We had been planning our trip to Iceland for over two years. We originally planned to go in May 2025 but Janie broke her ankle a month before and we needed to reschedule. The original plan had our trip coupled with a cruise to Norway but when we cancelled our airline flights, we had to go before the end of April so we separated the two trips and replanned Iceland for March 2026. An Uber picked us at the house at 8AM. Traffic was surprisingly light going to the airport so we were there around 9AM. Despite concerns over long TSA lines due to the partial goverment shutdown, we walked through quickly and headed to the Admirals Club.

Our noon flight to Charlotte was delayed, as usual by American Airlines, by an hour due to incoming aircraft delay. Our flight did not get off to a good start as the flight attendant asked us what we wanted to drink and J. R. asked for a ginger ale, and she proceeded to give it to the row behind us and then said she could not get him one until we were in the air and blamed catering for some reason. The flight was bumpy due to weather and the plane rattled a lot. The Admirals Club was full as usual in Charlotte and Janie had to fight off a woman who tried to take the seat next to her while J. R was in the restroom. The club was full most of the afternoon. The inbound flight to Charlotte was also delayed, pushing back our flight to London and we had to stand around an additional 30 minutes as they dealt with an issue with the plane.

The flight to London was uneventful and we were able to get a little sleep. Passport control lines at LHR were lengthy but it meant our bags came off the carousel as we arrived. We went to the AA arrivals lounge for a bit before making the long walk from T3 to T2. An Icelandair agent told us to get in line to check our bags and after waiting a few minutes, another agent sent us to a kiosk to get bag tags first. The queue for bag scanning was slow and people did not seem to get the concept of 'scan your boarding pass, then scan your bag tag and hit okay' and the bag is sent on its way. The security lines were long as well, but we still had plenty of time. We found a spot to sit and got some drinks and Cadbury eggs before making the long walk to B44 for our flight to Iceland.

We were able to gate check our carry-on bags, which worked well since we were in an exit row and had to put our backpacks in the overhead bins. The flight to Iceland was smooth. Immigration took awhile until they opened two more lanes and the bags took a bit to come out.

We had issues finding the pickup point for Lava Car Rental. Their video and photos were unclear as to where to meet them. Calling them provided no help as they said just to go to arrivals and to watch the video. When we got to the pickup point, the shuttle was full so we had to wait another 15 minutes before finally getting picked up and taken to their site. The check-in person was not overly friendly and then sent us to the self-service pickup, even though we still had to get our Wi-Fi device and GPS from her. We finally had our white RAV-4 but had to go back in and get a USB connector from her since the car only had one port. It turned out the car supported CarPlay so we didn't need the free Garmin GPS they provided.

Our first stop was Nettó to pick up some groceries and drinks for the week before we checked into the Courtyard by Marriott. We took our bags up to our room and then walked to the Langbest Restaurant attached to the hotel where we had the not-Icelandic cheesy garlic bread and a pizza before going back to our room to do some repacking for the next few days.

We were awakened around 11PM to look outside and see a wonderful display of the Northern Lights outside our window.