A celebratory Piña Colada on a sunny afternoon in Maui
Tasty Dishes & Enticing Cocktails
I began my search for the tastiest dishes of the year by sifting through my photos starting in January. However, by the time I reached the month of June, I had already chosen 30 different tantalizing feasts for the eyes! How to choose?
Be honest, do you want to see that many of my “highlights”? I don’t believe so. Therefore, I carefully looked for colorful, unique meals and surprisingly incredible drinks that are worth celebrating once again. A few of them are favorites due to their unique nature or element of surprise!
I have narrowed down this list to a more manageable number and I hope you enjoy revisiting them as much as I do!
Craig and I are a small part of the making of a travel video of epic proportions. Nature in Iceland is so BIG, so incredible that it could be a challenge to capture it. However the professionals from Colette Travel that we worked with, brought their A game. Both Dan and Drew manage to capture the essence of the landscape as well as the sheer magnitude of our surroundings. Any traveler will jump at the chance to travel to Iceland after watching this!
At the bottom of the grand staircase sits this gorgeous bar
Discovering a new restaurant in Reykjavík
Last week I wrote about the unique food of Iceland and shared how we experienced quite a wide spectrum of tastes. Whether we embraced every dish or not, we LOVED the entire adventure. What’s the point of visiting a new country and spending your time looking for American food? There is more to life than hamburgers and french fries don’t you agree? Did you know that many tourists insist on keeping their diet exactly the same as when they are at home?
Unless a person has dietary restrictions, it is incumbent upon every traveler to embrace a new country and this includes the local culinary traditions! Hello? Isn’t this part of the reason we travel? Check out our delicious adventure…
For me, the food of Iceland takes second place behind the breathtaking abundance of nature.The beauty of the vast flat lands, numerous snow capped volcanoes, enormous waterfalls, and pale blue icebergs continue to keep me dreaming of our Northern Lights Tour. Reykjavík is the capital of a country with only 350,000 people and is the culinary barometer for this fascinating destination.
The culinary scene in Iceland is different. Not different in a negative way, just different. We were able to sample their unique fish focused cuisine and also discovered the most popular hot dog in the world, an organic tomato farm and the freshest farm to table dairy products. What a combination!
In early days it was necessary for Icelanders to utilize what they had access to like the ocean fish, including arctic char and herring and the lamb they found on land. In present day, they still eat a great deal of fish and lamb served many different ways. Additionally they do serve horse as well Minke whale. Yes, they do. Although I would not eat these dishes myself, many locals and tourists do.
I will focus on the food we enjoyed and I want to emphasize that a city like Reykjavík caters to tourists with an international palette, so rest assured, if you explore enough, you can find what you want to eat. Craig and I found several super cool, hip, foodie-type restaurants where we enjoyed friendly service and the dishes were eye-catching and delicious. Next week I will share our time at Grillmarket, an extraordinary establishment in Reykjavík. It blew us away.
Don’t you just love an Icelandic horse! Craig and I had just arrived in Iceland at 6:00am, a day before our Magical Northern Lights Tour with Collette began. With no time to waste, we met up with the Collette video production team at the hotel. After packing the Land Cruiser to the ceiling with camera equipment, we went looking for adventure in a phenomenal Icelandic landscape. The great news was that we didn’t have to travel more than an hour outside Reykjavik when we came across this glorious sight! A truly pinch me moment!
The Unique Icelandic Horse
Precious!!
The beautiful and sure-footed Icelandic horse can be seen all over Iceland. I have read that there are some 80,000 horses in the country and there are only about 350,000 people! These are treasured animals. As we drove the primary highway called the Golden Circle in Southern Iceland, we pulled over a couple of times when we had a chance to see these beauties up close.
Where do I begin? Iceland is so unique and so insanely interesting that I have had a challenging time trying to organize how I am going to share this with you! This post is a long one but filled with interesting facts and engaging photos. You can always bookmark it for later or better yet start a new travel adventure file for a future trip! Here we go!
Iceland is called the land of fire and ice, but it should be considered the land of water as well. It is a watery wilderness with waterfalls so tall it is difficult to see the very top and others so enormous they would dwarf Niagara Falls. Around every bend in the road there is a new natural wonder to enjoy!
Photo – Danny Kern
The fire description is attributed to the fact that the island is covered in volcanic rock and volcanoes. There are 130 volcanoes and 30 active ones! As you drive along the primary touring highway, the Golden Circle, the landscape changes from rocky mountains and meadows, to snow covered land, to a rocky volcanic surface which looks like you just landed on the moon.
The Northern Lights Tour by Collette manages to pack a great deal in to just seven days. Everyday another fascinating aspect of nature was ours to enjoy and photograph. In addition to traveling with the tour group, my husband Craig and I traveled with Dan and Drew, the professional photographers whose goal was to capture on film what it was really like on this extraordinary tour. I will describe this bonus experience in another upcoming post.
A trip to Iceland to see the northern lights has been at the top of my travel bucket list for as long as I have had a list. It is actually happening! Can I get a woohoo? Craig and I are headed over to the land of fire and ice next week. Our friends at Collette have invited us to experience a country which has been described to me by fellow travelers as “other worldly”. We will experience nature on such a grand scale on Iceland’s Magical Northern Lights Tour.
Hopefully the night sky will be clear enough to see the heavenly northern lights! Our tour will certainly qualify as a once-in-a-lifetime type of journey and it is part of the Explorations group of tours. This size tour allows us to develop a deeper, even more meaningful connection, an opportunity to get closer and to discover a slice of everyday life. We cannot wait!
Welcome to Part Two from our newest Guest Adventurer! Debbee is a lifestyle blogger and Etsy shop owner who uses themes when decorating, entertaining and crafting. During the past year Debbee and her husband traveled throughout Spain, spent a magical holiday season in Quebec City, went on a 10-day adventure around Iceland, and just returned from two weeks sailing and touring Greece.
My waterproof jacket, rain pants and foldable cap kept me dry, warm and comfortable.
Please Welcome our newest Guest Adventurer! Debbee is a lifestyle blogger and Etsy shop owner who uses themes when decorating, entertaining and crafting. She typically posts twice a week; focusing on holidays, tablescapes, parties, DIY projects and travel. During the past year Debbee and her husband traveled throughout Spain, spent a magical holiday season in Quebec City, went on a 10-day adventure around Iceland, and just returned from two weeks sailing and touring Greece.
Incredible Iceland 10-Day Adventure, Part One
I’m really excited to share our recent family vacation — an incredible 10-day adventure to the land of the midnight sun.
Earlier this year, both my husband and I celebrated big-0 birthdays. Later this fall, we will also mark a big-5 wedding anniversary.
To honor these milestones, our sons arranged a 10-day family vacation. They presented the surprise Iceland trip, transportation details, travel route and accommodations to us in the late spring. That allowed plenty of time to plan and eagerly anticipate the July journey. And believe you me, traveling over 900 miles around the entire country of Iceland takes lots of pre-planning.
Gift package of maps and books.
Come along on the first day of our incredible Iceland trip in the land of fire and ice.
Adventures of Empty Nesters: How did it all begin? The quick version.
Four years ago, I was having a bit of a struggle trying to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Where did I belong exactly? Our son was in college, our daughter had graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle and never moved back to California. My husband Craig was often traveling for business and I no longer had to spend every waking moment focused on what the family required. Everyone was happily doing their own thing, I was truly an Empty Nester and it was my time now.
Created in 2014, AdventuresofEmptyNesters.com has evolved through the years, with the original emphasis on my life in the Empty Nest. I adored offering advice to others who were about to begin this new empty nester chapter or already living it. As time passed, I allowed the blog to carry me and my thoughts along with it toward new adventures.
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