CALLICOON CENTER — If you could take a trip anywhere in the world for a family vacation, where would you go? For Canaan Woods the answer was Iceland. 

The Woods family of Callicoon Center traveled there in early August as a graduation present. Canaan recently graduated from SUNY Plattsburg with a degree in computer science.

Canaan said he was staying with his cousin in New Jersey when his parents brought up the prospect of a trip. They searched online for all kinds of destinations and Iceland kept popping up on many lists.

“The more that we looked at it and read about it the more interesting and cool it seemed,” Canaan said. “We just thought, ‘when else are we going to get a chance to take a trip like this?’”

Not far from the arctic circle, it never got completely dark while the Woods family was in Iceland. They traveled around the country, seeing everything from wild, icelandic horses to enormous waterfalls, hot springs and caves.

The Woods family had a great view of the volcano from their spot on a ridge a few miles away. A once in a lifetime experience, they stayed to watch it.

When Doug and Bristol hiked up to get a view of the Volcano and saw that it was erupting, they raced back to the hotel to get Joan and Canaan and returned to witness one of nature’s most powerful forces.

“It sounded like large ocean waves, like a constant roar of waves crashing on a beach,” said Doug.

According to the official icelandic tourism website, a fissure eruption began on March 19 and activity still continues months later. It’s the first active volcano on the Reykjanes UNESCO Global Geopark area for 800 years.

Even from two miles away they could feel the heat of the lava flow.

“We were very lucky to be able to see it, Doug said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”