Our First US Visitors!
[Written 19 JULY 2014. Because there was a huge backlog. Sorry Stella!]
Early Sunday morning, our good US friends, Sarah and Augusto, arrived in Iceland from California with their two children. I went out to the airport to pick them up, we fed them, and then shooed them into bed for a quick nap.
A couple of hours later, Sarah’s parents, Stella and Walter, also arrived, and this time Finnur went and picked them up from the airport. He dropped them off at his parents’ place, where they would be staying while Finnur’s parents were traveling. (Finnur’s parents are awesome like that!)
Thus began two weeks of fun-ness, and a great time was had by all!
Being a total trooper, Sarah’s already begun blogging about their trip, see the Trip to Iceland, and the First Day, so I guess now it’s my turn.
As it happened, Finnur worked through their first week here, so I was responsible for our three kiddos. This left me somewhat mentally and physically drained (it’s like herding cats!), so I didn’t take a whole lot of photos, and the few I took were mostly on my cell phone. Sorry!! (But Augusto took a ton, so watch their blog if interested.)
So here goes! (26 images total)
Sunday 29 June 2014 – Arrival and Salalaug Swimming Pool
While our guests slept, we did our best to keep the house quiet. The big kids were engrossed in their computers, Finnur was out on an airport run, so that left Emma and me. The weather was nice so I used the opportunity to visit the playground of her daycare-to-be (now closed for the summer holiday). I also took her to this tiny playground adjacent to it. She was very happy there, although she had a hard time understanding why she couldn’t just go up the slide once she’d gone down it.
After waking our guests up around 1 pm, we took them on a short hike up the hill and to the local swimming pool, Salalaug. That’s the pool that has the hot tub at the top of the slide.
Bjarki being cute.
For dinner we had the hamburgers and hot dogs left over from Bjarki’s birthday party the day before. (Sidenote: Find Augusto!)
Wheeee! Dinner times are fun! (And slightly bonkers with that many people!)
Monday 30 June 2014 – The Pearl and Nauthólsvík
It was a dreadfully rainy and somewhat windy day. What to do… what to do?
I decided to take our visitors to the Pearl (Perlan) in the hopes they’d get a sense of the city layout. Oh, and my kids wanted ice cream. The promise of one got them out the door and into the car pretty fast!
Sarah and Stella braving the rain (and wind in certain places) outside, while Augusto cosies up with the kiddos and ice cream inside.
After checking out the views and ooohing at the indoors three-story-high water fountain, we drove down and around the hill, and visited the artificial beach of Nauthólsvík. It’s artificial because they moved all that blonde sand there, and warm water is continually pumped into the sea so that it’s not quite as cold as it could be. (Click on the image for a bigger version). Also, see that circular pool/hot tub down by the sea? That’s Anna and Bjarki wading. Before too long they came running back insisting on getting their swim gear on, and I couldn’t say no.
Before we’d left the house, I’d quickly pulled together swim gear for everybody except me and Sarah (I got half of hers, I’ll never know why I decided she wouldn’t be needing her top?!?!) and before we knew it, all the kiddos had dived into the pool by the sea, even naked Emma. That pool was too cold for Emma though, so I quickly brought her to the hot hot tub further up on the beach, where the staff offered her armbands. The rest of the water-folk followed eventually, and didn’t get out until it was almost dinner time. Thankfully it wasn’t windy at all down there!
Tuesday 1 July 2014 – The National Museum of Iceland and Ásvallalaug
Another crappy weather day, with rain and tons of wind. Decidedly an indoor day,
so a museum and the biggest indoor pool were on the menu after a low key morning.
Emma and Clarissa playing civilly after a somewhat bumpy start.
Anna watching one of her endless Minecraft videos, while Augusto and Jason lounge on the sofa.
I suggested we go to the National Museum of Iceland, where we ended up eating lunch.
After we were done with the museum, we took the lets-drive-through-downtown-Reykjavík–on-the-way-back route.
Sarah’s parents asked to be dropped off, and then we went to the Ásvallalaug swimming pool.
That’s an indoor pool with a fun slide, lots of hot tubs, and a 50 m competition pool.
Augusto and Sarah took all the kids inside except Emma, who slept in the car with me for the first little bit.
We then joined them, and I scored a massive bruise on my ankle after I topsy turvyed just as
I was sitting down at the top of the slide. Well done me!
It was a little surreal exiting the warm and balmy pool enclosure, only to be slammed with wind and rain.
Yay! Icelandic weather FTW!
Wednesday 2 July 2014 – Árbæjarsafn (The Old Houses Museum) and the Family Park
Finally, a non-windy day, albeit with scattered showers. It was deemed outside-worthy,
so we visited the museum of old houses, and the domesticated animals zoo/family park. It was a fun day!
Stella walking among some old houses.
Probably the coolest house there. It’s the preserved original farm house, which is a strange mixture of oldish and older.
Emma slept through most of it. She must have been growing!
Looking down the hill. That black dot in the distance is Anna looking at some horses. (Click for larger version.)
Anna pushing Bjarki along in one of the cool push-cars.
Good times!!
At the domesticated animal zoo/family park I was ordered to rest up in the car for an hour before joining the gang. It was nice! When I found them later, everybody seemed to be having a good time. The big kids particularly enjoyed these water balloons. We have since then gotten ourselves an annual pass, and gone twice more!
Right before dinner, I made a super quick Ikea trip, to launch the newest Hrefna-reorganizes-the-house craze, which is still in progress as this is written.
After we played pinochle for a good while, the boys played some FIFA 14.
Finnur being victorious!
Thursday 3 July 2014 – The Visitors go Downtown, Hrefna Modifies Furniture
The US contingent decided they wanted to give their guide a break, and venture out on their own.
The weather forecast was iffy, but the day turned out really nice. Apparently they went downtown,
and then to the Laugardalslaug swimming pool. Both are quite high on the tourists-must-visit-list,
but not so high with the locals. I was therefore happy to be left at home!
While Emma napped (and the big kids were wherever, probably next door) I performed my first ever Ikea modification. I’d bought this chest of drawers the day before, but found the legs to be way too long. So I set out to shorten them. P.S. Anna spent the evening before assembling this big thing pretty much all by herself, expertly using a drill and everything! I did do the drawers and the back though because they needed a hammer and had to be done when no one was sleeping, i.e. the day after.
Many years ago I picked up this saw and saw-guide in the US. It finally came in really handy!
Stub all sanded down and installed.
Success!! It’s not even wobbly!
(I ended up staining the chest of drawers with white mineral oil to better match the other furniture in Bjarki’s room.)
After a week in the capital it was time to move elsewhere.
The day after we set out for the summer house(s) in Laugarvatn. See the next entry!
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