About Mel

Kate: Mel is the best travel buddy because:

She's never at a loss for fun facts.  

always with the guidebook

Mel:  Nothing says tourist like reading from a guidebook while you're walking around, except for maybe my American Tourister passport holder. Good thing I LOVE being a tourist.

Kate: I think this would be a perfect place for the picture of you in your flannel looking like the American Tourister superhero that you really are.

Mel:  I'm really touristing it up here with both the camera and the American Tourister passport holder around my neck. And I'm sure I must have had a guidebook somewhere in that backpack.

I'm not sure who I thought was going to steal my passport on the Inca Trail. I think I just love hanging as much crap as possible around my neck.

She's ballsy enough to climb to the edge of a church roof with a stranger in Peru.

mission accomplished

Kate: I love the thumbs up photo. You look like John McCain!

Mel: Oh god.  Apparently his campaign theme song was Barracuda so that can be the soundtrack in your head when you look at this photo.

I'm really not sure what disturbs me most about these photos: that I followed a complete stranger that I couldn't understand to a church rooftop, that I trusted that the rusty ladder wasn't going to collapse, that I climbed it so that I could basically stand on a ledge with next to nothing to keep me from plunging to my death, or that I look like John McCain.  

I am impressed that I managed to climb that ladder in China flats though since they are pretty much the flimsiest shoes ever.

Most impressive though is her bloodhound-level ability to sniff out a McDonald's anywhere, anytime.

Kate: I don't know if it's the neon light from the signs, but you're practically glowing. I've never seen you so happy.

Mel: I'm not going to lie; I was very happy. I think I'm a pretty adventurous eater, but sometimes I just want something predictable, even if it's predictably kind of crappy.

Kate: I think that's what makes it so amazing. It's much funnier BECAUSE you're usually so adventurous and inclined to avoid American food. But when you do, you go big or go home. #respect