I left my apartment in Honolulu on Thursday night to take the 8:45 pm flight to Denver where I met up with my friend from Cada Día Spanish, Marsha Walker.

We then took the 10:25 am flight to Washington, D. C. and to our dismay, picked up our luggage in baggage claim only to find that the handle on Marsha’s rolling suitcase had totally broken off, leaving only a thin inner wire and the suitcase completely unusable.

To our surprise when we reported the damage to United Airlines, the agent asked us, “is that a medium suitcase?” and we thought maybe they would find a used replacement for us to get to our destination. Instead, another woman walked in with four brand-new suitcases in a variety of colors, and asked Marsha to pick one!

Our flight on Icelandic Airlines to Reykjavik was memorable for being really hot and toasty, especially since we were wearing our winter clothes. I had read earlier on a Facebook page about others complaining about the temperature on their planes, but I should have believed them.

We had booked a private shuttle van to take us directly to our hotel, and were surprised to have a huge minibus all to ourselves for four people. Our group now included singer Jennifer Lane, and her husband, James Carr. We joined chorister Christel Yount from Honolulu, for breakfast before heading out to our first outing, a visit to the Perlan Museum.

At the museum, we made a beeline for the Northern Lights planetarium show—because if we were not lucky enough to see the aurora borealis in person, at least we would see them at the planetarium! It gave us a good basis for learning about the science behind this nightly phenomenon.

There was an exhibit about the Icelandic glaciers and the volcanoes, but I especially liked the ice cave at the museum, even though it was man-made.

There was a spectacular panorama of the city of Reykjavik from the roof deck of the museum which we enjoyed on this clear day.

I really splurged on lunch, but the smoked salmon sandwich was worth every penny of its 4,200 Icelandic krona cost ($31.33, yikes!)

We went back to the hotel for a much-needed power nap. The last time I slept was on Wednesday night, when I got up at 2 am early Thursday morning and here it is Saturday afternoon in Iceland! As usual, I did not sleep a wink (honest!) on any of the flights from Honolulu to Denver to Washington DC to Iceland! But that nap was all I need to get powered up again for our visit to the Lava Show! It recreates a volcanic eruption by superheating real lava up to 2000° F. and then pouring it into a showroom full of people. The presenter today was a young woman who is finishing up her master’s degree in volcanology, and was obviously very enthusiastic about Icelandic volcanoes. This was going to be her last show before she defends her thesis.

When our taxi driver picked us up to go back to the hotel, he said he had an app which showed the possibility of the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) was very good for tonight — tonight would be a 4 on the kp index. For kp in the range of 0 to 2, the aurora will be far north, quite dim in intensity, and not very active. For Kp in the range of 3 to 5, the aurora will move further from the poles. It will become brighter and there will be more auroral acctivity (motion and formations). So we booked a trip with him to take us to a location outside the city at 9:30 pm. and look what we got! (I was trying to hold as still as possible to take the photos, but I was forced to take my right glove off to take the photos and it was below FREEZING: -10 C. which is 14° F. (Brrrr!)

What an incredible day! We saw the best of Iceland all in one day— the ice cave, the northern lights planetarium, the view of Reykjavik from the Perlan museum, the lava show, and the best of all—the aurora borealis, a bucket list moment.

We are so lucky.