OUR LAST MORNING
I can't believe this is our last morning waking up in Iceland. It's a bit bittersweet. Part of me wishes we could stay and explore even more. I can see how people spend 4 weeks here. There were so many places we didn't get to, didn't spend enough time or activities we just couldn't do because it was winter. We talked about it and could see ourselves returning in the summer. And doing all the "other" stuff we didn't. Most likely it will be several years when the kids are older and can do the adventurous stuff. We really want to do a Jeep Tour, the glacier boats, explore the Westfjords and some good hiking.

BERGSSON MATHUS BREAKFAST
Although we enjoyed the food at Kex, we wanted to try out something different for breakfast. We took a look at our handy blog under her article "5 Breakfast Places Open before 8am" and picked Bergsson Mathus. Although it was only 9 when we arrived, it was already hoppin. We weren't totally sure what we were ordering but we got a few different breakfast orders to share and grabbed a table. By far this was our best breakfast of the trip. Granted we cooked most of them or we were limited to sweet pastries, but still. The breakfasts came with a combination of yogurt parfait so, hummus, salad, fresh bread, meats, cheeses, soft boiled eggs. My favorite was putting a piece of slightly warm cheese and prosciutto the on the bread just out of the oven. It melted. Granted this trip is not helping with weight loss eating, but it was yummy. I wouldn't say Iceland was a foodie destination but the breads and soups...Everyone got as full as possible and then we headed out.

MURALS OF REYKJAVIK
It was a Sunday morning and there weren't a lot of options of things to do before we headed to the airport at lunch time. What we had noticed were the huge numbers of murals and graffiti adorning the buildings of Reykjavik. I remembered a link I had pinned to exploring the art murals on your own and pulled that up. Along with a Google Map someone had made (found it on the go) we spent the rest of our morning driving around and searching for these murals. There were a lot of some of them were done by renowned local artists and were very impressive. It was a bit like a scavenger hunt trying to find them and to navigate through all the one way streets. Josh and I were intrigued to see how when construction was going on, nothing was done to preserve murals on adjacent buildings. In Charlotte it would be a huge ordeal and our stuff doesn't really compare to these art installations. We also noticed a bunch of the public art pieces scattered around. They were impressive. You could spend a whole day just finding all of those.

(1)(2)(3) When the owner of the old Loftkastalinn building (a former theater that was converted into a film studio) saw van Helten’s grandfather mural nearby, he commissioned him to create three more in exchange for food and lodging. Van Helten based these murals on photographs from the Reykjavík Museum of Photography Archive. The photos, by Andrés Kolbeinsson, depict scenes from a version of the Jean-Paul Sartre play No Exit that was performed in Reykjavik in 1961. The No Exit characters painted here are Inez, Estelle, and Garcin, played by Erlingur Gíslason, Kristbjörg Kjeld, and Helga Löve—whose daughter coincidentally spotted van Helten while he was painting her mother’s image. Van Helten also has pieces elsewhere in Iceland—in Kópavogur, the Westman Islands, and Akureyri—and even Greenland. (4) On the west side of the city, this house’s wall was covered in tags when Australian artist Guido van Helten knocked on the door and asked the owner if he could paint over it. The homeowner found an old photo of her grandfather—who had built the house—and asked him to replicate the picture. (5)Sara Riel "Hands" (6) Created in collaboration with Davíð Örn Halldórsson, this mural overlooks a kindergarten on Seljavegur and is part of the "Natural Kingdoms" series—this one represents the kingdom of plants.(7) Birds of many different forms are a prominent theme in Riel's work, as in this piece on the side of a house on Njalsgata. The artist is also known for her work on album covers for Icelandic artists, including Ólöf Arnalds and her band múm.(9) This piece with a cartoon monkey in the center is a transatlantic collaboration between the UK’s The London Police and American artist Above.(10) Riel’s highly detailed works often focus on nature. The Mushroom, a 2012 piece on Reykjavik's Hverfisgata street, is part of a series of murals that all deal with the theme “Natural Kingdoms”—the kingdom of fungi, in this case. (11) Riel, one of Iceland’s most prolific street artists, perfected her craft while studying in Berlin. She describes this piece, Fönix(Phoenix), as “a symbol of the end and beginning. Both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again.”


PLAYGROUNDS
Somehow in these posts I forgot about one of the more fun things we did. The playground. As we have driven throughout the country we have noticed the creativity in all of the childrens' playgrounds. We've never seen anyone playing on them though.  A few days ago it was too much. We spotted a playground back behind a school. I'm sure school was in session but it was too cool not to test. It had it's own zip line and lots of contraptions that appeared to be run off of body gravity. The kids (and Josh) around like kids in a candy store trying each one out before moving on. I wish we had more of this kind of simple, creative, physical outdoor play at home.

BACK TO KEF AIRPORT
Our flight was at 3:30. Around 11:30 or 12 we headed back to make the 45 minute journey to the airport. Josh dropped the three of us, and most of the bags, off at the entrance while he went and returned the car. Luckily, they thought everything looked good. We hadn't damaged the car but it was a mess inside. Food crumbs and mud everywhere. They were probably just happy to have it back with no new dents. Josh joined us at the airport within minutes. We read the signs (something we don't do often) and visited the Tax Refund counter. Throughout the city stores gave us paperwork to get our taxes back anytime we spent more than 6,000isk (about $35) It was a bit shady how some places offered it up and others we had to ask. We took the papers we had and claimed our 14% back. It was worth the hassle. Checking in still had Josh freaked. The whole luggage game and making sure everything weighed the right amount. They weighed EVERY bag and tagged it accordingly. Then since we hadn't purchased tickets they didn't have four seats together. That was fine but one of the sets of two left was an exit row which kids can't sit in. They did a switcheroo with the guy checking in next to us. The idea of separating the kids on the flight was actually a relief. It never occurred to us that the hardest part was still not over. It was a cattle herd when we went to board 45 minutes before departure. They stopped the line right before us so we had to go on Bus 2 to head out to the plane. Even though we were first on the bus we were last off. Figures. Two of us loaded from the front, the other two from the back. There luckily must have been another bus behind us. Because very quickly the crew discovered that the flight was scheduled and ticketed for a larger aircraft. There were 15-20 double books . I guess more like 30-40 but 15-20 people who they made get off the plane. Even though all their bags were on. It took us an hour to get all their bags out from under the plane, get a new manifesto and take off. The only good part of this? We contemplated our return flight from Boston to Charlotte. We were supposed to land at 5 and the last flight home was at 7:10. We could make it but it was going to be close with baggage, customs and security. We opted to stay overnight and get an early flight to be safe. Turns out that was a good call. Since we are on unconnected airlines we would have been screwed. Right now we are scheduled to arrive an hour before our flight. No way we would make it. So we are now flying home. I got the "quiet" child with me. Josh got the one who has gone to the bathroom four times so far and we aren't halfway through. Oh to be home!

EXPLORING ARNARSTAPI
We had been so exhausted the night before that we didn't bother to explore around our house or the town. The kids were hungry from the time they woke up, so while Josh packed up our stuff I took the kids for a walk down by the shore. AKA out the backyard. Next to the driveway a stone troll-like monument was situated. I think that is what it was. I couldn't read the Icelandic writing. But it didn't look like the Jules Verne statue so I'm going to go with the huge troll-like structure that is supposed to honor the region's guardian spirit, Bardur. I should have told my daughter that last night. We took silly pictures and started walking along a very planned, defined walking trail. The best trail I had seen during the whole trip. We didn't get very far until I realized we were walking towards Hellnar and that was not where we should be going. I was looking for the famous Arch Rock which had to be close by. This village is tiny. Had we had more time we would most certainly have done the thirty minute walk along the shore cliff to Hellnar in back. I'm sure it was gorgeous. Instead, the kids and I found more bird cliffs at an overlook and then after a bit more walking found that infamous arch rock. I threatened them a lot about standing back behind the guard rail so that I could take a few pictures. That is nerve wrecking. At least with two adults, one can take pictures while the other restrains kids. It all worked out and we headed back to the house for our egg breakfast. On the way out of town we wandered down to the harbour where I finally found the lone White House that everyone takes pictures of. I trespassed into some sort of fishing place that was closed for the weekend to get a shot of it down by the water. We saw Maggy again, said our goodbyes and started on our way.

THE MIGRAINE
We were just out of town when my migraine hit. There is no worse feeling than THAT feeling. You know what is coming. The only saving grace? The day before, guess what we found? That toiletry bag. Yes, the one I had left on the plane. I didn't leave it on the plane. It was hidden in the back of the car.... So I now had two sets of saline solution and my very, very expensive migraine pills. They are basically, imitrex, caffeine and large quantities of ibuprofen mixed together. I have taken a lot of mess over the last 26 years for my migraines and this is the only one that has helped. So, finding it the day before I had a migraine was really important. I popped my pill and laid back for the next 2.5 Hours trying not to puke. That's hard enough with a migraine. With a migraine while driving bumping roads, almost impossible. The one stop I'm bummed I missed was the black church at Budir. I made Josh take some pics for me because I had been looking forward to it. Budir was nothing except a black church and Hotel Budir. I had actually tried to book us at Hotel Budir but they wouldn't return my emails. So we didn't. Oh well.

REYKJAVIK
We made it into Reykjavik around lunch time. I still wasn't feeling great, but being in this car wasn't doing me any favors. Both Josh and I had put some of the same places on our list for eating. He was dying to try one of these famous hot dogs so we headed to THE place. Baejarins Beztu Pylsur. It was already drizzling when we drove up and still a huge line. We did some circles around the harbour neighborhood and finally parked. I had no idea what we were ordering but we got seven hot dogs I think, and Coke. Everyone stood in the rain downing their hotdogs. Basically it's a long hotdog over a bed of crunchy fried onions and topped with a sweet mustard/ketchup combo. It looked disgusting but was pretty good. I got a couple bites down but didn't want to push my luck. We then made our way across the street to the Harpa Concert Hall and Cultural Center. The building itself was beautiful. The angles of the exterior glass allow for light to bound and reflect with varying colors and intensities. The interior is equally pretty with stories of open space and glass that invites kids (like ours) to use the stairs as an indoor playground. I was pretty stunned to see such an architectural masterpiece in a place as small as Reykjavik. But then again coming into Reykjavik from the rest of Iceland felt like entering another country itself. Much of the city has the old architecture and charm but is mixed very natural with the modern and cosmopolitan. It's hard to pick a city to compare it to. I joked with Josh that all I could think of is if Venice, California had a love child with Venice, Italy. I love both of those places, so I obviously really liked Reykjavik. If we had direct flights to KEF, like Boston and Baltimore do, I could see coming here for an extended weekend (on miles or super cheap flights obviously). The gift stores in Harpa had a nice selection. There are a few things we might have wished we bought there because we never found elsewhere. But other stuff we did find in some of the other shops. When we were done with Harpa, we walked around town popping into shops and picked up a few things for souvenirs and to add to our travel wall at home. And we even found the famous enough Christmas Store. It looked like the kids would/could break everything in there. So we grabbed a couple ornaments and got out of their as fast as possible. The kids asked us to buy the huge Santa's Mailbox outside but we explained that wouldn't go along with the WOW air carry on limits.

KEX HOSTEL
I'm fairly certain Josh thought I was crazy when I suggested we stay in a hostel. Neither of us have ever stayed in a hostel. Shocking isn't it? I'm pretty shocked we didn't when we were younger and traveling broke. I had found this place early in our research and knew I wanted to go there. It looked like the ACE Hotel of Iceland. And The ACE hotel is my favorite hotel ever. I heard there is one in PIttsburgh now... I've only stayed at the NYC and LA ones. Normally in a hostel you share a room with others. However at Kex you can book smaller rooms. There are actually a few family rooms too. So our room had two twin beds (made like a double) and two bunk beds. That was awesome because both kids got to sleep up top and didn't fight. The room was pretty spacious and functional. I loved the minimalistic field, concrete floors. The hostel is located in an old cookie factory. I think that is what Kex actually means. Their ground floor is a bar, restaurant, living room, everything space that is one of the most happening places in the city despite not being "right" in the center of everything. It's still close. At 6:30 we tried to grab a table to eat dinner and it was already packed. They told us to eat at the bar, so the four of us ate our last Icelandic dinner in one of the trendiest places in Iceland. Fitting. We might have ordered everything on the menu. The fried chicken wings were delicious. They had some sort of ginger soy glaze. The fried rice is actually balls of fried rice. Let's get three orders of that. We ate for a long time. By the time we paid up and headed upstairs, I heard that the kitchen was telling people 30 - 60 minutes to get food orders out. I really liked the feel there. They didn't make us feel out of place at all, although I'm sure no one else was over 30.  A huge selling point for the kids (they really should be advertising this) was the self serve juice machines. They were invited to go refill their juice glasses as much as they wanted (or they ran out) at the back counter. They had a huge library space with books, toys for kids, etc. Our kids' favorite spot was the out of work elevator. They turned all the walls of the shaft into a giant magnet board with letters everywhere. And just in case you missed the elevator, there was a set of headphones you could put on to hear elevator music. The details were completely on point at this place. And the bathrooms were what most people worry about. This place was super clean. The bathrooms are 6 or so individual rooms - each with a sink, toilet and huge shower. They clean them quite often. I think I heard Josh say it was his best shower during the trip. My complaint staying here was the noise. Although we were on the top floor (4) I could hear the live music because of the orientation of our room. At some point Josh went and got my water bottle and some earplugs for me. I popped those suckers in, took a sleeping pill (didn't tell Josh) and went to sleep. The kids were each up twice due to too much food and drink... Between my migraine exhaustion, inability to hear anything and sleeping pill - I think Josh was up a bit. Thanks, honey.

DELAY
First, apologies to those who have been reading these real time. Every large trip I start by blogging live and have given up about halfway. Sometimes I never finish. I really wanted to make sure I got everything this trip and had been writing every night after the kids (and Josh) go to bed. On his bday that set me back so I started writing in the morning while we drove. Yesterday got super messed up. After not having a migraine (aura) for almost 4 months, today decided to be return day. I should be celebrating that long of a spurt healthy. Those who don't know, I've struggled since dehabilitating migraines since I was 10. About 4 years ago they became so bad I almost wasn't able to function during the flare up times. One January I had 26 in one month and then took drastic changes to my medicine treatment. So I tell you that to both explain and to provide hope. My major triggers are change in pressure (rain and flying), stress and hormones. All of these seem to be a perfect storm for traveling but I've done pretty well at conquering.

WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY
We woke up from our cabin, not entirely rested. I mentioned in the last post it was our worst sleep. There was no reason to linger, or try to shower while standing over the toilet (they seemed to be all in one) so we packed and got on the road before 8am.

SNUFFLEUPAGUS PENINSULA (SNAEFELLSNESS PENINSULA)
Neither of us could actually pronounce the name of this peninsula so we just called it Snuffleipagus like the Sesame Street character. That seemed to work. I admittedly did no planning for this day other than to book an Airbnb. The last few days of our trip were more decide as we go. We didn't want to be locked into too much. It would be about a 2-2.5 hrs drive to get to our stopping point on the backside of the Peninsula. We had read that this area was one of the best parts of Iceland and often gets missed from the Ring Road furry. I'm so glad we had an extra day to do this. Other than the dogsledding, this was my single favorite day. I'm sure we could have spent three days here. And for anyone who has seen the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, this is where they filmed all the Greenland, Iceland and Himalayan mountain scenes.

STYKKISHOLMUR
I didn't realize it at the time, but this town is where all that filming was done. I loved the place and its surroundings so much that we downloaded it on our iPad and watched it after the kids were asleep. We had driven awhile and hadn't found breakfast until now. As we drove into Stykkisholmur we found the Nesbraud bakery. It was hard to miss with the giant bakery sign up top. We walked in and the kids were overcome with the sweetness of bread. We might have eaten one (or two) of everything. The caramel doughnuts were a favorite with the kids. The adults were split betwee. The ham and cheese pastry and the monster chocolate pastry. No clue what it was but it was wrapped with that hard chocolate shell. After round one, the kids asked for yet more sweets. So we bought even more. Thank goodness they had some coffee for me. Now that we were full, and all human again, we headed out to explore the village. The first place we went was down to the harbour. We got a tad confused and tried to drive backwards onto the ferry, but then saw the stone bridge to cross over instead. I had been obsessed with the bright orange and coral colored lighthouses we had seen throughout the trip scattering the shorelines. Here, at the top of the hill was a tall one, beckoning me to come visit it. We parked and all four of us climbed the stairs up the hill of Sugandisey. It was actually a tiny island made of basalt columns. As we got to the top, the wind started roaring. Our kids were holding onto each other for dear life and I was holding onto them for fear that we'd all blow off. I could barely hold on to my iPhone to get one quick picture before we returned to the lower level and explored a bit more. The views from up there were great. You could see the crazy church Stykkisholmskirja in the distance. It looked like something George Jetson would have designed. We drove around the small streets in circles trying to figure out if the Library of Water was open. We could see, but couldn't figure out how to get to it. It has an art installation along the tall windows made out of pillars of water from Icelandic glaciers. The water reflects and refracts with the light to make an art show. Unfortunately, we were limited to what we could see up the hill and through the window. Oh, well. We finished meandering through the quaint streets and headed back onto the road.

GRUNDARFJORDUR
Has anyone noticed that these names are getting harder the further into the trip we get. And if you are wondering, yes, I type with the guide book in my lap. I'd be clueless otherwise. Ok, back to the trip. The big deal about this area is Kirkjufell. It is a big mountain that doesn't look too much different than all the other extreme mountains in Iceland. However, my guidebook (and number of likes from Instagram) told me that it is one of the most photographed spots in Iceland. If that is true, we must get the shot. And not just any shot, I wanted the shot. So bring in the photography PDF and we were out to search for Kirkjufellssfoss and figure out how to get down at the level of the waterfalls to get the perfect shot. The waterfalls were described as "little", but they weren't. They were just spread out in two levels and to make things difficult, the spacing of the rocks in the landing underneath the last falls were just far enough apart that you had to hike up the whole side, cross a bridge at the top and come back down the other side to get the shots of the mountain with the waterfalls in the foreground. Of course. So I hope you really enjoy this shot. It was a lot of work. And our family highly enjoyed this stop. Josh and the kids played a game where they threw rocks at the bottom waterfall and tried to hit icicles off. Anything to do with water and rocks and our kids are set. This mountain can be seen from several angles in Walter Mitty. Once in Iceland, once in Greenland scenes.

THAT CHURCH
If you follow my Instagram, you've seen my new love of churches in picturesque places. I love them. And I take pictures of them. This church in Olafsvik had the most unique church made out of all triangular pieces. I wonder how the heck that happened in such a rural town in Iceland. I made up a story in my head that two men (because only men would do this) were out getting a drink. One of them was bragging about the magnificent new church he had built. The other guy was like "Oh yeah? Well, watch what I can do! I can build a church with only triangle pieces." Something like that. Either way, the lines were gorgeous.

SNAEFELLSJOKULL NATIONAL PARK
I couldn't believe how fast the day was flying. I thought that we had gotten a really early start and imagined we would be getting to our house that night pretty early. But I hadn't anticipated how much really great stuff we would see along the way today. And I also had no clue that national park would be this incredible. Soon we were passing through the gates that read we were in the national park. Most of the western portion of the peninsula falls within the park. I had read that the variation in the topography throughout this area made it like a mini Iceland itself. It also makes for a very adventurous and fun day, no matter what you like. I haven't read Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth but I'm sure that if I had, I would have realized how fitting this is as a setting for that book. I'm sure. But since I hadn't read it, we ventured on ourselves.

ONDVERDARNES
I'm always puzzled with how Lonely Planet determines what is worthy of different amount of page space in their books. Pages about something that seems mundane and boring. But here, probably my favorite part of the trip (or at least one of them) and the guide book gives it a measly 1/4 of a page real estate. That's why you shouldn't judge a place by how much has been written about it. Very quickly, the road was bumpy and gravel and really made us finally glad we had splurged for a tough looking car. We drove through the lava fields and I stopped to take pictures. The moss growing along the black lava rock was quite pretty. The land was flat so we could see where we were going but we had to wind through to get there. All of a sudden the rocky cliffs descending to the beach opened up before us. There was a golden beach that let you walk down to the cliffs for a closer look but we stopped about a 1/4 mile before because we liked the view there. We opted not to park and walk to the nearby volcanic crater of Vatnsborg. Our daylight was quickly dwindling and we didn't want to miss the next stops in the park. We made our way to the Svortuloft cliffs. Here was another tall lighthouse that was perched on the ledge and had the most beautiful location for a picnic bench I had seen. We walked past the lighthouse to get up close to the cliffs. These were the giant bird cliffs that Josh had been dying to see. If you have a fear of birds, don't go here. They were everywhere, flying around, squealing, perching on rocks. It was quite the sight. The cliffs were so steep that huge waves were crashing into them. I'm not sure how high they were. 100 ft? Maybe that's too dramatic. They were huge and some of the waves were ricocheting up taller than the cliffs. I can't imagine the force behind that water. When we got our cliff fill, we headed down the road the opposite way and found ourselves to the very western part of the peninsula. From here you can supposedly see whales. I could not. It later occurred to me that I'm blind as a bat and we had no binoculars. We always forget them. I'm not sure how I thought I'd see a whale even if it was out there.

DJUPALON
The rest of the family was getting pretty tired but I still wanted to visit one last stop on the way to our place. I had seen pictures of the rock stacks coming out of the water and the black sand beaches. I lured the kids in by telling them their were lifting stones still on the beach where fisherman would test a man's worthiness to be a fisherman by the size of rock he could lift. Our son was excited to lift two, my husband lifted four and our daughter sat and giggled. We all attempted to get some good pictures at the black stone beach without getting drenched by the icy waves coming in. When I headed over to the formations to get a few pics the rest of the family opted back up hill to the car. It seemed like only a few minutes later that I tried to join them but I found myself walking up a hill dead into the wind. I thought I might die and tried to take a shortcut which I think was just a shorter harder way. Exhausted by the time I made it back to the car. We completely skipped Hellnar and the black houses we wanted to shoot there. We had reached our wall. We wanted to sit down!

ARNARSTAPI HOME FOR THE NIGHT
I'm not sure how I picked this location or home, but we found a place on Airbnb that appeared to be in a great location. And it was. Literally on the coast (well, a little walk, but as close as any place) and with the major sights of the area in the backyard. We found out the next morning that we were only the 4th guest to stay in the cottage. Maggy, the co-owner of Go West (a highly reviewed tour operator) had just bought the house recently and started renting it out in February. She was as sweet as could be and stopped by the next morning to say hi and bring her dog to meet the kids. We had listened to her advise and bought dinner to fix earlier in the day. Taco Night in Iceland! It was really good. Our two bedroom cottage was just enough for our comfort. Once Josh had me figure out how to turn on all the radiators he seemed happier with the pick. (I think he was starting to miss his bed by now) We had a wood fired stove in the living room that was super comfy and our only fire all trip. It was a bit surreal watching a movie (we rented Walter MItty) in a cottage on the coast of Iceland with a fire burning. Other than our daughter now convinced that monsters were living in her head because she thinks about monsters when she sleeps, we had a decent night sleep. No Northern Lights, but I'm not sure if we just slept through them. That's possible. Maggy had just added a few details that I told her were very much appreciated. Several kids puzzles, which we did, some books and these cool Iceland pillowcases that I looked for, but couldn't find to bring home.

A LATE MORNING
We took advantage of the large apartment and had a leisurely morning sleeping in and taking showers in a normal sized bathroom. It was surprisingly quiet considering we were in the heart of the city. It has become apparent that Icelandic people don't tend to get up early. We go to bed too early to say whether they stay up late. The kids were excited to have a TV even though it only had one English Channel. The previous night they had watched a documentary about the Russian circus. This morning we found them watching an inappropriate episode of Dr. Phil. A side note: all the stoplight in the city have hearts. I LOVE that. 

BLAA KANNAN CAFE
After checking out and making sure we had a parking spot for our car (free parking only until 10) we got a cake box and headed a block over to the coffee shop we saw the night before. Really cute place in a bright blue house. Grabbed a table by the window while Josh ordered some food. Setting was super chill and I could see myself sipping coffee and working there as a third place. The food was just okay. The quiche was a bit flavorless and the kids didn't like the cream cheese on their bagels. They still haven't grasped that all the dairy tastes different and that French fries don't come with all burgers.

HVAMMSTANGI
The town we were spending the night in was only about 2 hrs away. The kids took their normal nap while we drove. The only stop was to play with some horses on the side of the road. Those animals have quite the personality. I swear they were posing for pics behind their electric fence. We had contemplated driving into the Westfjords a bit to explore. However it looked like all the good places yo hit were atleast a 4 hour drive one way. Now I see why people do the Westfjords as a completely separate trip. I bet they would be great in Summer. They looked completely white in every view we got of them. Instead we stopped at the Seal Centre, labeled as Selasetur Islands. Downstairs was a space dedicated to information on the many types of seals and seal souvenirs. We got a map and were directed to all the seal beaches around the Vatnsnes Peninsula . The seals are around all year but tend to only come in at low tide. We were right at high tide. Regardless we took the challenge and started out on the 100km loop. The first beach was beautiful but completely abandoned. No seals. We stood and enjoyed the view. All of a sudden our daughter screamed "I see a seal!" Both Josh and I groaned. The whole trip our son has been screaming about flying fish sightings. They were actually just rocks causing whitecaps. But we looked. And sure enough there was a seal. His head and neck stretched out of the water checking us out. Of course we didn't bring the telephoto lens so we don't have great phototographic proof. It ended up being the only seal we would see all day. We had fun seal searching though. We also found Hvitserkur, the giant rock formation right off the shoreline. Josh scrambled down the hillside to get a good shot for us.

SJAVARBORG
The woman at the seal Centre told us to have dinner at Gauksmyri's restaurant as we finished the loop. We were hungry after all our seal searching and were ready for dinner. However, the restaurant wasn't open. Instead the told us to go to their other restaurant - above the Seal Centre. Okay. So we headed back there. According to Lonely Planet this restaurant is brand new. It hadn't opened yet when they published. Considering we were a bit in the middle of nowhere it was a surprisingly large and chic place. Glass windows overlooking the harbour. The menu was more inventive than anything we had found yet. I'm not sure where all these people came from but there were several parties by the time we finished.

HORSE BACK RIDING
I'm not sure what all these horses are doing in this country. What are they breeding them for? I should Google that or maybe read it in my book. The kids have been begging to ride. Before we set out on our seal expedition we tried to go. Josh asked the seal lady for a place and she gave us a farm down the road. We tried asking three different people. No one speaking English and pointing us somewhere else. We finally found the person running the horse rides. He was going out on a ride for an hour but told us to come back and the kids could ride in the ring. It occurred to us that we had no money and that this institution probably dung tajes cards. We promised the kids we would go back I'm warm North Carolina and went looking for seals.

HVAMMSTANGI COTTAGES
The cottages were nice enough and the location was great for jumping off the next day, but we had our worst night's sleep here. The wind was so extreme that it shook the whole cabin. We had a double bunk bed and Josh felt a little claustrophobic. They were somehow completely full though.

BREAKFAST WITH THE COWS

I was woken up promptly at 7am to the declarations that it was seven and time to go milk the cows! Ugh. Breakfast wouldn't start until 8 so I reminded the kids it was a special day (Josh's birthday) and urged everyone to attempt to dress themselves. We have the same formula for outfits each day and yet the kids can't figure it out. Long underwear + waterproof pants + fleece. Regardless, we all managed to put our clothes on, get mostly packed up and headed to the restaurant/barn. We were welcomed into the cow portion of the barn where we met the newest baby (She was born yesterday) and all the other cows. I've now been in quite a few cow barns with the kids and I couldn't believe how clean the cows are. I guess if you are going to have a viewing window from an eating establishment into your barn, you must be pretty confident in her cleanliness. We asked more ridiculous questions like "why is there a harness on that cow" or "why does that cow eat lying down like Raven"? and dropped daddy's bday card on the barn floor (sorry). Answers: her udders are too big and she'd step on them and those are obviously the smart cows. This cow craziness made Josh and I break out our new favorite knock knock joke - we looked up a LOT of jokes one day when the kids were bored.

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Cow-go
Cow-go who?
No! Cow go moo!

I know we are hysterical. The kids rolled their eyes and took their tarting cups of fresh milk over to our table. Josh tried very hard to not let the kids drink fresh milk but that was a losing battle. We were happy no one puked. Our daughter - not a fan of fresh milk. Our son - will literally drink anything. Breakfast was quite the spread. With so many different kinds of fresh breads, jams, meats, pates. We filled our bellies and got on the road.

HVERIR
So it is basically a bunch of bubbly mud holes with steam venting out of the earth on big plumes. It smelled of sulphur but something about the constant,y shifting stream made the walk around the holes a bit romantic. We explained three times to the kids how important it was to stay between the ropes and not jump off the path. They wanted to know details about how hot the water really was and what it would do to them. Nothing says peaceful walk like following those questions that left me with little to no comfort that they got it. Halfway through the walk, our son started crying that his hands were falling off. It was cold. We got him back into the heated car so we could finish looking around and taking pictures. I actually had Josh drive is back later so I could get a picture I couldn't earlier. You can't get more convenient than the location right off the road.

KRAFLA
I don't have much of a report for this volcanic area. We ventured in to look for Viti which is supposed to be a green lagoon at the center of a crater. I'm sure it was pretty but we never made it. The road winded around the area for many KMs before just ending in snow. Hmmm. An empty van was in front of us. We looked up on the ridge high above us and some s line of people trekking in a lime, looking like ants. Yep. No chance we would make it up there. So that's as lose as we got. We turned around and stopped at the overlook to get a view of the entire area that main,y consisted of a massive geothermal power plant. We contemplated going into the visitors center to learn more about geothermal but thought the kids might bust.

MYVATN NATURE BATHS
After seeing how much the kids enjoyed Blue Lagoon we thought a visit here would be appreciated it. We hadn't previously planned to go but the pictures looked pretty. And it was a LOT cheaper than the more touristy Blue Lagoon. The BL was glitzy with fancy bathrooms, attendants all over, hidden caves in the pools. Kinda the Disney of natural baths. MNB felt much more local and authentic. It was $40 for all of us combined. They opened at noon so we were there waiting for them to open and were the first people in. I'd guess there were 20 people total when we left. The water felt warmed and we liked the cold pool. It was actually just warm and was nice to cool down before going back to the hot water again. I'd highly recommend a stop there. I'd also suggest putting those orange floaties on your kids even if they are a good swimmer. The steam is so thick it was the only way I could see the kids at times. I'd also recommend NOT listening to the person who works there when she says not to set your hair first - because of how cold it is. Our daughter's hair was a mess this time since we didn't load it with conditioner. I used an entire travel bottle on her afterwards to be able to brush it. It occurred to me when I was dousing her hair in an open shower, how odd we must look. We hadn't seen a single black or biracial person in Iceland. And very few kids. A few Asian families but that was it. Interesting that it took 5 days for me to realize that. I'm usually pretty aware to that.

GAMLI BAERINN
We tried a few places to find lunch. Our first attempt at Daddi's Pizza was shot down because they were closed. We've had about a 25% success rate despite what the Lonely Planet Guide or websites said. We stumbled upon the Gamli Bistro which was cozy and inviting. For the first time on the trip we had too much food. Neither my son or I could finish our soup. Maybe because we ordered some Geysir bread topped with cream cheese and smoked salmon to start. That was delicious. The kids sucked down the homemade hot chocolate with fresh cream like nobody's business. They were in a food coma and asleep before we had barely gotten out of the parking lot.

GODAFOSS
We had a short hour drive this day to get to Akureyri and had not planned to stop at the Godafoss Waterfall. Luckily the kids were asleep so we didn't have to struggle with them falling over the side. This was actually my favorite Waterfall of the trip (so far). The parking lot takes you to the top of the falls. There are no ropes or rails. You could literally wLk into the falls and go plummeting over. I was horrified to watch people scurrying up snow covered ledges to "get s better view". I actually googled "Godafoss tourist death" but nothing came up. The falls were wide and huge. Josh and I took turns looking and then finished our drive.

AKUREYRI
The largest town outside the capital. It was much larger and picturesque than either of us expected. Situated along the fjord and sprawling up the hillside. Reminded us of a mini non-medieval Florence. The timing worked out well so that we could spend Josh's birthday in a modern town. I rented a two bedroom apartment through Airbnb. The location was perfect in the center of town. ACCO apartments above Cafe Berlin. I had emailed back and forth with the owner of Cafe Berlin about having a cake made for Josh. When I checked in (an hour before they were closing) I asked about the cake. Yes, the chocolate cake! For tomorrow? No tonight. Ah, yes. Come back in an hour. An hour later I snuck out of the apartment and picked up a chocolate cake fresh out of the oven with edible snowflakes covering the top. He gave me a cake cover to keep it fresh. It was delicious and still warm when we are it later that night.

DINNER AT RUB23, NO BACKPACKERS, NO BRYGGJAN
We didn't make a dinner reservation but had read about RUB23 and planned to have dinner there. It was close by the apartment and we were quickly seated in the most modern and upscale place we had seen the whole trip. Even the kids menu was super fancy. Our daughter somehow colored the whole permanent menu while we looked for drinks. Great! We were both struggling to find what we wanted. We don't have a problem paying for a nice dinner but it was really pricey. Too pricey to keep the kids quiet, it was pretty stuffy quiet. We were seated for awhile and still no one came to get our drink orders. We made the executive decision and left. We headed over to the Backpackers Hostel that we had passed and the cafe had been busy. It was very hipster cool inside but every table was taken. Josh pulled out his phone and headed to the iheartrekjavik blog that we used for some planning. Based on her review of a quirky restaurant down at the harbour we jumped in the car and hoped third time was a charm. Bryggjan was perfect. A very old industrial building that was filled with wood and warm lighting. I agreed with the review that it felt like it would be a really expensive place, especially in the US but it was pizza, burgers and fish n chips. Our son had been  begging for fish and chips all day. This was perfect. There were three or four other groups there but I think we were the only non-local people. Good birthday dinner. We spent most of dinner making a list of our favorite 38 things about Daddy for his 38th birthday. We discovered that our daughter REALLY likes his hugs. We headed back to the apartment and finished birthday festivities with singing in both English and Chinese, followed by some yummy Icelandic chocolate cake. Happy Birthday Josh!