Rain from Below

               Well today wasn’t half as long of a day as yesterday. Well at least we didn’t stay out till 9. We got home at 7:20. We are all excited that were going to England in 2 days. Well today was another eggs and bacon day. We headed out after breakfast to a glacier.

 We stopped at some waterfalls on the way. The first and main waterfall had a trail behind it. Mom, dad, and I went behind it but Jenna wanted to stay behind. However mom, dad, and I had rain jackets on and Jenna didn’t. By the time I got around it my pants were soaked. I can’t imagine what it would be like not having a waterproof jacket and hood.

So overall she missed out on the short fun but she was dry in the end. We walked down a paved trail to see the other waterfalls. After we climbed a trail to get a view that wasn’t through a rock of one waterfall. There were chains to hold on to while you climbed a rock. There was on section where it was about a foot wide trail. There was a very scary drop off after you climb up a small non screwed in ladder.

So far the landscape has been beautiful while we drive. I bet you that there is enough sheep here that they could fill an ocean. It would be called the Wooly Ocean. Almost every were you look you will either see a waterfall, farm, river, or lake. We’ve seen about five thousand sheep. Their little baby lambs or so adorable. We have also seen baby foals. Yesterday one little baby foal tried following us in the car but the mom wanted to head up the hill. We have also seen a few cows and a lot of cow guards. Gosh there are a lot of them and they are really bumpy!

By the time we got to the glacier it was later in the afternoon. We walked to the glacier but it didn’t take long. We walked down to the actual glacier. We walked on the rocky ice. We had to stay on the middle of the ice in case of caving. After we got off the ice and back on the ground I found a rock and started chipping of the dirty ice off of some ice burgs on the ground. We ended up eating and touching clean Icelandic ice.

When we got back in the car we started the drive home. It took a long time to drive home some time to get home but we did. We stayed home for dinner and had spaghetti. After dinner me and dad played a crib game then went to bed.     

The Land of Rock, Fire & Water...and Gnomes

After an interesting night of ups and downs...down at 9pm, up at 12:30 a few up at 5 and then dragging our sorry butts out of bed around 9:30, we had a good slow start to the morning.  The place we’re staying in is a house with 5 rooms (12 people) and one bathroom and kitchen.  It made for a pretty tight fit and a long line

for the bathroom but pretty great way to meet other travellers.  After breakfast we got in the car for the day around noon and headed out to see if we could navigate the streets of Reykjavik to get back on the highway.  After a few wrong turns but the fortunate finding of a Bonus (the local grocery chain) we headed north in search of geysers, waterfalls and anything else that we might stumble on.

 They call the circuit the Golden Circle so our first stop was Pingvellir where you can see the tectonic plates pulling away from each other.  It started pouring rain so we didn’t do the walk but managed the drive by.  From there we headed up to Geysir where apparently all geysirs are now named after.  Got a nice hike in, saw about ten ... geysirs? and back to the car for the next stop.  At Gulfoss there is a beautiful waterfall and the wind was crazy... could barely stay on our feet. 

From there it was south to Fuldir where we were in search for the Secret Lagoon.   No idea where it was but the towns are pretty small in that area.  The landscape is rolling hills with some larger snowcapped peaks and farms distributed between the rock piles.  A slow drive through Fuldir and we stumbled into hotpools to find the oldest hotsprings pool in Iceland.  Turn of the century, it was built of large squares of lava rock with a small geysir that fed the pool.  Every 30 minutes it would gush in hot water that made you pretty quick on your feet when it flooded in.  We even managed a few minutes where we were the only people there.  Don’t think we’ll find that at the Blue Lagoon.

It’s sure hard to tell time around here when it really never gets dark.  Turns out it was 8pm and the only way we knew was Jenna’s stomach clock.  Out of the pool for the sleepy drive home after the soak to get some sleep for the adventure tomorrow.  Off to Vik and east for glaciers, falls and a little trek.

What Day is it Anyway

Well what can we say about today? Well first of all we're finally in Iceland!  However lesson number 1 is that we like detours.  When we got our car and hit the road we drove around Keflavik looking for food.  We figured out Icelandic people like Subway and KFC.  We found a bakery and ate. After that we took a very detoured but beautiful root to Reykjavik,

which was were our hotel is.  On the way to Reykjavik we stopped at Seltun Springs which was a whole bunch of pools of which some were so hot they boiled! It was also quite a smelly place because of the springs.  We also stopped off at a few other places and took some pictures.

               Well we got to the hotel but it took a bit to get checked in because the guy had to clean our room.  However some of us were quite jetlagged from our plane ride because of our 7 hour time change. Jenna and I decided to crash on the downstairs table.  Well later we got dinner at an Italian restaurant with a very funny Italian guy after sleeping for half a day.

               We took a little personal walking tour around town after eating super.  We saw an enormous church.  It was a Lurthern Church.  It was monstrous!  After we went around town and saw a huge battle ship.

               Well we walked back up to the hotel and crashed after our long adventurous day.

 

 

 

UP UP and AWAY

So the bags are packed and we did get a bit of sleep last night but the excitement level and anxiousness is building!  After the pack weigh in we have a winner.... Shannon wins with a whopping 31.1 lbs constituting 30% of her body weight.  Jenna and

Alyssa are tied with 24 lbs (21%) and 18.2 lbs (21%) respectively and I think everyone is feeling sorry for me and my back so I ended up with 32.2 lbs giving me a 17% of my body weight.  For some reason I don’t think that trend will continue and I’ll have to step it up and carry my weight!

We managed to say goodbye to most everyone, and those that we didn’t, have a great summer and drop us an email.  Its always good to hear how much fun everyone is having and find out what is going on.  It was tough to say goodbye to friends and family and Ellie but now that we’re out of town, we’re looking forward to our adventure over the summer!

So Shannon thought we should get an early start and get up early but that wasn’t an issue.  5 am and I was running through all the things that we forgot or should pack.  On the road with no issues so we fired right through to Kelowna.  Given the fact I got an emergency call yesterday saying the van was making funny noises.  So off to Grizzly Auto for a quick look and fix.... man we owe you Tom!!!  That and a small bike crash yesterday made it an interesting day but we made it to departure day relatively unscathed.  What a great start to the trip, nice and mellow with no hiccups.... I can already feel myself falling into the mellow, stress free mode of travel.

Right now we are about to head out to Edmonton for our stop over and then Iceland here we come!  And so starts the adventure!!!!

  P.S. Everyone at school or work have a good day (-:

First try on the packing front!

With officially 17 days

to go we thought we'd try to see just how much room there is in our new packs.  We've got the list down pretty tight but the girls thought we should test the limits.  So for the first run I think we did pretty well....everything fit!  Not sure if we have everything but there is still a bit of room for most of us at least.  Think Shannon might have some reorganizing to do.  So the girls are getting their first dose of packing which will be followed by unpacking and then packing again.  They

haven't experienced the joys of living out of a backpack for 3 months!!!  They should be pretty proficient at it by August.

I'm sure the next two weeks will fly by but its feeling pretty relaxed at the moment.  Think we've got everything we need; Passports, check, flights, check, travel insurance, check.  I'm sure there's something we've overlooked but we'll deal with that when it comes up. 

Until then, lookout Iceland, here we come!