This edition of the Sunday Summary is coming to you from seat 10C of an Iceland Air flight en route to Spain. Since this is Sunday Summary #200, I dug back into the archives to find that I sent the first Sunday Summary on June 15, 2016. Is anyone still reading who has been around since 2016?

Giving Away a Trip to Hawaii

If you missed the end of our recent video, we announced that we're giving away a 5 night all expenses paid trip to Hawaii! It's completely free to enter - all you have to do is sign up for our Daily Drop newsletter which will teach you how to use miles and points to save a ton of money on your next trip!

It's come to our attention that a daily newsletter about miles and points is a little too much for some people, so we've recently started a once a week email called the Weekend Round Up. It summarizes all the miles and points highlights from the week in one short email. So if this more your speed, you can subscribe to the Weekend Round Up to be entered into the giveaway. Just click the link below and choose the frequency of emails you want to receive!

Iceland

Now that my parents are retired, I'm trying make it a tradition that we do at least one big trip together every year! Last year, they joined us in Tonga to survive on a deserted island and swim with humpback​ whales.​

This week, they joined us in Iceland for an epic over-landing trip! We visited Iceland back in 2017 with my sister and brother-in-law, and I have nothing but fond memories from that trip! But we had very little money...So we survived off PB&Js and drove our cheap rental car to all the popular tourist attractions. Our three splurges on that trip were: the tomato green house restaurant, snorkeling between tectonic plates, and visiting the blue lagoon. It was awesome.

But this trip looked very different! The expedition vehicles we rented allowed us to get to remote areas far away from the normal tourist stops.

We spent most of the week driving Iceland's F-Roads. These are dirt/rock roads that require a 4x4 vehicle. We learned that Icelanders use the term "road" very loosely. Apparently, it's still considered a "road" even if it's underwater. By far my favorite part of the trip was the countless river crossings!

These expedition vehicles allowed us to get to places that most people can't go! So we had incredible waterfalls, volcanoes, and beautiful landscapes all to ourselves. Plus, we could retreat back into the camper from the cold and make ourselves a coffee anytime we wanted!

To make the trip even more special, the sky put on an amazing show for us the first night, plus we found our second favorite hot spring the world right behind the hot spring river in Costa Rica!

Next Week

We're currently en route to warmer weather in Spain! Originally, I was supposed to be attempting my first Ironman next week. I was hoping to parlay my conditioning for the Leadville 100 into knocking off another bucket list physical challenge.

Unfortunately, I just had to call it off because of a lingering IT Band issue from the Leadville 100. I can bike, swim, and walk without much pain, but as soon as I try to run more than a few miles, the outside of my knee experiences a lot of pain.

Could I still finish Ironman... maybe... but it would definitely prolong what has turned into a nagging injury. So I've made the decision to prioritize recovery because we have big plans for November, and I need to be back at 100%!

Even though the Ironman fell through, we decided to still go to Spain, but the Ironman is being replaced with a beach vacation. I just redeemed almost all the Marriott points we've earned over the last two years for a 5 night stay at the Ritz Carlton! It's crazy expensive. Like $1,000 per night, but we're staying for pennies on the dollar thanks to points! This will be our first time ever staying at the Ritz Carlton, so we're both pretty pumped.

New Videos

Speaking of beach vacations...If you want to see what we did the week after I finished the Leadville 100, check out the new video we published Saturday!

​$0 Mexico Vacation (Leadville 100 Recovery)​

Thanks for reading!

Cheers from somewhere over the North Atlantic,

Nate (and Kara)

P.S. There's been a lot of miles and points talk in this email. It's been a big part of our lives recently. If you find miles and points confusing, and you're interested in learning more, I highly recommend checking out the Miles and Points 101 guide our team at Daily Drop put together. It's completely free and it's a great place start if you're new to the world of miles and points.