Danita, your enthusiasm is infectious. I laughed out loud as I read your posts. I can tell you are full of life, girl. And on the move! South Dakota for Memorial Day weekend (where, what?) and Hawaii in the fall. Very cool. (Check out the National Park Service site in my last post for lots of info on Hawaii Volcanoes National Park : www.nps.gov . )

If your airline bumps you in Iceland, the best thing to do, which you did, is soak in the geothermal waters of the Blue Lagoon. Awesome, isn't it? The kids and I stopped off in Iceland on our way back from Scotland, and it was a magical experience. I, too, would return in a heartbeat. As we waited in the Glasgow, Scotland airport for our flight to Reykyavik, Iceland, Adam ripped and busted the zipper on his down jacket. It was February. I figured the travel gods were testing me: "Okay, Lori, world traveler. How will you manage a trip to Iceland, one of the planet's coldest places, in February, with two young kids, one of whom no longer has a winter coat?"

"Hah!" I said. "Easy!" I took a giant, hooded fleece sweatshirt from my suitcase and made Adam wear it over the broken-zipper-jacket. He was warm as toast and grew so attached to the hoodie that he asked to keep it when we got home.

You should write your Finland tram story down. It's a classic. Those unexpected, seemingly banal travel encounters and experiences remain so vivid in our minds and come to define how we think about a place. I can just picture the four of you standing there, staying cool, "blending in." And you'll remember that 10-foot subway ride forever. What it's all about.

Yes, I've been to Budapest, one of the great beauty cities of Europe. The Danube floats between the two halves of the city -- the hills of Buda and the flats of Pest. The architecture alone is worth the journey.