Ahem. (clears throat)

"Oooh. My. God. OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod. Look at that! What is that? Pull over! Did you see that? Turn around! Take a picture! I want to pet those mossy rocks!"

That's pretty much me in the car. This was a looong day because we started out in the dark and drove nearly 4 hours one way to go see Jökulsárlón, a glacier lagoon that flows right out into the sea. The day also started out with Pippa throwing up. I figure she can throw up in the car as well as she can at the house, plus these things pass quickly with her. So we put her in the car with a bunch of towels and off we went. Within a couple hours, she was suddenly perfectly fine, just like that. So I'm awfully glad we went on with our long drive because it was beautiful. It was worth every kilometer past mountains and more waterfalls and this beautiful shelter built into the entrance of a cave, which are unique to this part of Iceland. Say that word out loud: Rútshellir. Ding! Sounds to me like root cellar.

To give some perspective to those of you who live in more densely populated areas: This is One. We laughed at our Garmin GPS, whom I named Hildy, because as we were driving along, she would occasionally awaken to say, "Continue…on……One." As if there was anywhere else to go. One is The Ring Road, the road that goes all the way around Iceland. It's the major "highway," at least as you might compare it to one of our major interstates, like I-70 or I-95. And here's Kevin taking a picture from the middle of it on a Friday morning.

It's fuzzy like a kitten!

See those blue bits coming between the mountains. It's part of the glacier.

And we drove and we drove and we drove, and suddenly there was this. Jökulsárlón. Gorgeous. The colors and striations in the ice were amazing in their variety. Some of the ice is translucent, some transparent, other parts were totally opaque, but all seemed to glow from within. Look at the colors. (I need to remind you here to click on the photos to make them bigger.)

We are so lucky to have seen this in person. It's hard to take it in, to look around know that we were watching parts of a glacier float out to the ocean. It was just beyond anything any of us had ever seen.

We had our fish soup by the lagoon and drove back to the house. "Zzzzzzzz" is what I said on that part of the drive. Oh, and we listened to the radio. Bon Iver comes on after Lady Gaga. And then an Icelandic version of "Islands in the Stream." Wow.

Takksgiving

When Pippa would ask what she would see in Iceland, usually waterfalls topped the list. We love waterfalls. I love waterfalls. I grew up near waterfalls in central New York and visited Niagara Falls when I was a little girl. In Connecticut one of our favorite places was Kent Falls. Iceland has 8 zillion waterfalls (not an exact number) that flow from glaciers. Our American Thanksgiving Day was spent driving the southern part of the Ring Road along the coast to see a coupe of the more well-known waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss, but also other small ones whose names we did not discover. We drove as far as Vík and then drove back to our guest house outside Selfoss. 

Our hostess, Þorey, was going to have a seafood dinner waiting for us, so we needed to be home at a certain time. At this time of year, we were having to plan our trips around about 5 hours of daylight. And it’s not bright sunshine. The sun hangs low in the sky at this time of year. We are less than a month from the Solstice, and at that time, the sun just skims the horizon for those “daylight” hours. Even when we had daylight, it was often effected by fast-moving storms and clouds that would pass over. Or linger. Whatever it wanted to do.

Seljalandsfoss: The waterfall you can walk behind if it's not November and very cold or if you are more sure-footed than I, personally, am.

So as we spent this day driving in the Suðurland, a lot of time was spent with me saying, “Pull over! Take a picture!” Pulling off the side of the road every time there was something gorgeous and photogenic took a lot of time. 

 Skogafoss

I have always felt drawn to Vík, so that was one of our musts. It has been named one of the most beautiful beaches in the world with its fine, black basalt sand. The basalt columns found here and in other places around Iceland inspired Guðjón Samúelsson, the architect who designed Hallgrímskirkja.

It was raining when we got to Vík and the winds were absolutely shocking. Needless to say, we did not take Pippa out in the wind, so we took turns. Kevin went first and came back looking like he had been through the wringer. When Corbin and I got out of the car for our turn, we found out what wringer he had been through! We almost got knocked down several times by the tremendous wind. I would walk through the sand heel first, digging one foot in front to the other. When a bigger gust came, I would just stand like that, braced in the sand. Then when the gust stopped, I could continue. Sometimes we would have to stop and turn our backs to the wind because of the sand blowing and stinging our faces. I hope I am not making this sound awful because it wasn’t. It was awesome! The power of nature is an incredible thing, and you really understand that at places like this.

The town of Vík in the mist and wind.

On our way back to the house, we stopped at the grocery store, Bonus, which is known for its logo of what appears to be a drunk pig as the "O" in its name. Yes, we did consider how we could get this huge container of Appelsín home. We are addicted.

And then it was dinner time! We had a seafood gratin, salad, bread, and cake (from Bonus) for dinner. We insisted that Þorey eat with us and enjoy the wonderful meal she made for us. A wonderful Thanksgiving!