hearts – a country music festival. A group of us go and enjoy that.
II’ve also been to California to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. It’s absolutely amazing and there is a little bit of every style of music there. We stayed on the festival grounds in their glamping tents and had access to golf carts to travel between the stages.
Why did you choose The Q2? It’s very practical – it doesn’t matter what kind of trip I’m going on – it works!
Before I got The Q2 and The Valise, I had a last minute business trip and had to use my daughter’s purple butterfly carry on! When I had to check out of the hotel and take my luggage into the meeting room, I realised I definitely needed something more stylish and suited to business trips as well as leisure.
For trips now I have The Q2 and The Valise in cork that sits on top of it. I can fit a lot of gear in it. Before, I used to just throw everything into a large check-in suitcase and sort it out on the other side, now I can plan and organise outfits much more efficiently before I leave.
Last and next place your Q2 will travel: The last place I travelled with my Q2 was for my 20th university reunion in Montreal. Next I’m leaving for Vermont – to Sugarbush Resort – for a friend’s wedding.
Another trip coming up that I’ve been dreaming of (now that the kids are old enough to remember the trip and not too old that they don’t want to go with us) is to Europe. We’ll be going to Italy and Greece next year.
Dominique’s message to readers is to live their life with no regrets. “Take a chance, book that trip and step out of your comfort zone”.
Follow Dominique on Instagram: domvonrichter