We (have) Come (back) from the Land of Ice and Snow

Police Escorts, Everybody Passports

We returned from our summer family trip about a month ago, so we, in theory, should be full recovered from our jet lag by now.  They say you need a day to acclimate for each hour of time zone change you make during your travels.  For young kids, a week for each hour of time zone change might be a little more accurate.  At least that's what I'm telling myself, so I can use it as an excuse for my kids, and my own, surly behavior at times.

As previously mentioned, my wife and I enjoy travel and liked to travel as often as we could before we had kids.  We weren't (and still aren't) globe-trotters, but traveling and exploring new places has always been a priority for us.  We told ourselves this wouldn't change when our family grew, but quickly realized the complexities (and added cost) of traveling with small people.

We've taken a handful of trips since the kids have been born.  Some big, others small.  Some have ended with smiles, others have ended with trips to the ER.  In all they were mostly enjoyable, certainly memorable experiences.  They always contain their fair share of tense moments - just slightly above our statistical average.  Two years ago, we mustered up the courage to put our kids on a plane (don't worry, we went too).  This August we took the plunge and made our first international family foray; an adventure to Iceland where our blonde hair, blue eyed kids would fit in like locals.  

If Iceland hasn't been blowing up your social media feed the last few years, you might not think of it as a desirable location for a family trip.  But thanks to its jaw-dropping natural beauty and relatively reasonable flights - both from a cost and time perspective, it's actually been a family destination hot-spot for quite a while.  For us, it was a 6 hour direct flight, with airfare not drastically more expensive than our trip to the West Coast two years prior.  Our trip was also mostly encouraged by family history; my wife's grandma, who is half Icelandic and always wanted to visit, and my wife's mother, who is a great travel companion and always up for an adventure (as well as a quarter Icelandic, obviously) were able to join us on our trip.  The fact that it was a multi-generational trip made it that much more memorable - at times enjoyable so, at times more stressfully so.

Staying consistent with our previous kid accompanied adventures, this trip was certainly a net positive.  It was an expensive endeavor no doubt, but totally worth it in my view.  One thing I've noticed in my years of parenting (feels like decades at times), is that it is always easier to talk yourself out of doing things.  Especially if the kids are involved, and even more so if it will require a significant investment - money, time, mental fortitude, etc.  But sometimes you just have to; as a friend of mine encouraged on social media, "take the trip"*.  The more accustom your kids become to engaging in such nonsense, the easier and, presumably, more enjoyable, it will be to continue to do so as they get older.

Like all of our adventures, kids included or not, our trip certainly had its fair share of hiccups.  When I booked our flights, I opted for Delta's extremely no-frills Basic Economy fare, which lacks, among other amenities, advanced seat assignments.  Despite my continued reassurances to my wife that no airline, no matter how bottom-line minded they were, would seat our 7, 5, and 3 y/o's next to complete strangers; coupled with the extra assistance of a very patient Delta Reservation Specialist assigning our entire group seats together upon our booking, when I went to check-in the morning of our flight, I noticed that we had all been redistributed to middle seats.  My wife's voiced concerns had become, at the moment, frustratingly prophetic.  Fortunately, thanks to some other very patient and helpful Delta staff, we were all able to sit together on our outbound flight.  How they managed to swing this I'm not sure, as these same staff were simultaneously trying, very persistently and lucratively, to find volunteers to fly out the following the day.^

In all the kids traveled about as well as we could have expected them - we did set our expectations pretty low, so don't envision smiling, happy, reasonable volume using half pints.  With our outbound flight being overnight, we hoped they'd sleep for at least a few hours.  Our youngest two did for most of the six hour flight, while the 7 year old maybe slept a wink longer than I did, which wasn't much (even despite my free nightcap!)  Luckily, Delta has opted to double-down on the in-flight entertainment experience, so when they weren't asleep, the kids spend 99% of the remainder of the flight in a zombie like trance stare at the glowing screen in front of them.  I've commented before that traveling with kids is "any port parenting" at its best (or worst).  This trip was obviously no exception.  

It has been well studied that low expectations can directly lead to increased happiness in certain situations, and traveling with children certainly fits that bill.  We saw a fraction of what we could have saw during our week trip had it just been my wife and I.  That's okay though, because part of the allure of the trip was the trip itself.  Being in a different place.  Breathing different (and much cleaner) air.  We you are traveling with kids, you are forced to take things slower, but at times this helps you appreciate the smaller things that are around you that you may have missed as you rushed from one Instragram-worthy site to the next.  Somewhat unintentionally, we adopted an every other day strategy during our trip.  One day we'd go and explore, the next we'd tend to stay closer to home, enjoying time together and doing things that we'd typically do at home.  Sure, this can make you question why you dropped a hefty sum on flights and accommodations, but it's part of the process.  As the kids grow, they'll, conceivably, be more up for adventures, and more physically capable of doing them.  After one of our first trip adventures, to the infamous Blue Lagoon, our 5 y/o informed us that she wanted to come back to Iceland when she was 10 and didn't have use the mandatory water wings while enjoying the rejuvenating waters.

Having a soak in the "waste water" from
Iceland's largest Geothermal Power Plant.

The trip itself was an incredible adventure, and I would refrain from using the term "vacation" to describe it.  The natural wonders of Iceland are beyond compare, and we only saw a small fraction of them.  As I described it to some people, it's like Hawaii met Montana in Switzerland and never left.  A volcanic island with glaciers and beaches (albeit black sand), an edgy European capital with random livestock roaming around the countryside.  The photos that we took by no means due justice to the beauty of the landscape, even when it was raining or whipping gale force winds.

There are plenty of great logistical travel details if you are interested in getting more info, and I won't pretend to be a travel expert on the country at all, nor will I bore you with the minute details of our trip - even considering the many hours I poured over them.  What I've noticed is that anyone who has been to Iceland will happily tell you all about their experience glowingly, and I always love to garner that first hand advice.  The one piece of up front advice that was given to me that is worth relaying is if you are considering a trip to Iceland, start sacking away some money now.  Getting there might be reasonable, and accommodations are comparable to other places we've traveled, but everything else - gas, food, clothing, etc. is crazy expensive.  Our place (an AirBnB) had a kitchen, and we had some gourmet cooks in our group (not me or my wife or my kids), so we were able to save some stretch by making most of our own meals.  But food at the grocery stores was still significantly higher than the US, which you'd kind of expect given that it's an island at 66 degrees North latitude.  We did spring for the occasional meal out, which included the most expensive bowl of tomato soup I've ever consumed, eaten inside the very greenhouse where the tomatoes were grown.  It was utterly delicious, and because it was bottomless, I think I might have gotten my money's worth.

For a nominal charge (in comparison to the cost of the bowl of soup)
you can drink birch schnapps from a hollowed out tomato.   

Another money related tidbit I was given in advance was that you will not need to take out any physical Icelandic Kroner (their currency) during your trip.  Every business, and I mean every business - even the farm that sells ice cream made from the cream, takes a credit card.  Fortunately we found a few Kroner coins in the couch cushions of our AirBnB to bring home as souvenirs.  Lastly, and maybe mostly important, make sure you know where the closest Vinbudin is and when it is open.  Being Icelandic rookies, and unfamiliar with the state owned and operated liquor stores, we found ourselves wine-less for a few days - which ironically happened to fall over Iceland's equivalent of Labor Day, when it is common for island residents tend to drink themselves into a stupor.

Yes, even this farm, with absolutely delicious ice cream
made from their own cows accepts credit cards.

While we were only there for a week, and our every other day schedule of sightseeing was somewhat limiting, we did hit up a number of the highlights.  We ponied up for the Blue Lagoon, which was really cool, but I wouldn't do it again if I went back.  Like most people, we did this right after we flew in, which in retrospect, might have been better to do just before we left (or the day before leaving depending your flight out time).  We spent a day in Reykjavik, which seemed to the be the consensus from others of enough time to spend there - and it probably was.  We opted for accommodations closer to the Golden Circle area and spent a day hitting up those sites - the Crater, Geysir and Strokkur Hot Springs Field, and Gullfoss.  We passed on visiting Thingvellir, the site of the country's first parliament and spot where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart.  I found myself less excited about visiting places that had names I couldn't pronounce.  I was hoping to bring the kids to their first professional soccer match by catching a game of the Icelandic Premier League, but unfortunately we couldn't find one that worked during our trip.

Obligatory family photo in front of one of Reykjavik's main tourist attractions.
It's a church.

Our one huge day of travel found us venturing along the South Coast, and eastward to the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon, with stops at Vik and various beautiful (but unpronounceable) waterfalls along the way.  After an hour detour (each way) on a very bumpy gravel road due to some glacial flooding on the (one) main highway, it turned into 15 hour day, with 2/3 of that time in the car.  We kept telling ourselves it would be worth it, and it definitely was.  We had hoped to venture up to the Snaefellsness Peninsula as well, but figured we had tested our limits enough.   Instead we hardly left our cookie-cutter Icelandic cabin the following day, opting for a soak in the hot tub while the kids jumped on the trampoline - two amenities that seem mandatory for Icelandic accommodations.

Still smiling after 5+ hours of drive time. 
I don't think they realized we had 5 more hours to get back.

Our AirBnB also came with its own gymnastics training center.

One additional perk of traveling with your kid's grandma, and great-grandma, is that my wife and I actually got to sneak away for what one could possibly describe as a date.  Our date happened to be a very early morning, relatively strenuous and excessively cold and windy hike to a natural hot spring in Hveragerdi (which literally means hot river in Icelandic).  Because we were up so early we actually had this well visited attraction all to ourselves, which was amazing, but but did nothing to help me persuade my wife that real Vikings didn't wear swimsuits.

Watching the sun rise over the mountains
while sitting in naturally occurring 105 degree water. 
Pretty cool.

By far, the highlight of the trip was the opportunity to connect with some distance relatives of my wife's grandma.  We met what would be my wife's grandma's father's brother's granddaughter and husband (you followed that right?) for lunch one day.  We were also able to have her and her husband, along with her brother and his family, over for dinner the night before we left.  For my wife's grandma, who viewed this trip as sort of a historical family pilgrimage, you could see the light in her eyes and the smile on her face when discussing her grandparents and their family with other descendants of the same family tree whose roots date back to the 1800s.  And likewise for the rest of us, who were aware of the history, but lacked that personal connection to it; the opportunity to have very genuine interactions with some real live Icelanders, made the trip that much more memorable - even if our kids could easily be mistaken for locals.  It was this experience that made the trip particularly unique.  Anyone can visit the sites, whether they can pronounce them or not.  But not everyone gets a chance to share an authentic Iceland meal (pizza, lasagna and salad from CostCo) with people who have lived in Iceland their entire lives.  They also came through with some awesome parting gifts for the kids, which was perfect considering we intentionally neglected to buy them any souvenirs.

By far the highlight of the trip.  Connecting with distant relatives
and meeting real live Vikings - who looked a lot like some of us.  

And so when we returned home, which we were ready to after a certain point.  We've started plotting what's next.  We have passports for the kids, and they're only good for five years, so we figure we should start filling them with stamps.  Before our trip, a friend of ours (who also has younger kids) commented on how cool it will be for our kids to get their first passport stamp at such a young age and from a place as unique and beautiful as Iceland.  Our kids are pretty fortunate in that already they have been able to take trips my wife and I didn't take until we were in our 20s.

But these are the experiences we want to have with our kids, and we will continue to work to make them a priority in our life.  We hope that as they grow, they will see the value in these experiences and make them a priority as well, especially as they start their own families.  We recognize that our adventures with our kids will not always be smooth sailing, and at times we might question what we got ourselves into.  But we believe that the life experiences they will develop through these adventures will help turn them into well rounded, adaptable and capable individuals.  We also believe that at some point they'll develop memory bias, like most of us do, and remember these trips better than they actually were.  It's certainly what those of us footing the bill will be doing.

   

       

*Her comments were made in relation to her own family's recent summer trip, which, based on the photos, seemed similarly filled with smiles and tears like our trip.

^Had we not been traveling with kids, my wife and I would have definitely taken their offer to bump to the next day.  We momentarily considered it, but couldn't find a reasonable explanation to provide our kids beyond the fact that it could have essentially paid for a trip.  Kids don't understand that kind of macroeconomics.