Laugarvatn, Soccer & Vacation Countdown

2021-07-02Uncategorized Standard

[Photos taken 02 – 11 July 2021, posted online 09 October 2021. We went to see the new Bond movie last night in a packed theater, almost felt normal.]

Our summer vacation window was a weird one this summer. First off, Bjarki’s summer job-school (i.e. weeding public spaces) went until 21 July, secondly Anna’s summer job (also of the gardening variety) stretched to the end of July, and thirdly, the schools started up on 19 and 25 August.

As a result, we ended up starting our vacation mid-July-ish, which meant the customary mental knuckling-through-July until the vacation began.

We did manage to do a few things. We visited Finnur’s parents’ summer house on a wonderfully warm day, I set some sort of personal record in most restaurants visited in one not-on-vacation-week, and Emma participate in the annual huge girls soccer meet in our town, and came away victorious! (70-ish images total)

Friday 02 July 2021

My worst new habit… or my gift to myself to survive until summer vacation began. Yes, a new café opened up sort of on the way to work (if you squint) and I found myself there most mornings.
The greenery grew greener. Spoiler alert: most everything grew very well except the broccoli which languished, possibly due to poor soil quality. Oh, and I had planted the strawberry plants too close together, so they basically turned into mold central.
Enjoying a bit of sun after work, having watered the plants.
Sugar snap peas coming along nicely.
Smog over the city. The weather people told us it was stuff from the volcano that had blown out to sea, undergone some chemical process and then blown back to shore as smog. I think this summer ended up with the fewest sun-hours in Reykjavik for some decades…
Pandemic: Season 0 session about to commence!
Our living room curtains do not support easy evening TV viewing during the bright high summer. This was Anna’s workaround! (This image is taken at 14 minutes past midnight, technically on 03 July.)

Saturday 03 July 2021

Selfie on my weekly-mental-fueling-morning-café-trip.
In the gas station to eat a Subway sandwich and procuring car-cookies/candy. Finnur had departed the day before with Emma in tow.
Driving out of town, destination: Laugarvatn. The volcano-derived-smog was still in residence.
Hello Lake Þingvallarvatn, it’s been a long time!
Not only was it super warm outside (21.5 C/70.7F!) but the new and improved road through Thingvellir was now open, with generous parking spaces off to the side! This used to be a very narrow road, that was partially crumbling away at the edges.
Laugarvatn spotted in the distance.
The weather at Finnur’s parent’s cabin was so calm and warm that badminton was a no-brainer.
Hiding from the sun for a bit.
More sun-hiding.
The newest project: a dry sauna.
Found Finnur, he was being helpful.
This was a hat-not-optional-day.
Calm.
Emma found the wooden tilt-maze.
Mom, can you take a photo of this toy?
The trumpet was given a go.
Something funny going on.
Action shot!
Serving.
Waiting while Bjarki found the shuttlecock (birdie, fly, whatever).
Smily-one!
Finnur has actually played badminton fairly regularly over the years, and him and Bjarki crushed the number-of-successful-passes that Emma and I got earlier in the day.

Sunday 04 July 2021

Finnur’s parents had to return to the capital area at noon, so we also packed up. Finnur couldn’t resist doing one more task before leaving though!
Bjarki practicing his Matrix-back-lean (although I’m not sure he knows that reference).
A morning-fresh selfie!
We decided to freshen up even more at the Fontana hot-tub/sauna/spa.
Next door is the Lindin restaurant, which serves reliably good food.
The covid-safe menu, you were encouraged to just take a photo of it with your phone 🙂
The boys.
The girls. Then we drove back home.

Monday 05 July 2021

Visited the gym after work. Looks like I rowed 2000 m, not bad.
Finnur’s family gifted us a tree/shrub. It replaced a plant that barely made it through winter. Hopefully it will thrive better!
The sewing club decided to meet up on short notice downtown for dinner.
The place was packed! (Zero Covid-19 restrictions in effect.)

Tuesday 06 July 2021

I think the last strands of my sanity were slipping so I crawled back to the gym for a pick-me-up.
Anna had our old eGolf at her disposal all summer, which had the added benefit (for us) that she could pick Emma up from horse-camp at 4 pm every weekday. It made our life less stressful for sure!

Wednesday 07 July 2021

On my way past Hallgríms-church after parking the car for yet another short-notice dinner with friends downtown!!
It’s an endlessly picturesque building!

Thursday 08 July 2021

Was entirely out of mental-gas at work, and walked from the office across the lava-field to that new café in a vain attempt to find my brain. It helped a bit.

Friday 09 July 2021

The biggest all-girls soccer meet (3000 participants!), held on our local venues, got going.
Game going on!
Emma’s team won all three games that day, and got placed in a tougher division the following day.

Saturday 10 July 2021

The next day, there were three more games.
Parents paying close attention.
Elbow-rubbing “thanks” at the end of the game.
Cheerful running to the parents at victorious game-end.
Finnur enjoying Emma’s successful run.
There were three games total, and Emma’s team again won all of them. As it happened, they would play this team again the next day for their “division” cup.

Sunday 11 July 2021

The third and final game day. Emma’s team won both knock-out games, to get to compete for their strength-category cup. That game was televised!
The number of teddy bears in the goal had increased day by day!
The camera operator.
Team huddle before the last game.
Entering the pitch with their FIFA-accredited referee. The referee still had to stop the game at one point to tie the shoelaces of one of the players.
Ready to kick off.
Both teams fought hard, but you could tell they were tired after so many games in such a short time. At the end of normal game-time the score was 1-1, so it went to overtime. After overtime was done, it was still 1-1 so BOTH TEAMS got a cup!
Joint celebratory circle at game end!
Well deserved!
With the cup and her medals.
Photo of one of four total playing areas that weekend, this is a massive undertaking!
Indoor soccer halls are magical.
To complete that week’s dinner-trifecta, we then went to YET ANOTHER RESTAURANT DINNER with friends! The next week passed in a haze of “has vacation begun yet?”, and no photos of interest were taken.