Straight from Iceland

 

First sight in the airport. We missed him SO much!!!

My son has taken the past 6 months to travel across the world, attending a semester of college in New Zealand, hiking, distance running, ice climbing, and helping with repairs through numerous serious earthquakes in Christchurch. On his roundabout way home, he visited Thailand, Greece, Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, and more. I'm pretty sure I missed a few countries in there. He returned to the states after spending several days in Iceland, his last stop,

Lava beads from Iceland

 

Dendritic Opal from Germany, in a lovely leather case!

Among all of the cool and thoughtful bits he brought home to share his trip with us were head scarves from Poland, a reindeer hide and amazing sea glass from Iceland, and candy from everywhere. (I now love Minties from New Zealand.)









And special for me, there were lava rocks straight from Iceland!! Cut as beads, he said, "Mom, I didn't see cabs, so I got you flat beads. I figured you could do something with them."

Some earrings made with Icelandic lava stones

How many 20-year-olds would end their trip around the world by buying stones for Mom's addiction? I ask you? I am SO proud. He done growed up good.