Day 10
Today we toured the South Coast of Iceland. It was amazing!
I think Iceland has to be the most interesting country I’ve ever been to in
terms of the landscape. We saw volcanoes, lava rocks, glaciers, waterfalls, sea
stacks, and black sand beaches all in a day. Not only that but the weather is
crazy! The first couple of days here have been so nice. Cold, but sunny and
clear so not too bad at all. Silly me left my waterproof pants at the hotel
because I really didn’t need them yesterday and it was kind of annoying to wear
so many layers, so I decided to just stick with my jeans. Well, today, I needed
them! It went from sunny and clear to unbelievably windy and sleeting sideways.
We were walking to a glacier and I got soaked in about 5 minutes. Literally 10
minutes later the sun was out and it was great again. Crazy!
Here is a picture of the glacier! Isn’t it amazing? Some
people went on a hike on the glacier but we went to the beach instead. Notice the beautiful blue skies. This was about 15 minutes after the wind/sleet storm!
I am so glad we went to the beach… it was not your normal
beach. First of all it was black sand and pebbles. All of the beaches in
Iceland are black sand beaches because of the volcanoes. I brought a bag of
black beach pebbles back for vase filler or something. Forget little trinkets,
this will be my Iceland souvenir! And then there were the sea stacks. We saw
those in La Push and again here. I LOVE sea stacks, they are so cool. They make
San Diego beaches seem so boring.
Oh, and look at this crazy cliff! It reminds me of the Rock
Biter from The Never-ending Story. It was so amazing looking. You can’t tell
from these pics but the wind here was crazy. It even pushed my mom over when we
were walking!
We drove to tons of waterfalls. Iceland has hundreds of
them! The road on the way was curvy even though it could have been straight
because Icelanders believe in elves (really).
So much so that they will build a road around what they believe to be an
elf home so that they don’t disturb, consequently Iceland’s roads don’t always
make much sense. I couldn’t grab a picture of this because we were driving but
in the middle of nowhere there were tiny little doors on big rocks. These were
the elf homes.
Here are a few more pics of one of the waterfalls we went
to. LOVE the rainbow! It was so beautiful!
After our tour we went out for a fancy lobster dinner. It is
a good thing that the only food we had to buy in Iceland was our dinners
because food in Iceland was EXPENSIVE! So we just decided to go for it and eat
like queens. It was delicious!
We tried to see the Northern lights again tonight but they
still didn’t show. I am very sad as I was dying to see them but oh well, you
can’t control Mother Nature. I will just have to come back I guess!
Day 11
Today was our last day in Iceland. We went to the Blue
Lagoon. It was so perfect!!! For the last two weeks we have been waking up
early and going to bed late and walking on average 10 miles a day so soaking in
hot geothermal baths before boarding our flight was the perfect ending to our
trip. We floated around for hours letting the silica waters soothe our skin. We
got algae masks and silica mud masks. Our skin feels amazing. I would love to
go back just to soak in the Blue Lagoon some more.
We are now back in Seattle and tomorrow morning mom will fly
back to Idaho and I to San Diego. It has been a great trip! It was really great
spending time with my mom. Now that I know she is so adventurous I will have to
suggest more trips! Alaska maybe? The Northern Lights are still pretty high on
the bucket list so I see more trips to the great white north in my future.
In spite of the fact that we missed the lights, I would say
we had a great trip! We packed a ton into the last couple of weeks and I feel
satisfied with my vacation. I feel ready to go home. Fortunately I had the
foresight to take a couple of extra days to recover before going back to work.
I don’t have to jump back into the daily grind until Friday! The best part of
vacation? Going back home, curling up in my own cozy bed and sleeping in, then
lounging around in my P.J.’s all day and binge watching Downton Abbey for two
days. After all of these adventures, I am exhausted! Good night world and
thanks for tuning in…
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