Because we need this, all of us, that indescribable feeling when the cabin lights go dim and we go somewhere we’ve never been before; not just entertained, but somehow reborn. One day, Nicole Kidman can recite these lines as a spoof of her AMC commercial, which has gone on way too long. What else has gone on too long is our drought of traveling, but that has now come to an end with a week-long trip to celebrate Emily’s birthday. With Ripley consuming our lives, we needed a good excuse to break out of baby jail, and this was the perfect excuse.
Before we could go on this trip, we had to ditch the baby. Easier said than done, but thankfully, my parents agreed to take the cute little runt off our hands. I flew a few days beforehand to Houston and dropped him off. My parents were excited to hang out with him, and from the photos/videos received on the flight— Duke and G-Dad, who?
With Ripley situated and Ludo’s dog sitter ready to go, it was now time to get both Grant and me out of the house and to Iceland to meet up with Emily. She was already there on a three-week European vacation, and her last leg in Iceland was where we agreed to meet up. With no direct flights, we had to stop over in Boston first.
The day before the flight, we received an announcement that Boston was experiencing inclement weather, which could impact our flight. Due to this, JetBlue allowed us to change our red-eye flight to a day flight that arrived at 11 pm. When we landed, we called the hotel to find out where their shuttle was and were told that it stopped running at 10 pm. It wasn’t a minute after I ended the call that the hotel shuttle came barreling down the road, and we sprinted towards it. With several bitchy flight attendants on board complaining about the unacceptable time they had to wait, we gratefully took the tardy shuttle bus back with them avoiding an Uber. The attendants continued to berate the hotel front desk worker about the late arrival, and it was instant karma when they had to come back down because none of their keys worked.
With a friendly smile and chipper demeanor, we were greeted, given working keys, and even cookies to start the trip off right. Grant had put us right next to the airport because this was just a quick night in, a day of exploring, and then a quick escape to Iceland. After dropping off our bags in our room, the hunger set in, and the cookies alone were not going to cut it. I found that there was a roast beef and seafood restaurant open that was called Mike’s Roast Beef and Seafood. A restaurant that is open to 2 am on a Wednesday sounds pretty sketchy, but we didn’t have many options. Grant and I stretched our legs and walked 1.5 miles to the restaurant, and it was actually pretty good. Think Arby’s with real meat. Putting that on my list of success because I thought we would be eating from a 711 or worse that late.
The next morning, I asked Grant, “What did he want to do?” He looked at me. I looked at him. And we both shrugged. Boston, a very cool city, is rich in history…something we do not always appreciate. We had been to Boston one other time during COVID and had seen a lot of the sites already. This time around, we decided to mirror the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus tour sites to make sure that we saw everything that we missed last time. We started seeing the sights, realized…we don’t care, so we went to the North End to eat some Italian food. After stopping at a few eateries, we decided that we needed some fun. Insert Codzilla.
Codzilla was a speedboat that took you out into the middle of the harbor, spun around, and whipped you with water (intentionally). There was a silly backstory that the sewage treatment plant’s toxic waste produced a killer cod, and we had to go fast to avoid it eating us. There was nothing historic or that educational about the trip, but it sure was fun. Due to our unobstructed seating placement, Grant and I got soaked, so we feel that we did it right. We sloshed our way back to the hotel, changed, and prepared for our next flight to Iceland.
With half the leg already over being in Boston, our flight on Play Airlines (closing at the end of the month) was only 5 hours. Fast forward an uneventful flight, and Play has us landing in 4 hours. Somehow, they were able to get there an hour early. Being in seats 2A and 2B, we jumped off the plane and arrived at Passport control without another human in sight. The security guards were gone, machines had covers on them, and it was silent besides us and other passengers commenting about how eerie this was. Eventually, a guard appeared, startled by seeing a plane of passengers, and began to process passports.
In theory, getting to the airport an hour early sounds great. The problem with that in the morning is that the car rental clerk doesn’t arrive until an hour later, when the first plane should have arrived. A bit exhausted, we impatiently waited for their arrival—Pro-Tip in Iceland. Please pay for the extra insurance because they are super strict about returning cars, even going so far as to check to make sure the wiper blades work. We fortunately elected to go with the most expensive insurance that AAA discounted (thank you) and were happy to avoid any issues.
The hotel that was chosen was not the hotel that I had wanted. To say that I hated the hotel was an understatement. It was a fine hotel for most, but I have special needs (pillows and AC) that make this hotel a bust.
Grant went to bed, and I waited a bit for Emily to text that she had woken up. I dozed off for a bit and decided that I wanted to acclimate to the time, so I stayed awake. The first stop was to get something small to eat. Emily warned me about the prices, but I thought maybe she had just had a bad experience. Nope. She was 100% right. Iceland has ridiculous food prices. Ridiculous. We stopped at the Laundromat Café, and I ordered a ham and cheese croissant. It was $10. Prices on the menu varied, but a standard breakfast of eggs, toast, and sausage was $30-40. It was a shock and one that I never got over this entire trip.
Afterwards, more places started to open, and the gift stores began to as well. Of course, I had to shop, and the sticker price shock continued over. Things that I am used to paying $5 for in other countries had a 10x multiple, costing a hefty price tag of $50. I am talking about a ceramic statue (not unique) of a puffin. This dampened my compulsive need to buy souvenirs, but I still managed to find a few things. Pro-tip. If there is a food item that seems big (salt in Iceland’s case), go to a grocery store and buy it there. Not a souvenir shop. Same stop, locals use it, and they don’t pass the cost on to them.
For those who are not aware (including me), a puffin is a bird that, like penguins, mates for life. They are often called the "clowns of the sea" due to their colorful beaks, which change with the seasons, and their sometimes comical behavior on land. So, to be able to see them in the wild is quite a treat. Iceland is home to many puffins and many tours that will take you to one of three islands where they are known to mate. We found a tour that had room left, boarded, and went to see these adorable little birds.
By this time, Sleeping Beauty had rejoined the land of the living, and we went to pick him up for lunch. We warned Grant of the sticker shock, and so he just made a conscious effort to avoid converting ISK to USD. After eating a $30 burger with stale fries and $30 pancakes, we continued to explore the sites of Reykjavik. My favorite site was the Sun Voyager. The Sun Voyager sculpture in Reykjavik, Iceland, is unique for several reasons: it's not a Viking ship as it's often mistaken for, but rather a "dream boat" symbolizing hope, freedom, and the promise of new horizons. It's an ode to the sun, envisioned as a vessel sailing towards the light.
With everyone awake, fed, and chipper, we decided to make our way to the Perlman: Wonders of Iceland. What was cool about this place was that it took the notion of Ice and Fire (which Iceland is known for) and put it in a manageable one-stop spot. The program began with a video of the Northern Lights, followed by a volcano demonstration, and concluded with an ice cave/tunnel that we got to spend as long as we wanted in. I may have fallen asleep during the video. The three of us thought this was a perfect time to take fun photos as we were the last ones in the tunnel.
Tunnels are very common in Iceland, except instead of Ice, I went the next morning solo to a volcano tunnel. There are evidently over 600 volcano tunnels throughout Iceland due to the 130 volcanoes the island houses. I didn’t know what to expect, but having been to many different caves before, I was expecting a bit more. It was a tunnel, with rocks everywhere, and remnants of where the lava had flowed. That was it. It makes sense, but for some reason I thought there would be more. There was not. It was cool to see and be in, but it would not be something I would put on the “must-do list.”
What I would put on the “must-do list” would be the Golden Circle. They call it this because of it’s a popular tourist route featuring three main attractions: Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, Geysir geothermal area, and Gullfoss waterfall. It's a relatively short driving loop, making it ideal for a day trip from Reykjavík.. It’s also a great way of getting out of the city and seeing what Iceland is known for…its natural beauty. Our first stop was Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, a national park known for its unique geological landscape, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are visibly separating. The drive out there is picturesque with almost nothing developed once you get out of the city.
With that said, the first development that we saw. Grant wanted to stop and stay. It just so happened to be Laugarvatn, the home to Laugarvatn Fontana spa. Happy as a clam, Grant was more than willing to forgo the continued car ride for the relaxation of the spa.
Emily and I trekked on with our next stop being Strokkur. Think Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. With so many volcanoes, it only makes sense that the area also has many geysers. Our timing was good because we were able to see them spout off a few times.
The final stop on our circle was Gullfoss, a waterfall. Think Niagara Falls lite. What impressed me about Iceland was that it had everything in one spot. The lava fields, the caves, the geysers, the waterfalls, and I am sure more that I don’t even know about. There may have been more impressive individual sites everywhere, but it was the combination of everything that made it magical.
Emily had shared a link that had a few additional stops that we could take on the Golden Circle, and one included a stop at Friðheimar Tomato Farm. A tomato-producing farm that produces over 2 tons of tomatoes daily, including in the wintertime. They do this by utilizing the hot water from the earth as a way of making sure everything stays warm and doesn’t freeze over. I wanted to go because they were supposed to have amazing tomato soup. We secured a last-minute reservation, played dumb about the time of that reservation, and were given a table an hour early. Hands down, the best tomato soup I have ever had. It also didn’t help that they had delicious bread to go along with it. Iceland has terrible food, but I will give them credit where credit is due, and they did produce some great tomato soup and great bread.
Afterwards, we double-backed, picked up Grant from the spa, and were on the way back to the city. By that time, I was fading and fading fast. The time change, lack of darkness, and the daycare cold that had been somewhat under control finally took over. I went back to the hotel with a nice fever, and Grant and Emily went out to dinner. The notion of puking and rallying generally doesn’t apply in situations like this, but that is what most definitely happened in this scenario.
The next morning, my fever had fortunately broken, and I jetted around the town looking for pastries before everyone woke up. For some reason, no one was all that interested in eating the pastries I had brought, but I should have realized that eating pastries from a known sick person might not be ideal, given what I had.
The good news was that the last event in Iceland was probably the best place to expedite the recovery process— the Blue Lagoon. Blue Lagoon in Iceland was partially man-made and began forming in 1976 because of runoff from the Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant. While not intentionally created as a spa, the mineral-rich water accumulated in a natural depression in the lava field and eventually became a popular bathing spot. So basically, the byproduct or waste of the Power Plant is now being used to heal and beautify people. We stayed there most of the day, grabbed a bit to eat, and then went to the airport for our last stop of this long trip— New York.
It wouldn’t be a proper trip for the three of us without stopping in a place to see a theater show or two. We had lofty goals of fitting in a show the night we arrived, but due to a checked bag taking forever and a comedy of errors trying to get on a train (which is now funny, but not in the moment), we missed our opportunity. We finally made it to the hotel, grabbed my air mattress from a 7-11, ate a slice of pizza from a pizzeria that kept the entire place toasty at 86 degrees, and went to bed.
We hadn’t purchased any show tickets in advance because we wanted to figure it out when we got there. That morning, I got to work and found tickets to the shows. Grant was set up to see the Outsiders (which won the 2024 Tony for Best Musical) and the new production of Stranger Things: The First Shadow. We gifted Emily a ticket to see Maybe, Happy Ending? (the 2025 Tony winner for Best Musical) and she wanted to see Gypsy. I was happy to see Maybe Happy Ending? with Emily, and Stranger Things with Grant.
Before the shows, we went to our normal pre-show meal at Becco. This Italian spot offers a hefty portion of scrumptious Italian food that we were more than happy to scarf down after having eaten nothing substantive in Iceland. It delivered like normal and set the tone for the shows to follow. Grant parted ways with us, and Emily and I headed to the shows.
For Maybe Happy Ending? we were able to get box seats, so it was just Emily and I by ourselves. We were surprised they didn’t add additional seats, but we’re happy to have the whole box to ourselves. Emily liked it, but didn’t seem to love it. I disliked it. Robots falling in love, problems ensue, and it ends with a possible rekindling. It was not for me. We had the chance to see this musical the last time we were in NY and elected not to. We made the right choice then. When Emily and I left, she spotted a French joint and we stopped in for some dessert. I was thrilled because they gave me a basket of bread and butter with my dessert. She was delighted because she was able to see the cast come out of the show.
Grant got out of the Outsiders and said that it was just okay for him. There were one or two impressive scenes, but otherwise I was unimpressed. So, the first one was a dud for everyone. We just knew that the next one would shine, and it did.
Going in, Grant and I knew nothing about Stranger Things. We've missed almost everything about the show and haven't seen an episode. I think at this point intentionally. I plan to go back and binge-watch everything once it has been completed. The play itself was over the top, a lot of action, a bit of a drawn-out story, but the set, technology used, and interactive components made this a high production value. Worth a viewing. Emily went to see Gypsy and said she loved it. It’s hard not to when you’re in the front row of a Broadway musical—a perfect way to end the trip.
We may have been a bit rusty, but as Ripley keeps getting bigger— we are looking forward to getting back to the norm of traveling more.