Happy Birthday Mike!  Let’s get up and go look for whales!  So, we drove up the coast to Dalvik and got on a boat with one other family and sailed out into the Fjord and the North Atlantic.  There were lots of puffins to see, dolphins, and one lonely Minke whale. They say they call them stinky Minky because sometimes they have a bit of an odor, and I guess that is true because there was a bit of a stink to the Minke. Unfortunately, we saw no humpback whales on this trip, but maybe in the next 45 years or so. The crazy thing was all the waterfalls coming off the cliffs into the sea. Iceland is really the land of waterfalls. It’s stunning that everywhere you turn, there is another river, another waterfall, and another little stream. It’s amazing.
 
After whale watching, we went to a little park in the forest south of town, had cheese, grapes, and crackers and watched Madeline go down a slide about 200 times. She is an endless ball of energy and adventure.  
 
We then headed down to the Christmas store and bought a little ornament and then up to the Polar Hestar riding stables. The drive was gorgeous and it seemed like an endless parade of farms and fields at the base of the mountains. This country is truly gorgeous in the summer.
 
Once at the stables, Madeline played with the lambs and dogs while we waited for our horses to get ready. We then headed off down the road on our horses. Even little Madeline was riding along on her own right next to one of the guides. The Icelandic horses have a gear that other horses don’t have called the tolt. It was pretty fun to experience that and then ride up into the mountains.  It was stunning country with a river coming through a canyon, mountain on every side with a Fjord at their base to the east. The mountain pastures were full of sheep and brand-new lambs (some just 1 week old!). It was an amazing ride with cool guides from Germany and Iceland. They were great with Madeline, and everyone had a good time. At the end, we had hot chocolate and cakes and cookies. The only bad part was the price, which totally escaped Mike’s conversion capabilities.  Sometimes, when travelling overseas, you don’t realize the price until it’s too late. This was one of those cases. A steep lesson for a seasoned traveler, but one that will not be forgotten. After that, we had dinner at the apartment, showers, and an early night. Off to more adventures tomorrow! 

The Icelandic people really love their licorice

Happy Independence Day America! We celebrated by eating a mondo breakfast at the hotel. It was Euro-fantastic. Once we were gorged, we packed up our gear into the cube and headed out to the Northern Island! 
 
On our way, we stopped at Glymur waterfall (the 2nd highest waterfall in Iceland) for a leisurely walk up a death-defying mountain with two perilous river crossings and death at every turn! It was totally up our alley. The first little bit was pretty easy, but then we had to go through a cave, and down the slope to the river where there was a really sketchy log river crossing. Of course, the water was super high, so there was some bonus traversing to be done. Abby screamed the most, and Madeline held on for dear life. Fortunately, no one fell in. 
 
After the river crossing, we headed up, up and up the steep slopes toward the waterfall. Madeline was a trooper and held onto the ropes on the steep parts, and our hands during the other really steep parts. It was kind of like Angels’ landing in Zion’s National Park except wet and slippery and a lot more Russian tourists.
 
The hike up was staggering and the beauty immersive. The waterfall did not disappoint, and the canyon was breathtaking. It’s hard to capture places like this with photos or videos because the feeling of the damp air on your face, the wind in your hair, and the exhilaration of standing on the edge of a cliff combine into a truly intense experience.  
 
Once we gained the top of the falls, we crossed the river in our water shoes (yippee for planning!).  The water was cold, and we saw another person slip and lose their backpack down the river and over the falls. I imagine that canyon is a veritable treasure trove of stuff that people lose in the river. We hiked back down the other side and made it back to our car with only some dirty butts and sore feet. Once back in our Peugeot box, we made PB&J sandwiches and headed north.  
 
The drive north to Akureyri was very pastoral and the ring road is a marvel of narrowness. Driving that in bad weather is not to be underestimated, but we had good weather and made it to our rental apartment without too much drama. Then Mike headed out to get groceries and hot dogs for dinner (so that we could be at least a little American on the 4th).  The amazing thing is that since the sun stays up until about 12:45 AM, you really can get a heck of a lot done in the evening.  

Madeline was NOT a fan of all the gnats

Flying out of Denver is never that much fun.  It’s a long way to the airport, and the traffic from the I-25 gap project doesn’t make it any easier to get there. But after sitting in traffic in Larkspur, we finally made it to the airport. However, we didn’t anticipate that everyone from Colorado was going to be travelling this 4th of July. The parking lot we usually use was full, so we had to make a mad dash for another place, but it was terrible, so we finally just had to suck it up and park at the airport. Of course, parking was just the start of the lines. The line for Iceland Air was long as well. Fortunately, we waited behind some Denverites who were headed to Iceland as well, so it was entertaining listening to them. Security wasn’t too bad, and we made it to our gate just in time to start boarding. It must be said, that Icelandair is great overall for a discount airline. The flight was easy and pretty comfy overall.
 
Somewhere, over the Atlantic we popped forward a day and landed in Iceland at 6:20am. Everyone got a little sleep, but none more than Madeline who got to lay down and sleep for most of the flight. The airport in Keflavik is kitschy, but the boarder control line was ridiculous.  Somehow, we made it through it relatively quickly. We had our passports, COVID-19 cards, and documents ready to go. Once through customs, we fiddle faddled until Sara asked someone where our car rental company pick-up was located. We got in a van and headed to the Dollar car rental place and picked up our box (as Emma liked to call it). Considering the absolute lemon we rented last time we were in Iceland, this was a veritable Porsche. Fortunately, all our suitcases and Madeline’s car seat fit inside without any problems.
 
With everyone and everything loaded, we headed to the Hilton in Reykjavik where we dropped off our suitcases since our room wouldn’t be ready for another 8 hours. After dropping off our gear, we headed to the downtown area for a bite of breakfast. We thought about going to a swanky place, but the line was silly, so we headed to our old staple Braud and Co. With croissants and cinnamon rolls in hand we saw Leif Erickson’s statue by the church and then headed off to the zoo.
 
It turns out the zoo was more of a who’s who of Iceland petting zoo with a fair number of carnival rides.  It was a lot of fun for totally jet lagged travelers. There were seals, chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, reindeer, artic foxes, and pigs. That’s it. A collection of farm animals and seals. Seems about right. The rides were fun and there was a great playground for Madeline. Abby and Emma did some thrill rides while Madeline and Mike did the most Euro-cringey carrousel ever imagined. It was great. For some reason, Madeline had more energy than is reasonable and basically dragged us around. Emma demonstrated that she can’t do a hamster wheel and we caught it on video, ouch!
 
After the zoo/amusement park, we headed to the botanical gardens and walked around for 5 minutes but realized that our delirium was worse than we realized so we headed back to the car.  From there, we went to the mall, because if you haven’t been to a mall in Iceland, then you haven’t lived. We got some lunch there as well and realized that malls in Iceland are about as awesome as malls in America.  
 
After slumming it at the mall, we decided that driving wasn’t safe, so we headed back to the hotel and fell asleep in the lobby until our room was ready. After that, we crashed hard in our rooms for three hours, then got up and headed out again. We got dinner at this cool hamburger joint. The guy behind the counter advised us to try the special Icelandic sauce for our fries. So, we took our meal to the park by the lake downtown and ate our hamburgers under a tarp of gnats. It turns out that the special Icelandic sauce is fry sauce. So, I guess someone from Utah taught the people in Iceland about French fries. It was delicious.  
 
After dinner, we went down to the lighthouse and walked on the ocean and let Madeline throw rocks back into the sea. At about 10:30 PM, we headed back to the hotel, with the sun still shining brightly and fell asleep.

We laughed so hard when we saw this shirt. It was a little how we were feeling after being so sleep deprived from missing an entire nights sleep. And we were delirious so there's that.