Iceland-Day 5

 Day 5 was full of varied activity.  We started outside of Vik and visited the Black Beaches.  The volcanic activity in Iceland has created such incredible sights to see, each one so different.  The beaches had black sand, and "Sneaker waves".  I hadn't heard this term before, but there were warnings all over not to go near or in the water.

 The volcanic activity also created these pillars coming out of the black sandy beaches.  

 We then drove along the southern coast some more towards Hofn, which was our last and final stay.  We stopped to do a beautiful hike to yet another waterfall.  This one, while beautiful, was not nearly as dramatic a hike, nor waterfall, as the previous ones.

 We continued on to the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon.  We could have spent hours watching the slowly moving glaciers find their way out of the lagoon and down to the ocean.  There are options to take boat rides through the lagoon, but it was fascinating enough standing on the beach.

 We walked across the highway to the ocean where the pieces of glacier are carried to and then float out to sea.

 Brian booked our night in Hofn at the Milk Factory, which was the most underwhelming of all hotels.  Yet the dinner we stumbled upon (in a run down pizza hut type looking building) was one of the best meals we had all week.  While you wait for your table, they have a basement bar filled with games to play.  Brilliant.

Bops first day

 B started preschool this week.  It was hard to read whether he was excited or nervous, probably a little of everything.  He said things like, "I just want to go where my brothers go."  Or, "I just want daddy to take me, actually, I want you to take me, actually boff."  When I picked him up, he reported a few things:

"Two of my friends, I don't know their names, cried.  I was a little sad, but I didn't cry"

"There's a kid named Poli (her name is Colie, but one of his favorite shows is Poli"

"For snack we had yogurt squeezes, but a new kind!  And gold fishes."

"I drove the cars wif my friends outside"

"I learned you have to tuck your socks into your shoes if you take them off"

I'd say it was a success.  I get to be the helping parent on the second day, which I am super excited about.

 Daddy came for drop off.

The two best brothers in the world (besides my own who are equally great) were so supportive getting him ready in the morning.  These three are just the best.  My favs for sure.

Rissotto-ing

 A really likes cooking.  He made rissotto one night for dinner, with his fireman brother's help, of course.

Iceland-Day 4

 Our only full day on the Westman Islands was packed with adventurous hikes.  Hikes I wouldn't take our kids on and honestly probably wouldn't have taken ourselves on had we known what we were getting ourselves into.  The islands jut up out of the ocean 1000 feet and on top of them are these magnificent views with puffins and sheep.  But, to get up to the views is steep.  Cliff steep.  So steep, the only way up in several places were vertical ladders.  And small places where there are only a few inches between the trail and a 1000 foot drop straight to the ocean.  But it was worth it, after we finished.

 After our morning hike, we got a quick lunch at a local coffee shop (I need to write an entire blog about the food in Iceland.  It was incredible, everything we had).  We had heard that a local sport was spragna, or cliff rappelling.  At the base of the second hike we wanted to do that day, were these ropes, permanently (see below) anchored at the top of 100 foot rock faces.   You hold onto the rope and climb the rocks as high as you can before jumping off and swinging.  It was much harder than it looked.  We had read about this on another person's blog and their family had photos of doing the same thing on the same rope.  

 Next to the rock faces was another dizzingly steep hike (not quite as close to cliffs).  We decided to go up and see what was at the top.

 It looked down on a whole section of the islands that we didn't know existed.  It was gorgeous.

 When we got down from the hike (maybe an hour later), the rope that we had swung on, the rope that the family swung on more than a year ago, was gone.  Vanished.  We have no idea how anyone got up to anchor it in the first place, and no clue how anyone could have possibly climbed up to take it down in that one hour we were hiking.  There was no indication that it had come undone or got stuck.  It literally vanished.  Maybe we were the last ones to swing from that rope.  As we left the islands the following day, Brian ran back to check and make sure it was still gone, and it was still in fact gone.