The Adventure Begins

In early 2018, I wanted to take a trip to visit a country that I had never been to. Being married to my truly understanding wife, Ann Marie, who has supported my previous travel "bucket list" excursions,  I posed the idea of a trip to Korea/Japan. This idea was quickly nixed due to the uncertainty of the political situation with North Korea threating to shoot missiles at South Korea and its neighbors.  My next idea was "how about Iceland with the added benefit of having our four 13 year-old grandchildren accompany me".....she, having had seven children with little help from her lovable spouse (me), smiled and said with humor in her voice...GO AHEAD....thus my adventure began.

Over the ensuing months I discussed the idea with our children Laura, Tom, Paul and Katie whose children (2 boys/2 girls), all born in the same year, 2005, would accompany me on my journey.  I, being months shy of turning 80 years of age, incurred a degree of  reluctance on my children's part....you need a chaperone....you can't do it by yourself....you're too old....you'll never survive!!! Bottom line, the parents (Paul and Katie) of the two girls (Natalie and Ava)  came up with lame excuses about soccer/lacrosse/we don't trust you; my granddaughters were denied the opportunity of their lifetime! However, my two "favorite children"(,Laura and Tom), willingly agreed to have me take their sons, Sam Malnight and Jack Worosz, on this adventure. A magnificent opportunity for Papa to enjoy a week in Iceland with his teenaged grandsons and pass-on the desire to travel the world. Grammy's view was that three ADHD individuals would be heading off to Iceland with only the adult, ME, not on some form of medication!!

Plan - Intrepid Travel had a special offer for a one-week Icelandic Tour - Family with Teenagers- at a reduced price...booked the tour for July 13 - 20...made plane reservations...sent Internet sites describing Iceland to Jack and Sam so that they would know a little bit about what they would be seeing.

On Wednesday, July 11, Ann Marie and I picked-up Jack at his Alexandria home. He was packed and ready to go. As we departed, his smiling parents said good-bye by waving as we drove off. After an overnight stop in Hazelton, PA we arrived at Sam's home (Laura/Rick live there too) in Wayland, MA. Over the next few days, we checked what we had packed, making sure that we were well prepared to face this upcoming adventure.

Getting Ready

Departure

On the evening of Friday, July 13, (an omen??) we drove to Boston's Logan airport to catch our flight to Keflavik, Iceland...a five hour flight that covered four time zones. Since we knew that food in Iceland was expensive, we stocked up on junk food, soda and candy!!!

As we boarded the plane, I advised the boys to get some sleep since we would be arriving in Iceland at 6:30AM, Iceland time, and we would have a full day ahead of us...get some sleep....

As we departed Mother Earth, the boys inserted their headphones into their little ears and began to explore the myriad  of offerings available on Icelandic Air's in-flight entertainment center. Papa inserted his ear-plugs, pulled down his sleep mask and went to sleep!!