Tag Archives: Iceland

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Work from Home Diary 4: Weekend Yard Work & Hallmark Movies

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a good weekend.  I started sharing my thoughts regarding working from home in a series of Work from Home Diary posts.  Feel free to share your work from home feelings in the comments section below.  For today’s update, I wanted to share my weekend activities.  Before I continue, what does yard work and Hallmark movies have to do with miles and points?  That’s a great question, read on to find out.

On Saturday morning, Laura and I went to Lowe’s to get some cleaning supplies, trash bags, and Amazon GCs.  When we arrived, we saw a deal on colored bark (4 bags for $10) and purchased 8 bags.  We had ambitious plans to clean up our front and back yard and to put out a new layer of bark.  After several hours of work, our front and back yard looked great.  Even though our muscles were sore, using the Lowe’s AMEX Offer on my American Express Blue Business Plus Credit Card to get 10% cash back on the Lowe’s purchases was a nice relief.  The Lowe’s AMEX Offer is cumulative and pays 10% cash back, up to $100 cash back (so spending $1,000 will max out this offer).  This AMEX Offer expires on June 30, 2020, but I expect another Lowe’s AMEX Offer will show up after July 1.

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icebergs in the water with mountains in the background

Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon in Iceland with Amazing Floating / Tumbling Iceberg Videos

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Good morning everyone, happy Valentine’s Day ♥.  As I was working on my multi-part Central / South America trip report, I was reminiscing about another trip I took.  Last September, I did a roadtrip around Iceland and stopped at the amazing Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon.  It is one of those places that you could spend hours watching nature and not get bored of its beauty.  I had such a great time there and took a ton of photos and videos (see my 5 YouTube videos at the bottom of this post).  I felt bad that the photos and videos were stuck on my iPhone and thought they deserved to be shared.  See here we go, here are the photos from my trip.

icebergs in a body of water with mountains in the background

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Review: SkyRoam Solis Global WiFi Hotspot & USB Power Bank

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Updated 5pm PT on 10/16: SkyRoam will not let me send daypasses from my account to others account, so you will no longer be able to get a free daypass if you use my referral link, but I still appreciate your support.

Full Disclosure: SkyRoam contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I would be willing to try out their new SkyRoam Solis Global WiFi Hotspot. SkyRoam also included 15 free WiFi day passes. I get to keep the device and all remaining day passes. The following review and photos are mine and have not been approved or solicited by SkyRoam.

Good morning everyone, happy Friday. Last week, I was in Iceland and had the opportunity to test out the new SkyRoam Solis Global WiFi Hotspot (referral link and coupon code at the bottom of this post). I used the SkyRoam Solis during my 5 day roadtrip around Iceland and at 4 different Airbnbs. I fully charged the SkyRoam Solis before the first day of use so I had a full day of battery. One of the really cool features of the SkyRoam Solis is that in addition to being a hotspot, it doubles as a USB power bank, that can charge phones, cameras, tablets, and other USB devices. Caution: If you use the SkyRoam Solis as a USB power bank, you will deplete the battery used to power the hotspot, so keep that in mind. Luckily, I was able to charge my iPhone in the car and use the SkyRoam Solis as a hotspot only.

SkyRoam Solis Features

I will go over the features of the SkyRoam Solis and show an unboxing of the hotspot, but here are the highlights from their website.  The USB power bank has a 6,000 mAh battery which can fully charge several devices before running out of battery.  The hotspot works in 100+ countries and piggy backs on the local 4G / 3G / 2G data networks.  Once you create the hotspot, you can connect up to 5 devices (I only tested 2 at a time, but I am fairly confident you can connect more than 5 devices if you are not consuming a lot of data).  Last but not least, a fully charged hotspot has enough battery to run for 16+ hours (you can also turn off the device and hotspot when not in use to conserve battery).

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a green northern lights in the sky

3 Days in Iceland: What Should you See & Do?

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Seems like everyone is heading to Iceland. I have friends, as well as cousins, heading there this summer and fall. Whether it’s because of Icelandair expanding its routes or WOW Airlines offering sales on fares, there’s a general buzz that’s surrounding trips to Iceland right now. I’ve noticed that some travelers are using Iceland as a destination in and of itself, and others are using Iceland as a layover for a few days, and then heading someplace else. One of my friends, Jason, goes to Europe every fall to visit his mom, but he stops in Iceland for a few days first. He loves it. I’ve casually listened as he tells me what he does in Iceland, but it got me thinking, what would he tell other travelers who are enjoying Iceland as a stopover for a few days? Here’s what Jason suggests. As a reminder, he travels to Iceland in the fall months, so there’s plenty of sunlight.

For your first day in Iceland, Jason suggests renting a car and driving the southern coast between Reykjavik and Jökulsárlón. It’s called Ring Road and it’s about 230 miles long. The road is paved. He says to make it a leisurely day because there’s plenty of amazing beauty to see. As for the waterfalls, his favorite walk is up to the Seljalandsfoss waterfalls. You can hike glaciers such as Mýrdalsjökull glacier. There are beaches that are spectacularly different from anything he’s ever seen. Jason likes the black pebble beach of Reynisfjara. And for Game of Thrones fans, in Vik, you can see the rocky spires from Iron Islands.

a waterfall in a cave

Seljalandsfoss Falls in Iceland. Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljalandsfoss

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Iceland & What I Wish I Had Known Before Going – Part 2

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I went to Iceland last month for a long weekend with my friend Stephanie.  We flew WOW Air from Boston and I used Citi Thank You Points to get myself from Charlotte to Boston in order to rack up a few more EQMs.  For each new country that I visit I make sure to pickup a lonely planet book for that country and I do a decent amount of research & planning ahead of time.  Lucky for me I had a friend (shout out to Evan) that had just visited Iceland 1 month before my trip so I was able to pick his brain on a few things during my planning.  Despite that, I’d say that I probably should have done a bit more research because I have a list of Things I Wish I Had Known before going to Iceland.  I’d like to share that list with you in hopes that your trip goes a tad smoother than mine did.

Note: this is a continuation of Part 1.

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