For Spring Break 2026 (March 20-28, 2026), the Dorl family headed to Iceland and went sightseeing in a camper van. Our family, from oldest to youngest, consisted of:
- Ray, age 50: working as a lawyer, interests at the time included lifting weights (a passion that he would inflict on his family during the trip) and learning guitar (ditto, wielding a travel guitar that was a persistent pain in the ass to stow away in the camper van).
- Kaye, age 46: working as an in-house lawyer for a medical technology company; interests at the time included yoga (which she really didn’t get to do during the trip) and learning bass guitar.
- Gwen, age 9: in fourth grade; outside activities included dance team and playing piano. The owner of a vast array of stuffed animals (or “stuffies,” as we term them), she traveled with a pretty light complement of stuffies by her standards: just her shiny blue and silver Narwhal named Bo-boo, her stuffed bunny named Jelly, and a stuffed polar bear named Peanut Butter. She also traveled with her beloved “monkey blanky,” a small blanket decorated with monkeys that she had owned since she was an infant.
- Billy, age 7: in first grade, outside activities included tae kwon do, basketball, and playing guitar. A precocious lad, he had a vast trove of knowledge concerning the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and had recently become an afficionado of caramel lattes (decaffeinated only, at his parents’ insistence) and clamored after his favorite beverage at every stop.
RayDorl.com 