Hello. Hi.

Where to begin with the day today?  We woke in a rather rustic hotel- it’s in a less populated part of Ísafjörðor, where we began as we always seem to with an included breakfast.  I know from other travels that having an included breakfast is pretty great.  It’s always hard to find a reasonable way to grab food at the start of a day in a place you’re not from.  Hotel breakfast is not always the best food, but is is always a huge convenience.  It also gave us a second chance to chat with the bird that lives in the hotel’s reception area/bar/restaurant.  I only caught a glimpse of him, but we all heard the fella.  He said Hello.  Hi.  I believe I heard him say Wow, and a few people swore they heard him say Shit, though I didn’t witness it for myself.  Given that Cas has spent a little bit of time on this trip using an app to identify which bird is nearby by listening to its song, I feel like this is a missed opportunity.  I have no idea what breed of bird old HelloHi is.  Why not figure that out with your fancy app, huh, Cas?  But alas, that ship has sailed.  

From there, we drove a while to Ísafjörðor proper.  This is a reasonably large city by Icelandic standards.  There’s a university here, several shops, multiple restaurants and hotels and about three cruise ships out in the water when you roll into town.  The difference in the pedestrian traffic from 1 pm to 4 pm is no joke.  The cruise passengers loaded back up, and the whole city became much more pleasant.  I am now more convinced than ever that I am not interested in a cruise.  It makes you part of a swarm.  I’m all set being part of a small tour group and pouring a few dollars into the local economy by eating the food and staying in the hotels.  

Also, at dinner last night, we hijacked other travelers’ great ideas.  I was pretty distracted as we prepared for this trip, so I didn’t really pick apart the itinerary like I normally may have done, so when we started talking about what to do on a free day, I was a little bit caught off guard.  Oh yeah- we have a whole day to dork around in Ísafjörðor.  Hmm.  What to do?  

So, we stole ideas.  We went on an e-bike adventure with one of our traveling companions and we had our guide help us make reservations at a spot recommended by another pair of folks on our trip.  We copied off of their papers- stole their ideas.  Where does coattail riding get you?  It gets you on an amazing e-bike tour and eating a fantastic seafood dinner.  

The e-bike tour advertised with an invented scarcity.  They touted the tour and warned that there were only six spots left  Cas booked a spot.  I booked one.  A fellow traveler booked a spot for herself.  Crisis averted- we got three of those six little old spots.  Only three remained.  Turns out, the maximum number was six in the first place.  All totaled, we were half the number they would allow, and it turned out, nobody else threw down the bucks, so we were four all together with the guide.  Honestly, that was perfect.  The guide was younger- a graduate student at the University here in town- and he was guiding the three of us around.  We were all decidedly less young than our guide, and we all felt fully comfortable slowing down a little on the spots where the kid went a little too fast.  

The e-bike tour was so very much fun.  It was a mountain bike trail with an electronic assist for the steep spaces.  I had a few moments where my mind transported back to steep streets in Red Wing, Minnesota, and my first bike that Dad cleaned up and repainted from its original state of disrepair.  The fifth birthday was the bicycle birthday when I was growing up, and Dad was always a great repairer and re-purposer of things.  My bike was the prettiest and most well-constructed like-new used bike in the neighborhood.  I was back there again today, racing down a hill that was just a little too steep to feel 100% safe, and my head was back to my five and six year old self- WHEEEE! 

I guess what I am saying is- if an e-bike tour is an option you are considering on a trip, do it.  Just take my dang advice.  You’re welcome.  

The last thing we did today was head to Tjörhúsið.  When you have two folks on your tour who researched dinner spots in advance, then your tour director says something and your bike guide makes a recommendation, and all three of those recommendations are the same place, you maybe should make a reservation.  Well, we did.  And oh my gosh.  To quote that bird from breakfast today, “Wow!”  The place does a buffet.  And they have a big guy come out to explain.  The big guy is about the size of my older brother, so if you know Jeff (or remember his photos from our Italy blog), that’s the size I mean.  He big.  

Anyhow, the big feller told us how the soup was served- he said we should receive it in Dickensian style, which I assume to mean that we walk up with an empty bowl and sad, street urchin eyes, proclaiming Please sir, may I have some more?  Which I did most of- I didn’t remember my one line of script in the moment, but I did manage to get some exceptional soup.  

He also told us how to move through the line to get as much of the somehow six different things that were the evening’s main course.  The big guy said his parents were in the back, cooking up the food, and we could eat as much as we wished until 8:45, when he would throw us all out.  Fair enough.  We couldn’t eat that whole time, anyhow, but I suspect some folks take that as a personal challenge.  

When we wrapped that up, we headed back to the room.  We leave here tomorrow and see- you’ll never guess- a waterfall.  I know… what are the odds?  Okay, okay- I will dispense with the cynicism over natural beauty.  It’s just that there are so many waterfalls.  They are all spectacular.  I am overloaded on them today, but in a week, I will be back in uninspiring Dallas, hoping for a pretty pattern in the soap bubbles when I wash a dish. And so it goes…  

But for this evening, sleep well and dream of the little puffins who are likely to say Hello. Hi to us tomorrow- the crafty little birds have evaded us on this trip so far, but hope springs eternal, right?  Here’s a great picture that shows how awesome we both look in helmets: 

And here are our photos: tinyurl.com/DunlapIceland.  

You’re a wizard, Harry

Today was a great day for guerrilla tourism and snapshots of the strange and occult.  What ever could I mean?  Buckle up, friends.  It starts with an earlier-than-acceptable visit to the Glaumbær old turf farm.  It was a great collection of turf buildings, which are Icelandic houses with some wood structure and some parts built up of turf with grass growing on top.  The thing you naturally do when you walk up to the front doors of these things is you assume the size of the inside of the thing you’re about to enter.  Ever see Dr. Who?  If you have, you get where I am headed, here.  (If not, here’s a quick bit of info- he has a time travel machine about the size of a phone booth, but when you enter, it’s absolutely cavernous, and he always says the same thing, which is:) It’s bigger on the inside.  

Well, it is.  Much bigger on the inside.  There is a central hallway and a series of rooms.  It’s interesting.  I walked through a parlor of sorts, then to a kitchen, a few pantries, an attic and a long sleep room with many bunks.  There were lots and lots of rooms.  More than I can remember and certainly more than I photographed.  The turf houses were interesting, but also, we arrived at the site of these homes about 45 minutes before they opened.  Here comes the guerrilla tourism- Kitti wasn’t having it.  He was present, so he would go in.  No waiting 45 minutes for the place to open.  He’s an Icelander, and he says it’s time now.  So he hopped over the stone wall and went to the gate.  He opened that gate.  We all walked in.  Then the teenaged employee shuffled out of the information hut and spoke with him.  He showed the passes or explained something or another, but whatever objections the teenager had, it was far too late.  We were already walking around in the turf farm.  Joke’s on you, kid.  

We had lots of time to explore that turf farm, then we were back in the van for a bouncy ride.  The roads in this part of Iceland are nothing to get excited about.  Our bouncy ride took us to a few little stops on the way.  We visited the site of the last capital punishment in Iceland.  It was a very brutal beheading by axe.  There were two people put to death, both of whom conspired to kill the wealthy person to whom they were indentured.  It was a pretty hairy story, and the punishment was probably fair for the time, but they didn’t exactly arrive at the idea for this crime hastily.  They had some pretty rough times leading up to their choice to kill that dude with a hammer and a pocket knife (and arson).  It was really quite the roadside attraction.  Move over, world’s largest non-stick frying pan and biggest ball of twine in Minnesota.  This is a really interesting axe.  

Our next stop was the very strange Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft.  I joked on the way in: But you’re a wizard, Caswell!  But it was a whole lot weirder than that.  Iceland generally operates in a bilingual way.  Everything you see is in Icelandic and English- except this museum.  It’s entirely in Icelandic.  You have to walk around with a guide book, which they have in many languages.  I read the whole thing (not carefully or thoughtfully, but I read it…) and still don’t entirely understand the things I saw.  There were pages and pages of text that attempted to explain all sorts of weird things, but I couldn’t make sense of many.  Nor could anyone else in our group.  Weird things of note: 

• There was a skeleton figure clawing out of the flooring to illustrate some point about resurrecting the dead.  
• There was a pair of Necro-pants that were effectively the whole bottom half of an adult man- at least all of the skin- that imbued the wearer with some powers.  (I tired to capture a tasteful image, but you need to check out the album for it- it’s pretty anatomically correct)  
• There was a timeline on the wall of everyone who was put to death for witchcraft- fun fact- Icelanders almost exclusively killed off male practitioners of witchcraft.  I guess that’s balance for Salem.  

But we didn’t linger too long, there.  We needed to get across a large swath of Iceland today, and so, we did.  We are now safely in the Westfjords.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a free day, and we get a little more sleep-in time in the morning.  We also have managed to book an e-bike tour and a fancy dinner here in Isafjörðor.  

See you on the other side of the fjord!  

Check out our photos: tinyurl.com/DunlapIceland.

All over the map

Today took us to literally and figuratively all over the map.  We started at Goðafoss, went to the Forest Lagoon, saw Akureyri, and visited the Herring Era Museum in Skagafjörður.  Let’s recap. First, the waterfall.  Goðafoss literally translates to Good Falls.  They were, indeed, some very good falls.  The falls had a wide space with a horseshoe shape that somehow felt like it was more beautiful and less sheer force than Dettifoss.  I mean, the moment you start comparing awesome Icelandic waterfalls, you may be a little spoiled on too much natural beauty.  Who knows?  

But like I said, today took us through a series of different things.  The beginning had us climbing around in hiking boots and making our way to the tippy top of a viewing area where we could watch massive amounts of water speed along their way.  Then, we hopped into the van and headed to the Forest Lagoon.  I loved the Forest Lagoon, but there are some parts that I just didn’t feel fully comfortable with.  I am too much of an American to understand European people’s ease with nudity, and to be clear, this is strictly the locker room I am talking about, but it’s just never been my comfort zone.  I have always had more privacy than most, though.  Growing up, I was always the only girl, so there was never any sharing of bedroom space.  I never did a team sport that put me in a locker room.  You showed up to gymnastics practice already wearing your leotard.  And in college, I went to school close to home and stayed at my parents’ house to save money, so no dorm life for me.  I’ve always had privacy.  So the part where you have to shower there in a big shared shower facility in the locker room before you put your bathing suit on- not my favorite.  I had just showered in the hotel a few hours prior.  Not sure why this was all necessary- and you really should have had me washing up with my suit on- it’s been in a hot tub earlier on this trip.  But it’s not my lagoon, so it’s not my call.  

But once I had adhered to their rules and prepared my skin to get into their geothermal waters, it was pretty great.  We walked into very warm water and shared a few glasses of prosecco While we looked at the mountains and trees in the background.  The weather was very nice- not too sunny, but not exactly warm outside- perfect for this particular activity.  

Cas was braver than I- plunging head to toe briefly into the cold pool.  I managed waist high wading in that one, but we both instantly returned to the warm, comfortable water pretty rapidly after that.  When we got out of the water and dried off, it was time to head to Akureyri for lunch and a little wandering downtown.  Akureyri is a large city, often referred to as the Capital of the North.  It’s 37 miles south of the Arctic Circle, but the walk around town was very pleasant.  The sun was shining- and it will most of the night- and we stopped for a nice lunch.  

After our stroll through Akureyri, it was time for one more stop on the way to the next hotel.  Skagafjörður.  This was once the bustling spot that fed the world herring.  Similar to the American gold rush, the herring industry made this place a real boomtown just over a hundred years ago.  To learn about that, we visited the Herring Era Museum.  We learned about the industry, the laws Iceland put in place to stop foreign companies from making all the profit and taking it all back home, and the Herring Girls, who were some of the early employees in this industry.  With all the men out fishing and doing other jobs, the Herring Girls would clean and gut fish as they arrived, lay them carefully in barrels and add salt to them in layers to preserve the fish for shipping and sale.  All things being equal, I will stick with teaching, thanks.  

But that was the day- it was all over the place.  We did a rugged hike, took a relaxing soak, had a leisurely walk to lunch and learned about women who gutted fish.  Not sure any of that sounds remotely connected, but it all made sense in that it was sequential along our travel path.  Tomorrow, we head to the Westfjords.  It will be interesting, I am sure, and I am particularly interested in the very weird sounding stop we have planned at the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft.  But more on that when we get there,  I have had pickled herring today, showered in a shared space with other women and seen yet another amazing waterfall.  I feel like that’s plenty for a Monday.  Have a good night, friends! 

Check out our photos: tinyurl.com/DunlapIceland.

Ja Ja Ding Dong

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day.  The sun was shining all day- and it will continue to shine almost all night, too.  There were clouds, but they were pretty, wispy clouds bobbing about in some of the bluest sky we’ve seen on this trip.  And it was just about as perfect as a day could be.  We began with a lava field hike to a spot called Skútustaðahreppur.  Try saying that three times fast.  Or one time at all.  I’ve surrendered to the language and decided that it’s just called a lava field.  

Anyhow, it was a very nice hike. We did a lot of hiking today, in fact.  I haven’t headed to dinner, yet, and my step counter says I have walked 17,865 steps.  It also thinks I have climbed 33 flights of stairs.  Joke’s on you- step-o-meter… Most of that was just really steep inclines, not actual staircases.  Regardless, here is Cas at the top of one of those inclines, checking out a lava field. 

Our next stop was Húsavík.  Now, I don’t know if any of you out there reading this stuff are big Will Ferrel fans, but he did a movie where he played an Icelander, and his character was from Húsavík.  It was called Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.  It was exactly on-brand for Will Ferrell.  

Cas- in classic Cas style- looked up movies and shows set in Iceland before we left and downloaded a few to watch on his iPad while we were flying over here, and we watched that one somewhere over the Arctic Circle.  It was appropriately goofy and exactly the kind of shallow end of the intellectual pool you need when facing the challenges of international travel.  But, we watched the movie and found it amusing and very cute.  We just didn’t know if Icelanders found it amusing or offensive.  Were they delighted to see the portrayal of their home or horrified by how much of it was wrong?  Really, either thing could have been true.  Turns out, they loved it.  We listened to a song from the movie on the way in and a different song from the movie on the way out of town.  The Whale Museum we went to had a brochure out front for a place you could go and see the costumes from the movie.  So strike up a chorus of Ja Ja Ding Dong, which is allegedly the favorite song of Husávik residents and sing along!  Seriously though, the whale museum was kind of amazing.  There were skeletons from whales- most of whom died of natural causes- and it gave you some scale for just how enormous these beasts are.  

While we were in Husávik, we stopped for lunch.  Cas ordered the fish soup and I ordered the fish of the day, which was wolf fish- which I have never heard of- and we swapped plates halfway through.  We also ordered a few fun, summer drinks, because it was the kind of day when you leave your jacket behind and walk around in a t-shirt.  Summer solstice and all, you know.  Sunny skies and seasonal beverages are appropriate.  Yesterday, we were wearing all of our layers of clothing to stay warm, and today, we would have worn sandals if we had any that could have handled a few hikes.  

After that, we drove for a while and stopped off at a pretty canyon for another walk.  Our guide apparently loves to make extra stops when the sun is shining, so today was a pretty great day for that.  Quick canyon hike in the books, and it was time for Dettifoss.  Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in all of Europe.  I have to admit, it is pretty spectacular.  Cas and I stood looking down at it and he asked if maybe we could walk behind this one, too.  I figured it may present a challenge.  It looks pretty perilous.  But it was a lot of majesty, a lot of beauty and a lot of mist rising from the water.  There was a perpetual rainbow just hovering in front of the falls, and if you went to just the right spot, there was a double rainbow.  Kind of amazing.  

Tomorrow takes us to a herring museum, Goðafoss, the Forest lagoon and a new city entirely.  It’s swimsuit season on our tour, and it’s time to hop in some geothermal waters.  We’ll chat on the other side of the lagoon- until then, check out our photos: tinyurl.com/DunlapIceland.  

Solstice eve

Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice.  That should be the longest day of the year anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, but where we are, it’s absolutely the truth.  Tomorrow, sunrise is set for 1:37 am and sunset is supposed to be at 12:42 am.  That puts the day at a whopping 23 hours and five minutes.  The only way to have a longer day is to spend some or all of it in line at the drivers license office or in a hospital waiting room.  

We’re at a hotel next to Lake Mývatn on the northern side of the island, just in case someplace like Reykjavík was too far south for near constant daylight.  Today was very, very cold.  Especially considering tomorrow is the official beginning of summer.  It actually snowed on us as we rolled down the highway.  Didn’t have June 20th as a snowy day on my calendar, but travel teaches you things, right?  It was drizzly most of the time we were out marching around in the elements, making it extra cold anywhere water hits your skin.  Here’s a thing I know as of today, too: If you pack rain pants on a trip like this and you are truly on the fence wondering if you should throw them on over your hiking pants or not, just go ahead and do it.  If you get the kind that zips all the way down each leg, it takes virtually no time, and you will regret not wearing them far more than any possible regret about being overdressed.  

But this morning, we began with a quick aside to a really interesting building that had been a monastery.  I think it’s a cafe, now, but the building had history- and that really neat Icelandic grass roof.  I have been pondering that for our house in Dallas.  I don’t know how turf roofs fare in hailstorms, but it can’t be much worse than shingles.  We’ve got a pretty in-obtrusive homeowners’ association in our neighborhood, but I suspect they’d have some choice words for any family on the block who rips off a shingled roof and plants grass up top.  Alas, we will adorn our house in the custom of the suburbs.  

The next big ticket item today was a waterfall called Rjúkandafoss.  By the way, I have given up trying to add pronunciation notes.  It’s a lot of work for my brain, and I am probably not getting them right.  I’m just making up how to say these things as I go along.  You’re welcome to copy and paste them into an AI platform and ask the internets what to say.  I’ll wait.  

This waterfall, though.  I mean, wow.  Another wow.  We walked up in 3° drizzle.  I am sure that’s 38° Fahrenheit.  Fun fact- it’s also 276° Kelvin.  Aren’t conversion apps fun?  It was reallly cold.  And I was too dumb to put my rain pants over my other pants.  So was Cas, so I was in good company, but next time we scratch our heads and wonder if we should or shouldn’t, we know the answer.  Anyhow, here’s the waterfall:

I know, right?  

Next, we went to a spot that somehow looked like the surface of the moon.  Not sure why- I kind of lost the thread in the middle of all the tooth chattering- then we were off to this really interesting geothermal space that had steam vents coming up out of the ground.  The sulfur smell is always unmistakable in spots like this, and I have now been to enough that I know to expect it.  There were also bubbling mud pots in the ground, which is disorienting every time we see it.  It looks like a very expensive spa treatment could happen there and I would probably decline then later mock it.  For your pronounciation experimentation I have the name of that geothermal area here- give it a go: Nàmafjall,  Oof, that’s a tough one.  

After that, we saw some pseudo craters called Skútustaðagígar.   Those were spots in a marshy area that got these great crater-looking concave spaces at the topmost part of the hills when hot lava flowed across the landscape  2,300 years ago.  On any regular day in my life, those would have been remarkable, but my threshold for amazing stuff is a little skewed today.  Like- call me when you have a majestic waterfall or a bubbling mud pit.  I don’t get out of the van for a dent on the top of a hill.  What have I become?  It’s all amazing and spectacular.  I need to check my little attitude.  Maybe I am tired.  We have been going at a pretty rapid clip lately, and perhaps, it’s time to hit the hay early and start tomorrow late.  Sounds like the best thing to do on the longest day of the year- start it out with a properly long sleep.  Good night, friends!

Our photos: tinyurl.com/DunlapIceland.  

The red chair

Kitti- I think that’s how he spells his name- sounds like Kidrrey- you just have to smush the d sound into the rrr sound.  It’s complicated.  It’s Icelandic.  Anyhow Kitti piled us all into the fancy van-bus this morning and drove us out to the “chair with no purpose.”  It’s apparently an art installation called The Red Chair.  I googled it.  It is just a random, slightly oversized chair in a rocky outcropping where you can sit and contemplate the meaning of life or try to uncover the mysteries of the universe.  Cas sat atop the chair and looked practically philosophical.  I tried to strike a more contemplative, eastern pose, as we were headed to the East Fjords today.  Ohm.  Ohm.  So let’s get into it.  

It was another perfect visibility morning in Iceland, which, according to our guide, is super rare.  Sunny skies and perfect views are rare.  It seemed to inspire him to stop more along the way.  I get the sense that this part of the trip is the kind of hit-or-miss part for most people along the ring road.  Today, it was so pretty that we stopped off at all of the things.  This is a beach that is often difficult to access when it’s yucky out, but today, it’s beautiful, so let’s go explore!  He told us that the last time he had been to a particular beach on this journey was years ago.  Today was special.  Apparently, this whole trip’s weather has been special.  I am glad to be here for it.  Aside from Iceland Day (which, we’re told is supposed to be crappy, though we aren’t sure if it’s tradition or law), this whole thing has been uncharacteristically amazing.  Also, check out this fishing village.  And this other fishing village.  Now go look at this neat thing and this great view.  That was our day today.  It was pretty great.  

The thing is, our guide has a niece.  She is an adult, I am sure, but I am 51 years old, and probably the youngest paid participant on this trip, and I see this girl child as a student.  Apparently, she is a microbiologist in a hospital in Reykjavík.  So, a proper gown up with a big girl job.  But seriously, a kid.  Anyhow, this niece is joining her uncle in the passenger seat.  He’s showing her Iceland.  She has seen only Reykjavík.  I figured he called in all of his favors to the travel gods to show off his job to the kid.  He’s going for uncle of the year.  He may well win.  This is pretty spectacular.  I have some amazing, next-level uncles, but none of them have personally ushered me around a beautiful island.  Very few of them have jobs I would want to ride along with.  No offense to the social worker uncle or the machinist uncle.  Noble work, I am sure, but are you spending your days on black sand beaches or heading to waterfalls on the way to fjords?  Yeah, my job isn’t that either.  Regardless, I feel like we’re getting the best of this guide, just because he is fond of his niece.  Heck, I’ll take it.  

The highlight of the day was Petra’s rock museum.  There was apparently an Icelandic woman whose name was Ljósbörg Petra María Sveinsdóttir (oof-  what a mouthful) who lived out in these parts and tended toward dragging pretty rocks home.  It was less strange than it sounds when you see her collection of geodes and obsidian rocks.  She was clearly one part amateur geologist and one part total hoarder.  It may not have seemed like a problem behavior until you went into the house and saw the collection of pens, matchbooks, playing cards, postcards and keyrings.  It was all a bit much, but rthe rocks were really pretty.  Petra was the perfect moniker for a rock hound, though.  Her house was intriguing.  

But once we went there and stopped by yet another fishing village where Cas and I found a nice spot for a bit of local color at a bar, we headed to the hotel for dinner.  This is yet another one-night stay-over.  We actually spend two consecutive nights at the same place starting tomorrow, and honestly, I don’t know what to do with that.  This is the road-trip of all road-trips. And for international travel, that’s kind of a weird anomaly.  But I am sure that Kitti is calling in all of his favors to the travel gods- the old ones and the new ones- to get the best view for his clearly favorite niece.  We’re happy to swim in that wake.  Wish us good weather and safe travels in the morning.  Let the power of Kitti being a fantastic uncle carry us as far is it can!  

In the meantime, I hope we can all take a moment, find our center, contemplate the meaning of things and locate a little peace.  Let this image inspire you:

Our photos: tinyurl.com/DunlapIceland.  Ohm.  

The tip of the iceberg

The Vatnajökull glacier is in the southeast corner of Iceland, and it covers nearly 8% of the country.  Today, we headed out on a path where, most of the time, we had some portion of the glacier in view when we were moving down the road.  The mission for the day was to head to the glacial lagoon for an amphibious boat tour.  There were a few hikes along the way to the lagoon, as well as a quick visit to something called “diamond beach,” which is a black sand beach covered in bits of glacier chunks.  They’re icy and shiny and look a bit like diamonds.  Guess we didn’t miss the black sand beach after all- we just managed to hit a different one than we had originally thought.  

Cas and I have a silly thing we do when we visit beaches where we take a very touristy toes-in-the-sand photo.  When it’s really cold and the beach is to a glacial lagoon, that photo looks a bit different.  

We hiked a bit today, in fact.  I think we were both happy to see that the nature was unspoiled in our path.  The Icelanders had made little gravel walkways to the things you want to see, but the walkways were clean.  There were no garbage cans or recycling bins, but there was also no trash.  If people had garbage, they carried it back out with them.  It was kind of remarkable.  If this attraction was in the US, the whole path would be littered with the Cheeto bags and Granola bar wrappers that didn’t fit in the overflowing trash cans, because those would be full of Gatorade bottles and Monster cans.  I love America, but sometimes, we’re so predictable.  

Next came the amphibious boat tour of the glacial lagoon.  That was a blast.  It was a drivable-on-land boat.  It was pretty similar to a Duck Boat, if you have ever been in a city that had those, but these were not branded that way.  When you go on these boats, you walk in and are handed a bright orange life vest.  I did land the best joke of the day when I donned my vest.  I looked at Cas and said, “Be honest, does this make me look fat?”  That got a rise out of total strangers.  It’s even funnier if you know me and Cas.  I would never in a million years ask that question in earnest- it’s a husband-trapping question for which there is only one right answer. Also, I totally looked as slender and svelte as anyone else on that boat.  

In our sail around the glacial lagoon, we saw a harbor seal, some sea birds, a few ducks and a whole lot of floating glacial chunks.  Big and small icebergs.  We each had an opportunity to hold a chunk of the ice that one of the guides fished out of the water.  800 year old ice, we’re told.  This part of this particular glacier was around that age.  Pretty cool, if you ask me.  Literally and figuratively.  

I did find myself wanting more vocabulary today.  I needed more words.  I have already worn out awesome, beautiful, spectacular, majestic, magnificent and wow.  Maybe that will be my mission during our travels to the next destination tomorrow.  More words for HolyCowLookAtThisAmazingThing.  

I think this was my most unusual thing today.  I have seen waterfalls before, and I have done a lot of the activities we’ve done here, but floating past little chunk-lets of glacier in a lagoon populated with seabirds and seals was a first- I didn’t even really have a thing to compare that to.  

More stuff from the need-more-info files- the glaciers we saw today were sometimes blue.  They’re sometimes blue because that’s the light color they reflect, and when smaller chunks of these larger, blue-seeming things are removed, they look clear.  The more you know, right?  And the ones that look striped- unsurprisingly, that’s volcanic ash in there.  Turns out, there are volcanoes in this country.  Yeah, that would have been everyone’s guess if the guide hadn’t mentioned it.  But still, how cool was floating around amid blue glacier chunks and stripey ones?  

We’re at our hotel for the evening.  We stopped for ice cream on the way back, and Cas joined me in trying a dandelion flavor.  It’s interesting.  A little honey-ish.  Someone else said it tasted like caramel.  More like honeycomb if you ask me.  

We arrived at the hotel in time for happy hour, had a nice dinner and retired to a sunny night in the room for a little blogging.  It’s nearing 10 pm and bright as day out.  Of course.  

Tomorrow, we head to the East Fjords.  Should be a great time.  I need a synonym for great. 

Anyhow, here are our photos: tinyurl.com/DunlapIceland Good (sunny) night.