My fiancée (now wife) and I went to Iceland in August of 2012 for 11 days. We had seen a few photo galleries online and were blown away by the scenic, rugged landscapes. The country lived up to, and vastly exceeded, our expectations. Despite being a relatively small island nation in the middle of the North Atlantic, it's position astride the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates makes it a geologically young and active land. Volcanoes, TONS of waterfalls, and a slideshow-like procession of constantly and dramatically changing landscapes make this an explorer's dream. For a country slightly smaller than Kentucky, it offers a lot of sights and experiences.
One of the highlights of the trip was taking a short trip on a traditional Icelandic oak fishing boat. We set sail from the northern port of Húsavík and saw puffins, harbor porpoises, and a humpback whale. I even managed to get a photo of a porpoise jumping out of the ocean in front of a waterfall cascading down a cliff. I'll never forget it. That far north, summer days are long and the sun didn't start to set until 10:30pm. It was a terrific trip and we brought back a lot of great memories.