Work-trip to Canada in October 2015
[Photos from 10 to 17 October 2015, posted on 6 April 2016. Nostalgia-time!]
I returned to Canada for a week-long work-trip in October, a loooong loooong time ago. As before, I flew with my colleagues to Edmonton, to work in a factory close by. (31 images total)
Saturday 10 October 2016
Selfie, as we wait to board a bus to the plane at Keflavik.
Super-Short-Notice Work-Trip to Denmark
[Photos from 15-18 September 2015, online on 24 November 2015-ish. Joy!]
On Monday I was asked if I could travel to Denmark the day after for a four-day work trip (very Icelandic planning!). The job was a relatively simple one, daytime-hours only, so it turned into a wonderful me-time trip.
Yes, I’d just returned to work after a five week long summer vacation, but the vacation apparently only lowered my stress levels, but didn’t replenish much energy. I blame the constant chorus of mommy-mommy-mommy!
So, after I’d gotten over my initial nerves over the job at hand, I had a lovely couple of late afternoons, and evenings, where I could wander around in peace, do some shopping, eat dinners in silence, and read a book I’d been putting off reading for a month. Did I tell the world I’m an introvert already? (54 images total)
Tuesday 15 September 2015
Me walking along the terminal at Keflavik airport.
Anna Travels with Tina & Justin Along the South Coast of Iceland
[Photos from Monday & Tuesday 17 & 18 AUGUST 2015, put online 8 November 2015. The grass is still somewhat green.]
Since everybody but Anna had somewhere to be during the two days Tina and Justin had planned to tour the south coast of Iceland, she was invited to go along with them.
They drove eastwards, visiting Jökulsárlón, and then stayed at a campground close to Skaftafell. I no longer remember quite what they did on the way back, but they arrived in town for dinner.
I’ve borrowed a few photos from Tina’s facebook page, and then I’m posting some of the photos Anna took. The rest of them can be found here (Day 1) and here (Day 2).
First the photos from Tina: (100 photos total)
By Jökulsárlón on Day 1.
Day #14 in DC: Flying Back Home
[Photos from 12 AUGUST 2015, posted on 1 November 2015. Don’t tell anybody!]
My stubborn blogging of our DC vacation is finally coming to an end, with our trip back home. The trip was uneventful, and it was nice to land shortly after midnight for a change (not at 6 am) so we could all collapse straight into bed around 2-3 am, and stay there for as long as we wanted!
We thank Elsa and Þráinn to the Moon and back for their hospitality! We had a fantastic time! 🙂 (9 images total)
Departure picture. Not only were we about to drive to Dulles airport, but they were about to go on a multi-hour road-trip to Boston!
Day #13 in DC: Shopping, BBQ, and Military Concert
[Photos from 11 AUGUST 2015, put on line 31 October 2015. For completeness.]
Our last full day in the Washington DC area wasn’t very fancy. Elsa went with Anna and myself to go shopping at an outlet mall south of Washington in the morning. In the afternoon we then made our way downtown to eat at a crazy Texan-style BBQ place with all the other Icelanders. As we were walking to our cars, we heard music, and stumbled upon the end of an open military concert. We toyed with walking to the White House, but decided against it in the end, and just drove to home base. (6 images total)
Fueling up at the outlet mall.
Day #12 in DC: The US Capitol
[Photos from 10 AUGUST 2015, published on 28 29 October. Probably. Definitely.]
Our hosts were a little worried that we’d never make it downtown to see the touristy sights, since we seemed to be in no hurry whatsoever to do so.
And, yes, they were right about the reluctance, because aside from the San Francisco Exploratorium, we’ve derived relatively little joy from visiting museums with small children in the past, even highly rated ones like the New York Natural History Museum.
But, our hosts figured out a way to trick us into touristing, which was to book tickets to visit the US Capitol (aka the US parliament building), and then offer up a sacrificial adult to babysit the hoard. There was no way to say no, so downtown we went! (45 images total.)
Finnur with the US Capitol building behind him.
Day #11 in DC: Washington National Cathedral
[Photos from 09 AUGUST 2015, posted shortly on 28 October 2015. Aaalmost there!]
The main events I recall from this day were me going shopping with Anna, and then all of the Icelanders driving over to visit the Washington National Cathedral, which looked like so many other cathedrals, except for being weirdly young. (29 images total)
Hey, look, it’s a huge building!
Day #10 in DC: Adventure Park, and Girly Dinner
[Photos from 08 AUGUST 2015, posted online 25 October 2015. Distance in time is sometimes good.]
Conscious of how much fun the kids had at a tree climbing park in France, I sought out a similar park in the US, where one traverses a course that has been created by stringing cables/planks/ziplines/objects between tall trees, while securely harnessed. Tickets were booked, and this time I (Hrefna) was the one to take them, and not Finnur.
I’m not quite sure if this trip goes down in the books as a good one or a bad one, but Bjarki will probably remember it forever.
Why? Well, Bjarki and I went on one last course, while Anna waited on the ground because she was tired. We chose a difficulty above the ones we’d done that day, and somewhere along the middle, we ran into our first elevating-plank walk, where Bjarki got scared, and wanted to quit. It took such a long time for help to arrive though, that he changed his mind and decided to keep going, thinking that the crazy-long zip-line two tree-hops over, was the end.
We made it to the zip-line, but since Anna was on the ground photographing, he had to traverse it all by himself. Previously, Anna had always gone first, catching Bjarki and stopping him, with me following. Since we hadn’t really trained him, he failed to stop at the tree, sliding back, at which point he panicked, let out a loud scream for help, and the assistants came running.
One of the guys managed to get through to him (my voice wasn’t cutting it) and told him to “make life harder for the guy about to come help him, by moving towards the middle of the line” which Bjarki apparently decided was a stupid idea, because he promptly started dragging himself towards the landing-tree, disembarking the line safely. He then got himself over a tree-hop, and to the assistant guy, who then helped both of us to disembark the course by one of those things that lets you slide vertically down slowly.
Anyway, the moral of the story I tried to impart was that a) he’d been very brave, overcoming his fears, and pushing his own boundaries, b) that it was ok to panic, but c) that it was fantastic of him to overcome his panic and get himself to safety. He himself seemingly came away with knowing it was ok to cry in front of strangers, so who knows?!
In the evening, I got picked up by my friend Margrét who lives in the area, and we went out to dinner. Elsa joined us later on for drinks and a fun chat. It was nice not to have to deal with a kiddie dinner and/or bedtime!!
Photos! (20 images total)
All harnessed up and ready to go!
Day #9 in DC: Kiddie-Gym, Playground, and Bowling
[Photos from 07 AUGUST 2015, posted on 25 October 2015. Hurrah for the way-back machine!]
After the somewhat strenuous trip to the beach in Delaware, we decided to have a rather quiet day.
Just to get out of the house though, we took the kids to the kiddie-gym again, then we revisited the Cabin John Park Playground, before spending the rest of the afternoon bowling with our hosts and other Icelandic visitors. (13 images total)
The most important photo of them all! Let it be forever known that I (Hrefna) got four strikes IN A ROW!
Day #8 in DC: Outlets, Water Park, and Annapolis
[Photos from 06 August 2015, put online on 10 October 2015, or thereabouts! This entry was started while sitting in the Saga Lounge at Keflavik airport, about to head to Canada for a week, and finished quite a few hours later in a hotel room in Spruce Grove, Canada.]
On our second and last day out by the coast, we decided to split up the gang. Finnur and Elsa took all the kids to a water park (Jungle Jim’s) while Þráinn and I hit the outlet malls right next to it (separately, our needs didn’t exactly line up). I think it was three hours until Finnur asked to be rescued, at which point everybody got picked up, and we went back to home base.
There we packed our stuff into the car, and left for our other home base back in Bethesda. We stopped in Annapolis for dinner and a small stroll, which was lovely. (21 images total)
By the entrance to the water park.