It's a Schmahl World

Visiting Mammoth Cave: Domes and Dripstones Tour

Last April, while visiting family in Louisville, we decided to take a day trip to Mammoth National Park. Located in central Kentucky, Mammoth National Park was officially established in 1941 and is home to the longest cave system in the world. On the surface, Mammoth National Park extends around 80 square miles but the underground…

A Day in Key West, Florida

During one of my last weeks before leaving for my Peace Corps service in Liberia, I took a trip down to Florida for some family time! Mom and I headed down to the Florida Keys for a couple of days. Though we stayed in Marathon, around about mile 50 on Florida Route 1, we spent…

A New Adventure: I’m Joining the Peace Corps!

I’m excited to share my next new adventure – I’ve been accepted to the U.S. Peace Corps! After about 6 months of going through the application and then clearance process, it’s finally official, I will be volunteering in Liberia as a high school math teacher for 2 years! Why the Peace Corps? Volunteering with the…

Naked and Afraid in a Japanese Onsen

Some people are comfortable being naked; I am not one of those people. Locker room changes and communal showers became regulars in my collegiate athletic career, but while my teammates lounged au natural, I quietly changed in the bathroom stall and waited until the showers were all clear. With my aversion to nudity, visiting a…

Iceland Outside the Guidebooks

On our journey around Iceland’s Ring Road we had many destinations we wanted to stop at along our route. What we didn’t realize was that there would be so many more beautiful sites along our journey around Ring Road. Below are just a few of the hundreds of beautiful photos we have from Iceland that were not…

11 Tips for Driving Iceland’s Ring Road

Traveling around Iceland is easy by car due to Route 1, otherwise known as the Ring Road. Route 1 circles the entire country (minus the Snaefellsnes Pennisula) and allows visitors to easily see many of the different landscapes and tourist attractions Iceland has to offer. Check out our Top 10 Things to See & Do…

Whale Watching in Northern Iceland

During our 8 day trip in Iceland, we knew one thing we had to do was go whale watching! While there are multiple areas in Iceland to take off on a whale watching tour, we chose to embark from Akureyri, the “Capital of North Iceland”, with the company Ambassador. From Akureyri, we boarded a boat and headed…

Sneak Peek: Photos from Colombia!

We started 2017 with our first trip to South America, spending 4 days in Colombia! We’re working on more posts from the trip, but couldn’t wait to share some of our pictures… We began in Bogota: After a day and half in Bogota, we flew to Cartagena on the coast of Colombia! While in Cartagena…

Visiting the Other Islands of Venice, Italy: Murano, Burano & Torcello

The city of Venice, Italy is made up of many islands – over 100 of them! Most of the islands that make up the city are all connected by hundreds of bridges crossing canals and it’s so easy to walk from one to the next that you almost forget they are separate islands. There are…

Snorkeling in Silfra Fissure in Iceland

Snorkling at the Silfra Fissure at Thingvellir National Park was one of the highlights of our trip around Iceland’s Golden Circle (more about the Golden Circle here!). Fissures are long narrow cracks in stone that are the results of an earthquake and the Silfra Fissure is the only place on Earth where you can dive/snorkel between the…