The McHowe World Tour - Part I
The McHowe World Tour - Part I - An Overview
from left to right USA, Iceland, Denmark, India, China
Kyle and I got married in April and went on what most people are referring to as our "mini moon" which was a few days on Salt Spring Island, but really, it was our honeymoon. Know how I know?
We had a Jacuzzi tub in our hotel room and I was watching TV when Kyle said "you getting in or what?" and he was in the tub, feet up, with a bottle of champagne popped. So yeah. That's like the literal definition of a honeymoon.
But like I said, people have been referring to it as our mini moon and kept asking if our world trip was our honeymoon to the point where it just became easier to say "yes" -so for our super-epic-honeymoon Kyle and I went all the way around the world.
And we got legally married. BOOM. MIC DROP.
The itinerary:
1 week in the USA: Chatham, New York → New York, New York → Washington, DC →
1 week in Iceland: Rekyavik → Vik → Holmavik → Ayukeri →
12 hour layover in Copenhagen, Denmark →
1 month in India: Delhi → Agra → Jaipur → Udaipur → Jodphur → Jaislameer →
12 hour layover in Shanghai, China
This itinerary is not recommended. The only reason it made any sense at all is because #YOLO
kyle at godafoss in iceland
For years Kyle and I have both been dreaming about two very different destinations- Kyle of Iceland, and me of India. Our original honeymoon plan was to go Paris (also a top location in terms of places I desperately want to go) with a layover in Iceland. But I'd been planning to quit my job in the fall, and Kyle is fairly invaluable at his job so they kind of had to let him leave. We don't have kids, or own a house, or a car, and we only live once so this was the time to do it.
So I asked him "instead of doing 2 weeks in France, how do you feel about a month in India?" After about 2 days of Kyle looking fatally ill he agreed and we began to plan one of the most nonsensical itineraries a fairly recently wedded couple can go on.
USa! usa! Usa!
Chatham, New York: We started off by going to upstate New York to visit Kyle's hometown, celebrate our wedding with his extended family (people came in from North Carolina, California, and Florida to see us) but most importantly
The Colombia County Fair:
- Kyle had been telling me about this fair, especially in context of the MONSTER TRACTOR PULLS since I met him
- Kyle's dad was named head of security this year so we got to ride around on his official golf cart
- I got to eat a corndog for the first time.
New York, New York: We stayed with Kyle's best man//college roommate in Brooklyn and obnoxiously took a bunch of spin classes. We've been to NYC enough times now that we don't have to do the standard tourist things and get to enjoy the city from a slightly more local atmosphere.
Washington, DC: Our friends, Scott + Crystal got married where she's from so we spent 2 nights there to celebrate them. The day after we flew off to Iceland.
a williamsburg (brooklyn, new york) sunset
Iceland
We didn't tell anyone that we weren't legally married. Except our wedding photographers, who in turn, told their videographer friends. We told them because we wanted to see if they'd take our picture on the day we legaloped on our world journey.
My auntie Rhonda had married us in the spring, and it was exactly the dream wedding Kyle and I both wanted. We wanted someone who knew us really well and had a profound understanding of love to guide the (rather unusual) ceremony we had and she killed it. Killed it, that is, on every front except the making-it-legal front, so we decided to sign the papers in Iceland.
Hello Tomorrow has our legalopment video on their blog, and you should for sure check it out with some Kleenex on standby.
We spent 4 days with the crew going up to the West Fjords, then Kyle and I had a few days just the two of us and went even further north.
trying not to fall on my face into the ice water, even though that's kind of my thing. the video has further explanation. it's pretty romantic.
Denmark + China
We had 12 hour layovers in both Copenhagen and Shanghai, and shockingly to me, we really made the most of it. We saw a few different areas of each of the cities, and despite doing Copenhagen on about 1 hour of sleep and freezing our asses off, we had a lovely day.
India
It was what I had dreamed of. After a few initial freak-outs (I had been feeling kind of weird about travelling lately) and getting over the fact that Kyle has never been to a place like India before but everyone wanted to barter with him and not me, I remembered what I love about traveling.
It was a treat and an assault on all our senses. And I wasn't ready to leave.
India is huge and traveling around it was fairly challenging so we just kept to the top northwest corner, Dehli, Agra and Rhajasthan, and every inch was packed with scents, noises, colours, and flavours.
kyle checking out amber fort just outside of jaipur in india
i fell in love with traveling again
I'm going to write individual posts about the different places so follow along to see more of the spectucular things we got to see on this crazy, magical journey.
Ranking the countries I’ve visited is impossible. Each one makes me feel impossibly lucky and overwhelmed with gratitude just for the chance to have been there at all. I’m the luckiest.
That being said, why not try?
25 countries in order of experience.