Mary Hawkins

but it was so foggy when we got in that my mom asked us when we were going to drive near the ocean.

Definitely visit the beach nearby to watch the birds and try to drive down to Dyrhólaey peninsula. There’s a great view from the top, although it’s really, really windy.

Mt. Hekla was believed to be one of the medieval entrances to hell! I don’t know if the visitor’s center’s list of things to do in case of an eruption was just for show, but it was pretty hair-raising and hikers have had to outrun lava…

I knew there was a waterfall of some sort of Gullfoss, but I wasn’t expecting just how big and dramatic Gullfoss is…

but if you’ve never read any of the Sagas or know much about Icelandic history, it gives you a good, quick overview…

but who cares? It’s really the most amazing thing to watch this pot of boiling water suddenly jet into the air…

It’s a bit ramshackle [I hope you’ve had your tetanus shots!] but the view is stunning and it’s the sort of thing that you won’t be able to do most other places…

the only open-air airport I’ve ever been to, for better and worse…

On my latest roadtrip, we stopped here for breakfast. It’s very quaint and cute, and the pancakes at Maynard’s Cafe were lovely.

this airport is almost entirely surrounded by Iowa, even though it’s in Omaha, Nebraska.

although when I first saw the tops of it over the neighboring buildings, I laughed! It’s really an absurd building, but I needed a thing to drive towards on my trip, and I love that I can now tell people that I’ve been to “The World’s Only Corn Palace”, as the building proudly proclaims. It’s amazing in its own way—don’t expect to be entertained by anything other than the fact that it exists.