Our Iceland adventure started nearly 10 months ago. We told Kaia, Tanner, Josh, and Rachel that we wanted to bring the whole family on a vacation. Their assignment for Christmas was to make a PowerPoint presentation on where we should go. Then we would discuss the options and vote, if necessary. The presentations were all amazing, and we could see the personalities of each infused into their ideas and presentations!

By the end of lunch, the clear family favorite was Banff Canada! Iceland wasn’t even on the list. So why are we in Iceland? Incomprehensible yield management software at Delta airlines. The price to fly the family from Minneapolis to Calgary was crazy! When Jane started looking around it was clear that Iceland was way cheaper, the best value, and the flight time was not terrible for the two youngest among our group aged 4 and 2. Nobody had presented Iceland, but everyone thought that someone else would. So it was an easy decision.

We arrived in Iceland only a few minutes late, despite our late departure. I don’t know if it was lasting effects of the CrowdStrike problem effecting Delta’s transfer this plane from the hanger to the gate software or what. But neither did the staff at the gate or the pilot for that matter, everyone was mystified by the fact that our plane arrived at MSP many hours early and then sat in the hanger until just minutes before were supposed to depart.

Whatever the ultimate explanation, the flight was fine and we arrived in Iceland at 7:30 AM local time 2:30AM according to our sleep systems. That affected the youngest the worst, but all of us still had some jet lag.

Getting through customs was easy, and although rental cars are always so frustratingly slow, we got some sweet upgrades on our Rental van! A slightly larger van, plus free WiFi hotspot! That is a nearly $600 savings for all of us to have WiFi in transit without paying for a Verizon travel pass. Our first stop between the airport and Reykjavik was at a bakery for some snacks and coffee.

This was a great stop for everyone to get the wiggles out after hours on an airplane and then sitting in the van.

Next up was grocery shopping in a foreign country where no one speaks the language! Pretty good, and sometimes amusing, what is “semi-skim milk?” Is this block of stuff called Smjör really butter? Why yes it is if you put your glasses on and read the small translation. Do we want to buy onions and then figure out how to get the self checkout to recognize what we are weighing? No we do not.

Part of our plan for this trip was to buy stuff to make lunch sandwiches in the van while we are out hiking and enjoying the scenery. So we made some lunch!

The next stop was an unscheduled gas station stop when our low pressure light suddenly went off. None of the tires were under pressure so we continued on to our first waterfall. This is a very famous waterfall as Justin Bieber made a music video from behind the water! We were able to go behind the waterfall as well!

It was raining like crazy, and we were all wet from the waterfalls so we were very glad to have a text from our AirBnB host that our house was ready ahead of schedule! The house is beautiful and the views of the ocean, mountains, glaciers, and nearby horses are spectacular!

Dinner ended up being at Smidjan Brugghus, the brewery right near our house. The burgers and fries and beer was great. We then worked at keeping everyone awake until just after 8:00 when we gave in and went to bed. Our night was extremely abbreviated when just after nine, our roommate started asking for her mommy! This happened a couple more times before she finally slept through until the morning.