Island Holiday Hopping

All Dad wanted for Christmas was a Teacher Summer blog post! He is so easy to shop for!

We decided to get out of dodge this Christmas and head to warm weather, beaches, and Rihanna. Dad is working on joining TCC* and needed some country points anyway. We flew to Miami for stone crabs, Barbados for warmth, and are island hopping between beach sits. 

I don’t know why your family goes to Miami but mine goes to eat stone crabs. Giant, jumbo, stone crabs. Dad and I got in early enough to cruise bikes down the boardwalk and take incredibly dangerous selfies. Next time you want to take your life in your own hands and seriously endanger the lives of strangers, take a selfie while bike riding on a busy boardwalk. 

**

Once AT got into town, we got down to business.*** We had a delicious meal at Joe’s Stone Crabs complete with fabulous bibs and legs for days.**** 

We flew the next day to Barbados and started working Dad closer to his 100th point! He will be at 90 by the end of this trip and a full-fledged TCC member by the end of 2019. 

Completely confusing the hotel check-in, we confirmed our rooms for several nights and then booked a transfer to the airport for the next morning. At o’dark:thirty we were back at the airport to fly to St Vincent via St Lucia.*****

St Lucia was a cold airport with nothing to report. St Vincent, however, was a lovely day trip with a taxi driver excited to show off his island. We started with lunch on a private island-turned-beach resort where the thing to do was try the local rums.******

Following lunch, we were dragged to a fort******* where the view was excellent and no new knowledge about forts was relayed.

We also went to the botanical garden, the oldest in the Western Hemisphere, and were enthralled by parrots saying hi to us. There is extensive video of the parrots talking to us- see me in America for that exclusive footage. Also, there were plants.********

We ended the day trip at Wallilabou Bay where the first two “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies were filmed. You can ooh and ahh at the bay and see a random sampling of sets and props left behind.

*********

The island hopping ended with the inevitable, a delayed plane ride home. It’s not the airline’s fault, Santa was taking up all the air-traffic controller’s time and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. 

For Christmas we sat on the beach and read quietly. I hope you, devoted reader, had a lovely day doing whatever loveliness means to you. It’s the wrong island’s greetings, but, Mele Kalikimaka!

-KT

*If you are a new reader, welcome, I hardly knew ye, and http://travelerscenturyclub.org/. If you are an old reader and still working this out, there is really nothing else I can do to describe the absurdity of this club with its arbitrary point system except to tell you that now I’m not only a member, I’m a chapter advisor. 

**Is it just me or is this photo a little: 

***The family business has always been and will always be taking a delicious meal very seriously. 

****Not my nickname in college. 

*****St Lucia was a repeat for me but new for Dad and AT and this is the season of giving. They’re welcome. We could have flown direct. 

******Fun fact: the favorite local rum is of such a high proof that you are not allowed to fly with it and the airport is filled with signs reminding you of that fact. 

*******I had pre-planned what I wanted to do on the island and I can assure you the fort did not make my list. 

********We passed on a botanical guide but I did force our family Master Gardener to rattle off plant names upon request. Always worth it. 

*********No ATs were harmed in the making of this blog. 

x

2017 Year in Review

2016 may have been my first complete year without graduate school but 2017 was my first complete year without graduate school and the proper time to plan trips. The result was several incredible journeys with friends and family and my most country-countingest year ever: 21!*

Before I re-hash some favorites, I’ve just come back from a trip with Dad to Honduras and Guatemala. We cruised Mayan ruins, saw Star Wars in Spanish, and visited a fort.** The trip trifecta, if you will. 

I also neglected to post about a lovely Thanksgiving week at Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia.*** The island was beautiful and it was incredible to be so close to home and feel so remote. We rode bikes, toured old homes, and were thankful for each other’s company. The Thanksgiving trifecta, if you still will.

Looking back at the many trips of 2017, I have a lot of favorite things beyond the amazing places I visited. In perhaps chronological order:

• In Lebanon I ate a magical dessert that was delicious and also was a giant chocolate ball that dissolved when a sauce was poured on it and revealed the gourmet equivalent of a Nestle’s Crunch bar inside. I would be lying if I said I didn’t think of it often.

• To fly to and from French Guiana/Suriname/Guyana, AT and I had a completely bonkers flight plan that included four different Caribbean countries. We got stuck in one and flew a completely empty plane out of it.****

• Teachers Summer was a reality in London with frolleagues in one of my all time favorite cities. 

• What “favorite things” list would be complete without a tribute to the queen of all things that are favorites?

• The accidental theme of riding bicycles places with fellow sporty people.*****

• Hamilton. 

• Friendships? More like friendTRIPS!

• 2018 needs more beaches, but St. Lucia came through after hurricanes canceled a few other plans. 

• And of course, these goofs. 

I can’t wait to see where 2018 will take me. I hope everyone has a wonderful start to the new year!

Love,

KT

*As always, country counting is designated by the Traveler’s Century Club. I continue to remind you that I did not make the list but I must now disclose that I am a local chapter advisor.******

**We now consider ourselves to be fort experts (Fortperts? Expforts?) and I can tell you this one was highly enjoyable due to: 1) no insane climb to get there, 2) abundant greenery and flowers, 3) no lectures about how people were tortured. The fort trifecta, if you must. 

***This was not a failure on the trip’s fault and was 100% a failure on December’s fault. December is a very busy time to be a musician, a teacher, or a music teacher, let alone all three. 

****Also I forgot to pack underwear so now whenever I pack for a trip someone in the family asks if I packed underwear this time and laughs. You’re welcome, family. 

*****Not pictured is bikes in Indianapolis with Robert. Probably because we were on actual roads and neither of us would have been coordinated enough to take a picture, ride a bike, and avoid crashing into traffic. 

******A completely separate story that I am happy to share in person about how improperly timed meals can lead you to make questionable life choices.