• Growing up, Anastasia Mills Healy's dad saw travel as a key part of her education.
• As an adult, she continued traveling with her sister, but that stopped in her 40s when she had kids.
• To celebrate her 50th birthday, she went on a trip with her sister to the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Growing up with an adventurous dad, my sister and I had seen most of the US and several other countries by the time we finished college.

He saw travel as a key part of our education — we wrote book reports on the places we visited, went on historical walking tours, and hit what felt like every museum from Kentucky to Cornwall.

My sister and I don't have any other siblings, and both our parents were only children, which meant no aunts, uncles, or cousins. It was just the four of us growing up. My mom, as a bit of a reluctant traveler, sometimes skipped our trips.

When our parents passed, I was married, had two young children, and worked part time while being the primary caregiver.

My sister and I lived across the country from each other — she was in California and I was in Connecticut. My sister, who doesn't have children, visited us several times a year.

I had kids late, at 40 and 41. In my single years, my sister and I traveled together and encountered a leopard in our South African safari lodge, parasailed above Key West, and pogoed at a Ramones gig in Brixton.

Over the years, our time together had morphed from tapas bar hopping in Barcelona to taking my children to a nearby playground. We were never able to finish a sentence without an interruption from a toddler.

Sister time

For my 50th birthday, I was determined that we should go on another adventure together.

I convinced my then-husband to watch the kids for a week during their spring break, while my sister and I finally embarked on another adventure. I lobbied that he wouldn't have to worry about homework, packing lunches, or getting them to and from school.

Despite the reasonably priced trip to the Middle East I had found, my sister took a bit of convincing — she wasn't as eager to explore that part of the world.

The travel package I booked included eight countries in one trip: all seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates — Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah — plus a stop in Oman. I paid $1,100 for airfare and four nights in Dubai. The other stops, plus a rental car, and seven nights of hotels added on about $1,900 more.

100 country goal

After checking off all 50 US states by my 30th birthday, I set my sights on a new goal: visiting 100 countries.

I follow the criteria set by the Traveler's Century Club, a group I hope to join one day. The club recognizes 330 "countries and territories," including all seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates as separate destinations.

I mapped out a driving route that added Oman, which helped me get one more country.

Once I've visited 100 countries, I'll be eligible to apply.

Kid-free travel bliss

As a travel professional and penguin lover, two experiences from the trip stood out as the best: a tour of the extraordinary Burj Al Arab hotel, with its gold lamé wallpaper and helipad, and the pure joy of having a tiny penguin hop across my lap.

The second experience took place at an indoor ski area in Dubai, located inside a mall. It was complete with a ski lift and resident penguins.

Other highlights included a visit to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, a stroll around the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, and a ride up Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. That's where we had a quiet cocktail to celebrate my half-century, overlooking the spouting fountains 122 floors below.

A lot of the trip would have been too complicated with my children. For example, the spa day wouldn't have been possible with kids. I also explored the Dubai Design District, shopped in souks, walked through the Al Fahidi Historic District, and spent a day on a boat in Oman.

Throughout the trip, I knew that had it been a family trip, the kids would have complained about the heat and the food.

Freedom made this trip possible

Put on your own oxygen mask before helping others, the airlines say. I concur. Women give so much, and we need — and deserve — the time to breathe and recharge. I've taken my children on as many trips as I could.

Now, I'm 57, divorced, and we — my kids, my sister, and I — just explored my 72nd country. In a few years, when my kids are grown and flown, my sister and I will embark on more far-flung adventures.

My plan is for her to accompany me to my 100th country. It only makes sense — she's been there for all the pivotal moments in my life.

• A penthouse in the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, is on the market for $49 million.
• The home is about 2,300 feet off the ground, about 845 feet higher than the Empire State Building.
• The listing agent told BI he's surprised at how many calls he's gotten from interested Americans.

One homeowner has the chance to live above the clouds.

It'll only cost about $49 million.

A penthouse on the 107th and 108th floors of Dubai's iconic Burj Khalifa — a skyscraper with offices, a luxury hotel, and restaurants — is on the market for 180 million United Arab Emirates dirhams, or about $49 million.

The duplex home is nearly 2,300 feet off the ground, while the Burj Khalifa stands at 2,722 feet tall. For context, the Empire State Building is a mere 1,454 feet tall. New York City's Central Park Tower is the world's tallest primarily residential building at 1,550 feet; its penthouse previously held the highest title.

We don't even know how many bedrooms or bathrooms the 21,000-square-foot residence will hold — that'll be up to the buyer.

"It hasn't got rooms or toilets or baths or kitchens or anything like that, so it's just concrete ceilings, concrete floors, and just glass all around," listing agent Asad Khan told Business Insider.

"The type of person that would look at it would be an investor, who will take on the project and then obviously do the fit-out according to their requirements," Khan, of Invest Dubai Real Estate, added.

The duplex also comes with an indoor pool, a private elevator, and 12 parking spaces.

Khan's client, investor Karl Haddad, purchased the unit in 2020 for an undisclosed amount from Mohamed Alabbar, a founder of Emaar Properties, which developed the Burj Khalifa.

Haddad, the chairman and CEO of IRC Invest, doesn't have the time to build out the unit because he's busy with other projects, Khan said.

When he officially listed the duplex earlier this year, Khan added, he was "overwhelmed" by the amount of Americans who expressed interest.

Managers and agents of athletes, from basketball players to NASCAR drivers, have requested more information about the home, Khan told BI.

One of them was boxing legend Floyd Mayweather, he added.

"They're from various walks of life," Khan said. "We had a huge amount of inquiries in the US — and I don't know why that is."

Recent government data shows that Dubai's population has jumped by 3.85 million people since March 2020 — and 87% of that increase is expats.

The Burj Khalifa has 900 residential units ranging in price from 2.29 million United Arab Emirates dirhams (about $623,000) to 100 million United Arab Emirates dirhams (about $27.2 million), according to United Arab Emirates real-estate listings site Bayut.

Take a look at the highest penthouse in the world, nicknamed the Sky Palace.

Completed in 2010, the Burj Khalifa is 2,722 feet tall, making it the tallest building in the world.

New York City's Central Park Tower is the world's tallest primarily residential building at 1,550 feet.

The Burj Khalifa took six years to build between 2004 and 2010, costing about $1.5 billion, according to regional magazine Arabian Business.

Emaar Properties, one of the largest real-estate firms in the United Arab Emirates, developed the project.

The Burj Khalifa was designed by architect Adrian Smith, who also designed Central Park Tower in New York and the 1,380-foot Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai.

The Burj Khalifa has residences, retail, office space, and a restaurant across its 163 floors.

The residences end on floor 108. Above that are corporate offices.

Below the residences is a 304-room Armani Hotel.

According to the Armani Hotels website, a weekend stay in March costs between 1,650 United Arab Emirates dirhams and 22,500 United Arab Emirates dirhams a night (from $450 to $6,100).

Other amenities for residents of the tower include Japanese gardens and padel courts.

There are also three different observation decks in the building open to the public.

Floors 45 to 108 are private residences, topped by the two-floor penthouse on floors 107 and 108.

The residences range from studios to four-bedroom apartments.

The penthouse duplex for sale has a total of 21,000 square feet of space.

One of the floors has 7,000 square feet, and the other has 14,000 square feet, according to Khan.

It's the only unit in the building with a private indoor pool.

It also comes with 12 parking spaces.

The penthouse's 360 views from above the clouds, though, might be its unique selling point.

"On a clear day, you can see the mountains in Ras Al-Khaimah," Khan, the listing agent, told Business Insider. "You can see across the sea. You're looking down on all the other buildings below you — it's called 'Sky Palace' because you're above the clouds.'"

The seller, Karl Haddad, bought the property as an investment opportunity but had funding partners back out, so now he wants to sell.

"He's busy with other projects and other businesses that he has and doesn't have the time to run such a project," Khan said. "He's not a developer, he's not a builder, or a designer — that's not his game. He's into investments."

Haddad officially put the penthouse on the market earlier this year.

"We've been talking about selling since the middle of last year, and it's been floated around very softly," Khan said.

Khan said whoever buys the unit probably won't live in it and instead treat it as an investment.

"I don't think they're going to live in it because the kind of people that we've been approached by — these people are traveling all around the world, they're busy with their own lives in the US," Khan said. "I think it's more of a status symbol. 'I've got this,' or 'I will have this.' It just adds to the portfolio."

While the unit is unfinished, Khan thinks construction shouldn't take more than a year and a half to complete.

"The hard part is done," he said. "A project like this could potentially turn around within 12 months."

Khan believes that an investor has the potential to sell the penthouse for double its purchase price after it's complete.

Dubai has become popular among American expats.

Dubai's population has been increasing, adding to the demand for housing and squeezing supply.

Khan said he believes that the Dubai market is great for buyers who want to get a lot back from an investment.

"The supply is not there — the demand is there for buyers," he said. "Whoever takes this project on — and if they do it to the ultrawealthy level that it deserves — they will be rewarded accordingly."

It might be an American buyer who has the potential to create their dream home in the sky.

"It's a very iconic building," Khan said. "It's a world-class trophy asset. It's one-of-one and can't be replicated."