A hop, skip, and a lunch

There were more points to be had in 2018 and we got them! It was purely a point mission with enough time to get lunch in each place, begging the question, "how far will this family go for lunch?"

We first went to Dominica. Dominica was hit hard by Hurricane Maria and is still recovering but is very much open to tourists and visitors. At the bed and breakfast where we had lunch, the owners had been off island when the hurricane hit and upon return had to walk two days to get to their property. They suffered minimal damage compared to the rest of the island. Our brief stay overlooked the mountains and curvy mountain roads of the island. Rain storms moved quickly in and out and it was super windy.

From Dominica, we flew back to Barbados via Antigua. We were only in the airport but saw as many sights as possible.* First stop, obviously, a fort.

 Next, the coast to see the waves come crashing in.

 We took a break and waited for Dad's ship to come in.

 Then relaxed some more on the beach.

When we finally returned to the airport, Dad continued his quest for the perfect magnet and I continued my passion to try on hats.**

Our next day trip was to Grenada. As we learned at our lunch locale, Grenada's latitude is 12 degrees north. That was about all we learned, to be honest. The fish and chips were delicious and the bay was beautiful and wikipedia attempted to explain to us the 1983 US invasion.***

Dad did take a brief foray into body building, like ya do.

We had a slight delay on the way home but if there are two people equipped to hang out in an airport for an extra 45 minutes, it's these two.

This ends the country counting for 2018 bringing Dad to a total of 90 and me to 142. 

Since it's the new year and you, devoted reader, have come this far, we'll end the year with a few quotes from Dad.

(Unprompted) "I don't think I could have been a sailor back in the 1700s."

"Do you know what 'Liat'**** spells backwards?"

And finally, "maybe they'll have a big tree we can take our picture in front of!"*****

I hope you all have a wonderful new year and safe travels into 2019!
-KT

*Never before has there been as good a sport as Dad who was photo directed all over the airport.

**Sadly, AT had already headed home and was unavailable to try on hats. Oh, but she did put this one on in Barbados the other day . . .

***You can google it. This isn't that kind of blog.

****We are not sponsored by Liat but they did fly us everywhere. And if anyone from Liat is reading this, we are very open to being sponsored by Liat. We are also open to being sponsored by just about anyone that wants to fly us around the world. In a totally non-creepy way, obvs.

*****I never knew he was so passionate about Christmas trees before this trip.

Happy Labor Day! or AT in Hats, Part II

Today, Labor Day, marks the unofficial end of summer. Sure, we technically have until the equinox in mid-September or until you feel a fall crispness in the air (mid-November in Atlanta), but by tomorrow, teachers everywhere will be back at work.* I feel the need to mark this end to my ultimate teacher summer with a tribute to my very own AT.

We've been back in the country for a while now and both had to travel-detox. For me, that meant going back to teaching, writing my dissertation, and binge-watching all four seasons of Scandal. For AT that has meant minor kidney stone surgery** and recuperation, finding out what UK did all those months, and binge-watching Shameless.

Now that there is some distance between myself and "The Most Amazing Trip Ever," I'm ready to reflect. I am glad we went everywhere we went. I encourage every single one of you to go to Cambodia as soon as possible and see Angkor Wat. I want to go back to Tokyo with a suitcase of only blue, black, and white dress clothes*** so I can fit in properly (or at least better) and spend quality time in the many different neighborhoods. I would go back to the Middle East but it's going to take some time and an unfortunate side effect of this trip is my new opinion on school dress codes. I've already started planning 2016 in South America and I can't wait.

The biggest takeaway from the trip is what an amazing person, aunt, and travel companion AT is. Let it be known that she planned every single thing on this trip and enjoyed doing it. This is great news for someone like myself who loves to travel and not to plan. AT graciously revisited places she had already been to give me the experience of seeing it for myself. Yes, she repeated countries for me. That is true love. 

AT let me walk her up and down cities and towns to see temples and museums and who knows what. She was a super trooper in an Israeli emergency room visit and generally suffered some pretty serious pain in the last few weeks while usually saying it was fine. She bought more blankets than you can imagine are possible and, thankfully, encouraged me to buy too many of my own.

She is amazing and I am the luckiest.

I am also the worst because I'm going to honor her with more pictures of her in hats.

Devoted blog readers will recall a previous post memorializing some fantastic hats over the years. AT will tell you herself, she does not have a real 'hat head.' She does, however, like to fill her niece with joy and will occasionally put on a hat just to make me smile. These are those pictures. Please enjoy them with the ridiculousness that is intended. May you all find your own AT who goes out of her way to bring the world so much happiness.

A store in Tokyo

Conquering Angkor Wat with Indiana Jones style

A temple in Delhi OR that time AT joined a biker gang

Red hat society!

Well, we all can look ridiculous. I still don't know why Dad didn't buy this turban.

Our best Jackie O

O-man, I wish she had gotten this one.

Full abaya-glam

OK, actually, I think we look pretty great here. The deserts of Jordan really suit us.

A beautiful felted hat in Istanbul that, oddly, was not purchased.

Happy fall, everyone, and may there be plenty more pictures of AT in hats to come!

-KT

*Let it be known that my Georgia students will be starting their sixth week back at school. That's right. We'll be giving report cards while most of the country is giving out their syllabi.

**Turns out that was not food poisoning. Our apologies, India.

***I still won't do the pantyhose. Sorry, Japan.