Iceland

Our flight from RDU to KEF was a red-eye that arrived in Iceland at 0630.  I slept pretty decently, but Shawn and Nancy did not.  On arrival, we had some snafus with our rental car agency, Key Car Rental, which didn't start the trip off the greatest (would not recommend... I was trying to shop local but wish I would have stuck with Hertz).  By the time we were squared away in our much smaller rental car than anticipated (I booked an SUV, we were not given an SUV), we were hungry and grouchy - so I nabbed Nancy and Shawn emergency coffees to improve the mood.  We headed into Reykyjavik to explore the city.  We ate a pancake breakfast at Cafe Loki, then meandered around Hallgrímskirkja and the shops of downtown glad to stretch our legs.  Our apartment was not yet ready, so we took a drive to the Grotta lighthouse and grabbed more food at Radagerdi italian restaurant - yumm.  Our apartment was ready so we dropped off or luggage and headed to our 1500 reservation at Sky Lagoon.

Sky Lagoon was a highlight of our trip!  I went back and forth about this vs Blue Lagoon, and you can read a gazillion opinion pieces of which to do, but I chose Sky Lagoon because it was adults only and a little more high-end. We loved this experience.  We had no idea what to expect as none of us had ever done a 'spa day,' which made it even better.  We arrived, showered in their very clean changing area, and entered in the infinity edge pool-sized hot tub surrounded by lava rocks.  It was truly a dream.  After about an hour of relaxing, looking out at the ocean, and playing around under the hot-water waterfall, we did the Saman package - a 7 step Skjól Ritual:  cold plunge, sauna, mist, exfoliate, steam, back to hot spring to lounge even more.  We could have stayed there all afternoon, but pruney fingers and toes said it was time to go.  We returned to the showers and washed head to toe with their exceptional shampoo, conditioner and body wash.   We ended up being there for about 2 hours.  Back at our 2-bedroom apartment in Reykjavik (Old Charm Reykjavik Apartments - recommend!), we snacked on leftovers from lunch and some pasta we had picked up at the grocery, and were all asleep by 7p.

A few things I would have planned a little differently about today... (1) would book a car rental that is in the airport, (2) find a place to eat breakfast/ brunch around Keflavik, (3) Lagoon reservation for 1200, (4) check into lodging ~1500 in the city, (5) explore downtown walking from lodging so you don't have to deal with parking.

We rose at 7a all very well-rested.  We had a breakfast of croissant, yogurt, fruit and oatmeal from the grocery and were on the road by 9a.  Most of our days started to fall into this pattern (you'll see).  Shawn and I miscommunicated a bit so our journey up to the peninsula took an hour longer than expected, with a detour down a gravel road that didn't offer much from a sight-seeing perspective.  It was raining so we skipped the Gerðuberg Cliffs and were perhaps hangry, so we decided to eat an early lunch.  We wanted to go back to Lysuholl Horse Farm, a memborable spot from our first trip to Iceland.  I had tried to make lunch reservations in advance without luck, so we just showed up and they said they had enough food for us.  We dug into a delicious buffet of meatballs, potatoes, salad, bread, vegetarian curry and rice.  

With full bellies and clearing skies, we headed off for an afternoon of sight-seeing.  First stop, Bjarnarfoss where we enjoyed a quick 0.5 mile round trip walk up to a beautiful foss - Nancy's first of many Icelandic fosses.  We next stopped at Búðakirkja for a quick snap of the black church.  Then onward to Arnstapi where we walked along the coast and admired the rock formations, enjoying glimpses of the sun.  We were even able to catch views of Snaefellsjokull - Nancy's first of many Icelandic glaciers. 

We drove around the quaint town of Hellisandur where we enjoyed the murals and took a side detour to Ingjaldholskirkja where we saw all sorts of people taking photos so we decided we ought to as well.  Then onward to Kirkjufell which, no matter what is going on with the weather, is such a photogenic place.  I got excited for a bit on the drive eastward that there were some lenticular clouds in the distance and thought maybe they would be over the mountain, but they were just a little further east.  A nice woman took a picture of the three of us, and then another lady came by and took my phone and said she'd take a better one (which she did!).  Gave us a good laugh.  

After a quick stop at the Vin Budin for Shawn, we headed to the rural town of Stykkishólmur where we stayed the night in a tiny, tiny hotel room.  It was the quietest town of our entire trip, almost spooky quiet.  We headed down to the dock for fish and chips from a food truck for dinner which we ate in the hotel solarium, it was very nice.  We were all in bed by 8p.

Today was mostly a travel day up to north Iceland, with a few planned stops to break it up.  Our hotel had the tiniest of breakfast rooms, but they sure fit a lot of people in it.  Shawn and I didn't have the best night of sleep, but we loaded up on breakfast and coffee in that tiny closet.  I laugh as I write this - I'm sure at this point Nancy was thinking - what have I signed up for?  We started in the most rural part of the island that we planned to visit, tiny car,bathrooms and other travel amenities few and far between,  tiny hotel rooms, and we started this day with 1.5 hours of gravel road driving on the main road into and out of our little town of Stykkishólmur.  But, she was still smiling!

Our first stop was Kolugljúfur Canyon, a short drive down a gravel road, for some quick pictures with a beautiful foss.  We then stopped at Víðimýrarkirkja to view the turf-roofed church.  We were the only ones there and Nancy loves to explore a cemetary, so she had a pretty good time here.  We then headed to Glaumbaer - a museum that allows you to explore a turf-roofed village.  There was a small fee, but we spent a couple of hours here marveling at the ingenuity and fortitude of the Icelandic people.  There were many artifacts and original pieces throughout.  Such a challenging way of life, made us really appreciate how easy we have it comparatively.

Upon arrival in Akureyri, we stopped in a sports store so Shawn could pick up a hat in preparation for his whale-watching the next day.  We were excited how many grocery stores there were in this town, and how the store hours are on massive signs on the side of each building.

Our hotel was just outside of town, Hotel Natur, and it was absolutely lovely.  They had a guest kitchen so we were able to cook a pasta dinner.  We shared the dining space with a young couple who were filming themselves having a ramen and spam dinner.  Fascinating.  We spend the late afternoon soaking in the hot-tub that overlooked an expansive meadow with ocean and mountains in the background.  The same couple was in the hot tub as well, filming themselves again.  They were from Korea and were on their honeymoon, very lovely couple right up until he asked if I was Shawn's mom.  Hmm.  

To the left is the view from our hotel room, amazing.  At this point, we got the notification that tomorrow's whale watching was postponed due to weather, so we re-booked for the next day.  And then we got notification our helicopter flight in the south was cancelled due to operational issues, so we rebooked an airplane flight to Landmannalaugar.  Our helicopter curse remains alive ... we try to have a flight on almost every vacation but are always foiled.

Everyone slept soundly and we woke up to snow on the mountain peaks!  We met for breafast at 7:30a to one of the best breakfasts of our trip.  Hotel Natur really did spoil us.  The breakfast room overlooked the fjord and we sat there for a long long time enjoying the ambiance.  It was also very cold and very windy outside.  We opted for a slower day, since it was a shorter driving distance, and re-arranged our sight-seeing plans for the day.  Our first stop was Godafoss - beautiful!  We snapped all sorts of pictures here.  There was a fair amount of walking so we were glad Nancy had her hiking poles.  We did some souvenier shopping in the gift shop where Nancy bought a matching hat and mitten set, and got to see her first pay-for-use bathrooms.

Our next stops were around Lake Myvatn (mee-vah-tin).  We took a mile-long amble around Skútustaðagígar to see the pseudocraters and enjoyed the visitors' center there quite a bit (for warmth, education, and a bathroom).  It was about 35 degrees this day with a 20-25 mile/hr wind, very cold even with all the layers.  Shawn and Nancy were so grateful they were not on a whale watching boat!  We then headed to Dimmuborgir to enjoy the lava formations.  We walked about two miles here to Kirkja (to the right) - named for the Icelandic suffix of "church" - a massive cave in the lava formation.  We really enjoyed this walk - we had the place to ourselves, there were quite a few trees we could walk amongst which shielded us from the wind, and the autumn colors on the trees were striking against the black of the lava rock.

We made a brief pit-stop at Grjótagjá Cave - made famous as a Game of Thrones film scene - it was not worth the effort.  Onward to Hverir, a geothermal area with memorable colors and smells.  Wow.  We've all been to Yellowstone but this place smelled so bad our noses were on fire.  We were grateful for the wind so we could position ourselves around the smells!  And it kept the midges away.  We saw mud pots, fumaroles, and the mountains above us were steaming.  I admit I was a little nervous because there was an earthquake the previous day down in Geysir - along the same fault line, but luckily we had no events.  We spent about 45 minutes here until we just couldn't deal with the smell anymore.

Our lodging for the next two nights was Vogafjos Farm Stay which we would highly recommend.  We enjoyed dinner at their restaurant - one of the best of the trip - all three of us had Artic Char (6900 kronor each!), and it was exceptional.  We realized what a delicacy salads are in Iceland.  I took pictures of all of my good food for my friend Jill ... she really liked this picture.

One of my favorite days of our entire trip.  By this time, we had started to settle in to the rhythm of a road trip:  when to rise and be ready, how to pack quickly, where everything fit best in the car, what layers to bring, the time each activity would take, etc.  Shawn had the good idea of rebooking the whale-watching to 1:30p, from 3:45p, since we were often all in bed by 7:30p each day.  We now had the morning to explore the Diamond Circle which hadn't previously been on the itinerary but I'm sure glad for happy accidents.

About a half-hour from our hotel were Dettifoss and Selfoss.  Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Iceland and boy was it!  I like standing on the top of waterfalls - looks like its traveling into the earth.  It was about a 1.2 mile walk, round trip, so we decided to walk a little further to get a glimpse of Selfoss - a collection of multiple fosses around a canyon.  Can't get too close to Selfoss but it's just as impressive from afar.  Nancy walked back to the car while Shawn and I took a quick detour to a separate viewing platform of Dettifoss - views just as good as the first viewpoint.

A short drive up the road, we happened upon Asbyrgi which captured our hearts.  A short, magical walk amongst birch trees in full autumn colors to a little pond surrounded by a harsh, black, horseshoe canyon walls.  Honestly, it represented Iceland in every way possible.  Pictures do not do this little spot justice so hopefully it will remain hidden from social media.  We were the only ones there.  There were several viewing platforms and we enjoyed them all.  We absolutely loved this peaceful, enchanting spot - would be a perfect place for a picnic.

The next section of driving to Husavik on 85 was scenic: ocean views, massive waves, and if we squinted real hard, we could see the Artic Circle.  We arrived to Husavik around 1245 and Shawn and Nancy checked in for their whale-watching.  I passed on this activity as I get sea-sick, but planned to climb Husavik Mountain right above town for some exercise.  What a great hike - a billygoat path right up to the top (4 miles RT, ~1200 ft elevation gain).  I saw maybe 5 people.  The surrounding mountains were dusted with snow, I could see all of the whale-watching boats in the bay, the ocean beyond, and views of Husavik which is a super cute village.  I finished my hike by 3p, much faster than expected, so explored Husavik looking for a dinner spot and settled on ... fish and chips!

I met Nancy and Shawn off their boat and they were all smiles and stories.  They saw 2 whales and 5 sightings overall.  Shawn especially enjoyed looking at and snapping photos of the snow-dusted mountains from the boat - he got several frameable pictures.  Nancy made friends with those around her, as usual haha!  She has a gift.  They wore massive suits that kept them warm, there wasn't much wind at all, and neither got sea-sick.  A vacation success!  The picture to the bottom left is their little boat coming into the harbor in Husavik.

We ate fish and chips on the dock overlooking the harbor - they were delicious.  We took a quick ride over to the Ja Ja Ding Dong Bar and decided to not go in (it was not the bar in the Eurovision movie), and headed back to Myvatn to rest up.  What a fabulous day in every way.

Our hotel in Myvatn was on a cow farm.  Milking is at 7:30a each day and the breakfast room has a large viewing window.  What an excellent way to start the day.  We had a leisurely breakfast watching the milking and this crazy little border collie that liked to lick the cows' legs.

Long driving day to get down to the south coast, maybe 5-6 hours.  We stopped first for a photo-op at the Krambudin.  We encountered one of several sheep jams today.  We learned that rettir is at this time in Iceland.  Sheep roam freely in the Highlands all summer.  In early fall, they are herded back and separated to their individual farms.  So we saw a gazillion sheep grazing in the mountains and on the road at times.  

Our first stop was Rjúkandi Waterfall, a short steep walk to a viewpoint.  Shawn and I ambled on the cliffs below where there were people with drones and photo classes going on.  We also spent some time trying to learn more about the flora of Iceland with Shawn's trusty app.  Next stop was  Nykurhylsfoss, but that was a bit of a trap so would not recommend.  We had to pay for parking, but the walk is steps away so we were there for less than 5 minutes and the porta-potties were overflowing.  We debated the trek to Stuðlagil Canyon - a long drive on gravel road and a bit of a hike, and since it had rained the day before in the area were worried the turquoise water would be gray, so we opted to bypass but think it would be an impressive place to stop.

Our favorite stop of the day was the Hvalnes Nature Preserve where I snapped that gem of a photo to your right.  We loved to watch the Whooper Swans all over the island, and there was a massive concentration of them in this little coastal inlet.  A few steps away, was a black sand beach that we had to ourselves.  The waves were massive.  Very picturesque place to stop.

We continued onward to our hotel in Hofn, the aptly named Milk Factory.  Once a milk factory, now a hotel.  We had a family apartment.  Nancy was on the main level and there was a loft where Shawn and I slept.  It was a very nice set up, and despite its excellent ratings, not the cleanest place of our trip.  We had to get new sheets as ours were dirty and the owner never followed up with us.  We had dinner of Langostine Rolls, a local sourced lobster, at Hafnarbudin.  They were ok.  We ate more snacks back in our hotel room before bed.

What a day!  Breakfast at the Milk Factory was a very nice spread, and we were on the road by 9a to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach.  Nancy absolutely loved these areas, as Shawn and I did on our first trip to Iceland.  We were treated to many harbor seals playing amongst the icebergs.  The Diamond Beach was covered with little icebergs, though much smaller than Shawn and my first trip.  Still an amazing place.  We saw a fool peel down to his skivvies and jump in the ocean.  A few miles down the road is  Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoon, a much less visited but still an impressive lagoon.  The walk is quite a bit longer, maybe a mile to do the loop trail, and the water is more gray-cloudy than blue-cloudy, far fewer people.  Nancy was very excited to see the glaciers.

We headed onward to Skaftafell for our airplane ride to the Highlands.  We wanted to be sure Nancy experienced all of Iceland, and the interior is hard to get to without driving long hours on bumpy gravel roads, so by air seemed like the best way to get the exposure to such a unique place.  Shawn and I chose the Landmannalager 75-minute flight after reviewing all options.  We arrived early, so snacked in the car until our pilot returned from his previous flight.  That's our little Cessna over there - yes, we rode in that thing.  A Swiss couple in the back, Shawn and I in the middle, Nancy in the front with the pilot.  We flew over the braided rivers, to the Laki craters where we could see the crater line down the valley, over the most beautiful blue lakes and green mountains (striking colors, there are no filters on these pictures), to barren lava landscapes.  Our pilot told us all about the geology, Icelandic culture (what do Icelanders do for vacation?), flight details, etc.  Our furthest point was Landmannalaugar, the colorful rhyolite mountains where Shawn and I hiked in 2022.  We showed Nancy the mountains we had climbed (with people standing on top!) and pointed out glaciers in the distance.  Honestly, this was just such an incredible, memorable experience which I would highly recommend to anyone.  Shawn was laughing at me quite a bit because I kept exclaiming "wow!".... "wow!"  ... "wow!"... The weather was perfect for such a flight, the best weather of our trip, and Malina at Atlansflug was communicative and provided excellent customer service.

Because it was to rain the next day, we decided to head over to Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon which was a 5-minute drive from our lodging for the night.  At this point, Nancy was pretty tired - we had definitely kept her going long days up to this point.  After reaching the first viewpoint, she headed back to some picnic tables while Shawn and I got in a little exercise to the top viewpoint.  We checked into our hotel and had a very below average dinner at a local restaurant (Shawn liked his fish stew at least), no pictures to send to Jill, that's for sure. 

 Nancy enjoyed her bed here at Hunkubakkar Guesthouse which was located in it's own cubby nook.  The pictures on the website suggested our cabin would be a little .... larger haha.  The bedding and pillows were all sheep wool, very warm. Nancy was asleep by 8p and we were not far behind.  We all slept very well. 

We woke to sideways rain and strong strong winds.  After enjoying a later than usual (thus busier) breakfast in a very nice solarium, we donned all of our rain gear and loaded up the car.  We decided to spend the morning in Vik shopping for souveniers for Stetson and Jameson, our nephews/ grandsons.  We spend a couple of hours in a very nice mall, found just the right long-sleeved shirts for them (and some Ice Wear for me and Shawn), and did some grocery shopping for our final days in Iceland.  By then, the skies were starting to clear.  We first headed over to  Dyrhólaey Lighthouse & Arch (mostly because I missed the turnoff for the beach), and it was awesome!  The walk out to the point was quite rough with the wind, but our gear held up - this is what we bought it for after all. Kind of glad to get to use it, honestly, as Shawn and I cart it all over the world and don't often get a chance.  We are pretty lucky with weather most of the time. The stormy seas made for very dramatic thundering at the arch.

We then backtracked to Reynisfjara Beach and it was just mobbed with tour buses and people.  The rain let up and we were able to capture some pretty incredible photos of the waves against the columns.  There were some fools getting to close to the waves - clearly didn't read the sign about the 'sneaker waves'.  People die here.  The tide was high so we didn't get a chance to go around the point, but we enjoyed a walk on the black sand beach while admiring the power of the waves.

We had had enough of being outside, so we headed to our next hotel an hour up the road by Skogafoss called Hotel Anna.  It was 3:30p and no one was at the desk.  I waited about 20 minutes before someone arrived and checked us in.  The room was small.  Real small.  Toooo small.  It happened to be our priciest room of the trip and was advertised to have a hot tub. Not even close.  The worker who checked us in disappeared, so I waited another 20 minutes before a gentleman showed up.  I was able to upgrade our room to a 1 BR, newly-constructed apartment and it was perfection.  It had a full kitchen and robes for the hot tub. Shawn and I quickly got in our suits and robes, modeled for Nancy, and enjoyed some time in the hot tub just outside our room with a beer for him (a Krammi) and an orange Fanta for me.  Very relaxing.

When we got back to our room, we noticed our view was a horse farm and they were moving the ponies from one pasture to another.  We had a ball watching the ponies be herded.  After enjoying fabulous showers in the spacious bathroom, we ate a ramen and Knorr side dinner (think that was a first for Nancy!), sent our dinner photo to Jill, and enjoyed a peaceful night of rest.

Breakfast at Hotel Anna was the first and only place we had a hot breakfast all trip.  And we very much enjoyed the bacon and eggs .... and the bread, yogurt, pain au chocolat, ham and cheese, meusli, juice, coffee, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc that we enjoyed every morning.  We like a big breakfast!  

We headed to Skogafoss and snapped a lot of great photos.  You just can't take a bad picture in Iceland.  We didn't get too close like some people do.  We found most people being more interested in their pictures than the actual experience of the place, so as the trip went on, we all started to take fewer and fewer pictures in favor of experiencing the moment more.

Shawn and I very much wanted to hike the Skogafoss Waterfall Way above the falls again.  Fimmvörðuháls was a highlight of our last trip and one of the best hikes we've done around the world.  Nancy was game to spend some time in the hotel coffee shop and visit the Skogar Museum.  We hiked for a total of 6 miles, ~1600 feet of elevation gain, and saw about 10 fosses on the journey up.  Beautiful place.  We had some drizzle but our rain gear kept us dry.  Made for some great pictures.  After the first two or three falls, the crowds thinned out and we had the trail mostly to ourselves.  There were a couple of stream crossings but nothing we couldn't handle.  A couple of hours later, we returned and found Nancy.  She had an expensive, subpar coffee and found the museum to be mostly in Icelandic, so not the best morning for her but I think she appreciated a slower-paced start.

We drove up the road a jaunt to Seljalendsfoss which was a real hit with Nancy.  We were able to walk behind the waterfall.  It is very wet, rocky and slippery - and it was very windy this day - so we took the walk very slowly. That wind would pick the waterfall up pretty good and douse people if you didn't time your escape from behind the waterfall just right.  Luckily we did.  What an incredible experience!

We drove up to our next hotel, Arbakki Farmhouse, where we would spend our final two nights of our Iceland adventure.  It was a beautiful setting in a grove of trees with a picture window overlooking a stream and meadow - very picturesque.  For dinner, we arrived at Efstidalur just before 5p and were able to take advantage of the soup buffet and snarfed down on some very hearty beef stew and homemade bread.  Tasty, but not pretty so did not send photo to vegetarian Jill.

Happy Birthday to Shawn!  After a yummy (and lighter than usual, for us) breakfast the farmhouse sunroom, we ventured up to Gullfoss - arriving before all of the tour buses.  We found that starting our day at 0730 and being on the road at 0830 meant we were 30 minutes ahead of everyone else, thus able to enjoy attractions in relative quiet.  Gullfoss is an incredible waterfall.  Even after seeing so many, it still inspires awe.  We enjoyed both the upper and lower viewing platforms, experiencing the visual from height and the power of being up close.  We journeyed down to Geysir, which Shawn and I skipped the first time, but enjoyed watching the Strokkur geyser erupt multiple times and some of nature's hot springs (umm boiling water in the ground).

I had made reservations far in advance to eat lunch at the tomato farm, Friðheimar - I saw it on social media and we like gardening, so I booked it not realizing what a destination it truly was.  WOW!  The restaurant is in a tomato greenhouse - we were surrounded by the vines which were all almost a year old.  Our waitress, Evi from Greece, told us all about the farming operation.  Shawn enjoyed a tomato beer and we all shared flatbreads, tomato soup, and delicious bread.  We were so full.  Definitely a Jill picture or 3.  We walked amongst the vines and spent nearly 2 hours there, it was fabulous.  We enjoyed some chatty Icelandic ponies on the walk back to our car.

We spent the rest of the day at Thingvellir, a UNESCO world heritage site and the divergent boundary of the North American and European tectonic plates.  We did a mile long walk along the path and over to the church and small village - there is much cultural significance to Thingvellir, though the geology always sticks with me more than the culture.  A very nice visitor's center and beautiful autumn colors to enjoy.  It's an area that always feels a little bit sacred - everyone is silent or speaking in whispers. 

Still full from lunch, we decided against dinner and headed to our rooms to prepare for our travel home.  We also needed to figure out how to fill our day before our flight, so Shawn and I did some research and decided to spend the day on the Reykjanes peninsula - lots of geology going on there.

After a leisurely start, we departed our cute little farm stay with a few ideas for stops to fill our time before our 4:45p flight - we wanted to be to the airport around 1:45.  We first stopped at a seal colony by Stradarkirkja- - we watched 14 seals playing in the ocean or hanging out in boat pose on the rocky islands just off-shore.  The cemetary surrounding the church also had some fairy houses (alfhol) complete with a fresh apple as an offering.  Next stop was Krýsuvíkurberg Cliffs which was a short drive down a very sketchy road, but absolutely worth it. We were rewarded with cliffs that were reminiscent of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.

Moving onward down the peninsula, we passed around Grundavik and saw several stops where you could see the sites of the latest eruptions (none actively gong on while we were there) and the large earth and rock barrier build around Grundavik to protect from lava flows.  Quite a sight.  Onward to Brimketill, a colorful lava rock pool worth the pitstop.

The rest of our time in Iceland was spent by the Reykjanes Lighthouse.  We took a side detour to Gunnuhver - another stinky area with very large steam plumes.  Shawn and I made the mistake of walking through one and our jackets were covered with that stinky mist.  We yelled to Nancy to stay away as we ran for our lives through it.  We stunk like eggs, and we panicked for a minute, but when the mist dried the stink went away.  Phew.  After viewing the lighthouse, we drove down to Valahnúkamöl, saw the volcanic plug out in the ocean, and realized we were on the mid-Atlantic ridge again as we were in Thingvellir.

After a quick drive up the coast, we dropped off our rental car (left the keys in the glove box because there is no counter service) and proceeded easily through all the steps at the airport.  We ate a quick lunch and had an uneventful flight home, even flying over Greenland which is always exciting.  We got home to happy and healthy kitties, and Nancy was in her PJs before Shawn and I had even taken off our coats.  We spent the next few days pretty darn jet-lagged, but all completely worth it.

We both are very happy to have been able to spend this time with Nancy, and are grateful for her generosity and positive energy every day in wanting to get the most out of our adventure.  Shawn and I love sharing the traveling bug with her - our favorite memories of her and Paul are from Ireland, Washington DC, and Cape Cod.  The stories always make us laugh, and this trip will be no different - the airplane ride, the whales, the fosses, the canyons, the spa ... Iceland is magical.