Ice Cap

We started our trip at the top of the world. Iceland in Icelandic is Ísland, which means, you guessed it, Ice Land. But this Ísland is, of course, also an island. You can drive around the whole thing using the Ring Road, which we did in about 10 days. You can also, in summer, traverse the center of the island using their seasonal "F-roads." We did a little of that, too. The F-roads are gravelly, vertigo-inducing, and full of hairpin turns. If you ask Adam, the "F" stands for fun. I white-knuckled it and quietly used some F-words of my own.

I've always said that I would be the unhappiest  Eskimo in the world. I'm just not a cold person. That said, all of our ice encounters were so visually amazing that I (almost) forgot about the icicles forming on my extremities.

Avra found her rightful place in the world. She's a farm girl. Next time, we're staying long enough to really get our hands dirty.

How can a place where the sun never sets in summer get so little actual sunshine? Just one of the mysteries of life at the top of the world.

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Fun stuff we did:

Here are a few of the highlights: the places we stayed, things we did, and people we met that made Iceland such a great start to our trip.

Stuff we want to do next time:

I'm already counting the days until I can go back. 

Will you like Iceland as much as we did?

That is an excellent question, and not surprisingly, some of our family enjoyed Iceland more than others. Click here for some lessons  we learned that can help you decide if Iceland belongs on your list of must-sees.