The hike itself is one of the most spectacular I’ve ever done. I’m usually all about cold weather vacations, so it only makes sense that I would pick March to visit the desert. We drove through snowy pine forests on our way to the trailhead, and the temperature maxed out at a cool 65-degrees. That wasn’t going to stop me from swimming in the turquoise waterfalls though, and it didn’t.

On our second night in camp, we were woken up by shouts of “flash flood incoming, seek higher ground.” Cue a mad dash to grab all our stuff, and carry our tents up to the designated safe spots. No one knew what was going on—whether we were minutes away from being swept away down the canyon, or merely being asked to move to higher ground as a precaution. After hours of mild panic around the campground, we finally caught a few hours of sleep. In the morning, we easily decided to hike back out a day early, rather than risk staying in place with heavy rains coming our way.

When we came back out to civilization (and cell phone service again), the whole world had changed.

We stayed at Hotel Matthiol, one of the bougiest places I’ve ever stayed, and enjoyed every minute of the trip. It’s hard to say what I loved more—the charming village of Zermatt, the incredible views of one of the most famous mountains in the world, or the copious amounts of cheese I consumed in both liquid and solid forms. (If you can eat fondue in a heated igloo in the Swiss Alps, don’t pass it up.)

I don’t know how many times I’ve visited Oslo in my life, but for once I was not here to visit friends, or go to a concert, or apply for visas at the American embassy, and with no set goal for the trip beyond showing my American friends all my favorite parts of the city. We wandered through the streets, stopping for coffee at a converted kulturhus (civic center / art museum / performance space), and street food at a huge food hall, and cocktails at the cutest little bar that invited us in with their botanical theme. Because it’s the one tourist attraction I can never pass up, we walked up to the roof of the Oslo Opera House that overlooks the Oslofjord. And we vowed to come back with more time one day, so we can rent one of the floating saunas.

As quickly as it came, it was gone again, and we were left feeling underwhelmed. While beautiful, the lights were soft and sky, barely visible to the naked eye. We were just about to head back inside when the real show started, and for the next hour we were all jumping with joy behind our tripods, passing a bottle of whiskey around for warmth, and crying happy tears that the lights decided to give us what we’d come for.

Even growing up in Norway, and seeing the Northern Lights all throughout the winter when walking to school in the dark, when chopping wood outside my parents’ garage, when driving home from visiting friends, I’ll never take this miracle for granted, and it’s only more special know that I don’t see them regularly.

I can’t visit Norway without also spending time with my family, so I added on a week in my hometown before meeting up with Jen and Shanna in Bodø. After a short trip out to see Saltstraumen (one of the strongest tidal currents in the world), and a good meal of traditional Norwegian stew at my uncle’s house, we took the ferry across to Moskenes in Lofoten.

I absolutely love traveling with other photographers, because we always hype each other up to stop and take the darn photos. When I travel with my husband and daughter, or with other friends, I prioritize our experience over the photos. But with other photographers, getting the shot is part of the experience. We spent the next four days in the freezing cold, tripods out to capture the ridiculous beauty of the world around us.

And on our second night in Lofoten, we got what we came for—Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. (You can see those photos here.)

It’s impossible for me to experience places like Lofoten without also thinking about how incredible it would be to elope here. So if you see these photos, and think that spending a couple of days eloping in the Lofoten Islands would be a good time, I’d love to help you make it happen over at Larsen Photo Co.