After all, this trip was celebratory in nature. Clara graduated from UW (go Dawgs!) and HOS turned 18. It was the first of the you-get-to-travel-because-you-graduated-college and the last of the you-get-to-travel-because-you're-an-adult trips. If you're keeping track, we have two more big trips coming up. (We're no dummies. Excuses abound if you look hard enough.)

We left Seattle in the evening. It's a direct flight to Reykjavik (technically Keflavik, but we technically left Seatac not Seattle so pfft) so we figured we'd be able to sleep. And since we were flying Iceland Air (and not the dreaded Delta) we got to choose our seats. And we wound up with two rows of six seats for the four of us.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset over the Salish Sea and Kulshan before night fell. I woke up just in time to see the east coast of Greenland. Spec-tac-u-lar. Big mountains. Glaciers. Icebergs. Amazing.

We arrived over Iceland to a surprisingly clear sky. The first thing that struck me was the lack of trees. Like no trees. Zero. Freaky. And then there was the active-frickin-volcano spewing smoke only a few miles from the airport. What?

We got a car (probably too small) and headed to our rental house outside Reykjavik. We had the third floor of a very old house. Lots of room. Lots of light. Maybe a little too many squeaky floorboards given the owners were right below. No worries. We weren't there to hang around the house.

Our first day would be a drive around the Reykjanes Peninsula to get our bearings. We stopped at a big lake (meh), a geothermal site with mudpots (cool), a bird colony on cliffs overlooking the ocean (meh), and then the volcano.

I won't cover the eruption in the Sundhnúkur crater row here because there's going to be a whole separate post on it. Yeah. It was worthy. Suffice to say we saw new earth being created and it was amazing.

Also worthy was the Blue Lagoon. Yeah, it's a total tourist trap and waaaay overpriced. But it's the tourist trap so of course we went. You arrive, get changed, and walk in. The water was warm approaching hot, but never uncomfortable. And you could moderate the temperature by going closer or farther from hot spots. The mud masks were silly and the drinks weren't special, but definitely worth it. (How worth it? When Lilly has a layover on an upcoming trip she's going to visit.)

Day one down. Five to go. (Only six days? Yeah, I know. But kind of hard to justify being gone longer after being gone for two weeks already this summer.)

As usual, we were listening to Rick Steve's guidance. Next up was the very touristy Golden Circle. We drove almost 200 miles over the course of the day so we could see the big attractions (Thingvellir National Park, Geysir, and Gullfoss) as well as a couple of smaller stops.

(Wait. That's it? No details? Well, no. There's going to be a separate post for that, too.)

The first two days had been dry. Not so for the third. No worries. We're from Seattle (sort of) and we're used to the rain. We spent the day touring Reykjavik. Yeah, we did the tourist streets and the Starbucks. We had the famous hot dogs, though they weren't really hot dogs at all. We visited the huge cathedral in the middle of town and a smaller church that was far more approachable. We ended the day at the Perlan museum.

The Perlan is focused on Iceland's nature and is highly interactive. Great displays and things to touch were everywhere. The highlight, though, was the "ice cave". After learning about glaciers you can walk through an ice-encrusted set of tunnels that might as well have been below a massive glacier. It's a pricey stop, but highly recommended. (And after all, Iceland is not known for being inexpensive.)

We finished the day at the cringe-worthy Viking Village for dinner. I was definitely expecting it would be way too touristy even for us, but in fact it was a great restaurant in a really old building. No viking songs were heard. But the lamb shank... wow.

That brings up the food. Lots of lamb. Lots of soups. Lots of "hearty" foods. And there were more American foods to be had as well. There's a Costco in Reykjavik with a food court (yes, your Costco card works there) and you can find KFCs all over the place. Many of your familiar brands are in the markets so you get to choose whether to be adventurous or not. I tried to eat things not on my usual menu, but Costco pizza is hard to turn down.

We woke the next morning to a cloudy, but dry sky. We had a drive ahead of us along the south coast to our next house. This one was definitely not in a town so it felt much more familiar. Especially when a black lab bounced up to greet us. We dropped our bags and were back in the car in short order because we had a ferry to catch.

It wasn't actually on our original itinerary, but the weather looked decent and we could just make it work. We may have sped a wee bit, but we made the ferry to Vestmannaeyjar. My weak constitution can't handle the sedate ferry to Whidbey Island so you know I was having some trouble on the ocean. I managed by standing on the bow of the ship so the wind could blast me in the face. The others stood by my side either in support or to see me lose it. I'm not sure which.

And you guessed it. There's a dedicated post for this day, too. Stay tuned.

You must be wondering when there was going to be more hiking. After all, I'm a hiker. Iceland is renowned for outdoor adventures. When will it happen? Oh... right about now. The boy and I embarked on a 25km hike that was truly epic. More on that in a separate post.

Meanwhile, Amy and Clara visited the Lava Center which left Clara raving and they visited Vík and its black sand beaches. (I'd have felt bad about missing the black sand beach, but we had one a few minutes' walk from our house.) When we joined back up at the end of the day, we did a short walk to get up close to a glacier. Big ice. A sad retreat due to climate change.

Our last day of adventure was a drive back toward Reykjavik for a one-night stay in a house close-ish to the airport. You might think these drives are boring, but they aren't. All along the way there are waterfalls that would be major tourist attractions anywhere else. In Iceland they're just more waterfalls.

And then there were the yarn shops. Remember all the lamb we ate? Lambs come from sheeps and sheeps make wool and wool makes yarn and Amy makes the knittings. Some shops were meh, but others were really impressive. In Hella, there's a shop where they make their own dyes from local plants. Definitely awesome.

Our flight home was about as exciting as you'd expect. Especially since we were above the clouds all the way until landing in Seattle. Customs was another fun experience, but quick right up to the point where I declared I did actually have meat products. (They were all packaged jerky and we were allowed to keep them.)

In spite of the cost and the crowds and the unpredictable weather, Iceland was a win. I've already got two more trips planned. One with the dear wife where we'll circle the country and the other with the boy so we can do a three-day hut-to-hut hike. When? Yikes. Don't know. But they will happen. Stay tuned.