I got the solution here. First put the following in your preamble (text copyable below the colored stuff):
\let\oldhat\hat
\let\oldvec\vec % I made this one up so I can still use arrow vectors when I want.
\renewcommand{\vec}[1]{\mathbf{#1}}
\renewcommand{\hat}[1]{\oldhat{\mathbf{#1}}}
Then the following main LaTeX code ...