William Turns 15

William's birthday fell during finals week this year, so we saved the pool party and family visit until the weekend.  As is tradition, Rosie was here for his birthday, so both she and Lucy signed his card and I drove to pick up donuts.   It's hard to buy for a 15 year old who asked his uncle for the one thing he really wanted (air pods), so I got him a box of 15 different things: mostly foods from World Market!  It all must have been pretty good because he didn't offer to share much of it!  John got him the cologne he ask for.  I don't remember what it's called but it smells great.  My better than the Drakkar Noir of my youth.

In a harbinger of what was to come, I saw the first cicadas on the pool deck that weekend.....

For birthday weekend, I was very excited to bake and decorate a volleyball cake.  It was my first time to decorate with frosting tips and I thought it was a good effort.  I was particularly proud of getting the buttercream frosting pure white.  Thanks internet for that tip about the violet gel food coloring!  And my mom brought her famous rice krispy treats.  So we were ready!

Happy to have the entire VanMeter family here to celebrate the newly 15 year old!  

Iceland - Vik

About three hours drive from Reykjavik along the southern coast is Vik, which is known for its black sand beach from lava flows.   Most famous is Reynisfjara which has very dangerous currents in addition to dramatic basalt columns (sea stacks) used for many backdrops such as Game of Thrones.  

Immediately prior to the beach is Dyrholaey Lighthouse, a famous puffin nesting ground.  We were a week or so too early in the season to see the puffins, but we scoured the place "just in case!"  

After lunch at a great micro brewery in Vik, we heading back inland to see Skogafoss and then for another stop by Thingvellir and got these amazing photos of Silfra and talked about what it would have been like had we done the dry suit snorkel tour in the freezing water between the tectonic plates.  Spoiler alert:  I was anxious just taking the gorgeous photo from the loading dock!

Skogafoss was amazing.  I actually didn't want us to stop because you could see the waterfall from teh highway and I thought it was just another waterfall.  But it has a few unique features.  You can get incredibly close to it.   There is a double, horizontal rainbow.   And then you can climb a set of stairs to go to the top of the waterfall.  This area at the top of the waterfall is supposed to be gorgeous in the summer covered in wildflowers and additional waterfalls as you can hike several hours inland.   It was neat to hike up to but pretty windy and we wanted to continue on to Thingvellir so didn't stay too longer.

Iceland - Golden Circle

On our first full day in Iceland, we had the Golden Circle planned.  When I first started thinking about an Iceland trip if was for the Northern Lights in winter and I was worried about self-driving.  We ended up with a beautiful, bright sun day perfect for a roadtrip.  Early May is definitely shoulder season in Iceland.  The lights aren't visible due to the increasingly sunny days but the summer green and the cruise ship season hasn't started.  It was the perfect speed for us.  Temperature was mostly 50s and windy.  I wore wool lined yoga pants, long sleeve shirt, puffer coat and a wind breaker over it for rain (but mostly wind) and had gloves and earband.  The wind made the earband key to keep my hair out of my eyes and my ears warm.

Before we hit the road, we ventured down Rainbow Street to get coffee and pastries and window shop.

The Golden Circle main highlights are Thingvellir National Park, Geysir Geothermal Area, and Gullfoss Waterfall 

First up was Thingvellir, about a 90 minute drive from our hotel.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and home of Iceland's first settlement and where parliament met in the first millennia.  It is where the tectonic plates of America and Asia drift apart and it is possible in Silfra Fissure to snorkel or scuba in the divide.   

       

Next was Geysir.   To be honest, this was under whelming since we have been to Yellowstone.  Strokkur is the main geyser that is currently erupting every 8-10 minutes, so we saw it a few times.  We did have an app that we downloaded to narrate our tour and give us some history along the drive.   That's where we learned that the Iceland word, geysir, (pronounced gay-szeer) is the origin for the English word geyser.      

The final signature stop was Gullfoss, which means golden waterfall, and is famous for its volume and unusual shape.   We were glad to have our raincoats for the splash blowing in the wind!  We walked down to the lower viewing platform and also walked up to the upper parking lot for additional views.  I wasn't able to capture it in photos well but beyond the water falls you could see the glaciers of the inner part of the island.    

Our last stop of the day was at Kerid Crater, a volcanic crater which has a lake fed from ground water.  The parking lot is along the top but it is easy to hike down and walk around the lake, which we did.
 

We had a lovely lunch during our roadtrip at Fridheimar, a tomato greenhouse that has a restaurant inside.  Every dish had tomatoes (some of which John found surprising!), and it was all very delicious and fresh.  We learned about how the geothermal activity is harnessed for heating the greenhouse.   A very cool experience.   Also outside were Icelandic horses that we finally got to see up close!