Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

USA 2022 – Seattle Days 2&3 – Cruise, Aquarium & Airport

2022-08-02Us, USA Standard

[Photos taken 02 – 03 August 2022, posted online 26 March 2023. Second confirmation party of the season later today, three more to go!]

Our second day in Seattle was in large part dictated by the Seattle City Pass options. We thus found ourselves on a sight-seeing boat that went up and down the Seattle sea-side. Afterwards the kids opted for an unscheduled ride on the local Ferris wheel, before we went hunting for lunch. The second activity was checking out the aquarium, which was pretty nice, but didn’t quite match the monster aquarium in Monterey, California. Oh, the dangers of having traveled.

Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel, with a quick side-tour to Walmart where we found almost all the products hidden behind lock and key (?!?!). Dinner was at a nearby Indian restaurant, and I’ve rarely gotten so sleepy in my life. Back at the hotel Finnur thus got to pack the bags for the next hop, while I lay near-comatose in bed, yay jetlag!

The following day we found yet another hipster café to eat a bit of breakfast, before taking the train to the airport. This time the mental patient on board was a young overweight man with random splotches of blue paint on him who sat facing us on the side, who constantly talked to himself (somewhat threateningly), while staring intently at us, like he was waiting for something to happen. We did our best not to make eye contact. Some fare-checkers came on board, talked to the guy, handed him some leaflets and took off. Thankfully, the guy left the train a stop before we did.

I highly recommend signing up for the speedy security line at the airport if it’s on offer, it made the airport experience more bearable. And then we were off to Spokane, and then N-Idaho! (65-ish images total)

Tuesday 02 August 2022

We made it to the sea-side and the very famous Public Market sign!

USA 2022 – Seattle Day 1 – Glass, Pop & Needle

2022-08-01Us, USA Standard

[Photos taken 01 August 2022, posted online 25 March 2023. It’s still freezing outside, it’s a bit unusual.]

Our 2-week-long vacation to the US was a complicated one. We began by spending two whole days in Seattle to get over the worst of the jetlag. Then we spent a day traveling east to Idaho to meet up with my Stanford advisor and his wife at their second home, where we spent three whole days. We spent a day traveling to Colorado, where we spent a further five whole days with old friends, before flying back home to Iceland.

For our stay in Seattle, I settled on buying the Seattle City Pass, and using it at five attractions. The first day we thus visited 1) Chihuly Garden and Glass, 2) Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), and 3) Space Needle. (70-ish images total)

Monday 01 August 2022

Vacation: Birthdays & US Travel Begins

2022-07-23Uncategorized Standard

[Photos taken 23 – 31 July 2022, posted online 11 March 2023. Daylight is staying noticeably longer, the sun is higher in the sky, but we’re also frozen solid = window-weather.]

Week two of vacation was swimming, jogging, preparing and then departing for our trip to the US, celebrating birthdays, and deciding to quit my job. So, relatively calm? (60-ish images total)

Saturday 23 July 2022

Vacation: Home Improvement Week

2022-07-16Us Standard

[Photos taken 16 – 22 July 2022, posted online 05 March 2023. This is the last above-freezing day for the foreseeable 10-day weather-forecast future!]

The first week of our four-week-long summer vacation was spent on improvement work.

I had decided I wanted to paint the living room, which is easier with fewer people around. Knowing that Finnur’s dad needed help building a deck at their summer house, Finnur and Emma transplanted themselves to Laugarvatn for a few days, before spending a couple of days at house #2.

Meanwhile, Anna and Bjarki kept working their gardening jobs, and I fought a near-bloody battle with shades of white, before focusing on electrical switches and socket outlets. (60-ish images)

Saturday 16 July 2022

Big kiddos, about to be fed fancy pizzas for dinner.

Summer-Vacation-2022 Count-Down

2022-07-01Friends, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 15 July 2022, posted online 04 March 2023. We’ve had our first spring this past week, but there are frozen days ahead.]

After the mad-dash that was June, July was very low energy. I had to get through two weeks of work before starting my summer vacation, but was sadly not really enjoying work very much, so it was a pain. I therefore found myself working from cafes a lot, especially since I was often on the hook for driving Emma to her afternoon horse/art-&-animals camps.

Meanwhile, I tried to tackle a few long-standing home-improvement projects like getting a new sofa and chair, getting rid of the old furniture, prepping future paint-jobs, weeding, oiling wood, and making it out on the occasional jog.

Happily, we got a brand new nephew for a visit, and I managed to meet up with an old friend! We also did make it up to the summer house, but the biting midget-flies started coming out in droves, so staying there was a little anxiety inducing (60-ish images).

Friday 01 July 2022

July was big on home improvements. After months (years?) of searching for a new sofa, we finally agreed on one. I desperately wanted to change the layout of the living room, living in the same place and with the same layout for 11 years had begun chafing at me! Thus it was finally time to take down the Yule images that had lingered a little too long…

Horse-Camp, Laugarvatn, Birthday-Boy & Graduation Party #2

2022-06-24Finnur's family, Graduation, Laugarvatn, Us Standard

[Photos taken 24 – 30 June 2022, posted online 19 February 2023. Today is Emma’s second family birthday bash, and there’s a storm coming.]

Emma’s first two weeks at horse-camp came to a close with a ‘show’, where the kids paraded in a line, demonstrating speed and direction control. The following week saw the start of a new two-week camp.

We decided to visit Finnur’s parents at their summer house in Laugarvatn over the weekend, where Finnur helped his dad build yet another deck. Then Bjarki turned 15 years old, we had a celebratory dinner, and then a party with Finnur’s family where we also celebrated Anna’s graduation, as so many had been traveling when the actual graduation took place. (45-ish images total)

Friday 24 June 2022

Emma with her participation medal for 2 weeks of horse-camp.

Mom’s Birthday, Hiking & E-Biking by Grindavík

2022-06-20Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 20 – 23 June 2022, posted online 18 February 2023. We have a thin stubborn layer of snow covering the ground, with a yet another storm predicted tomorrow.]

The incredibly busy weekend (hiking! e-biking! concert!) was followed by a rather busy week, as the hiking and e-biking groups finished their scheduled excursions of the season, back-to-back, of course!

But, I did manage to scrounge together enough brain-cells to give mom flowers on her birthday, and keep showing up to work! (60-ish images total)

Monday 20 June 2022

Us girls made a quick visit to mom to celebrate her 65th birthday! Woop, woop!

E-biking Þakgil & Emiliana Torrini Concert

2022-06-19Uncategorized Standard

[Photos taken 19 June 2022, posted online 12 February 2023. It’s Emma’s birthday!]

After hiking 13 km up and above Glymur waterfall the day before, my brother and I set out bright and early to drive 2.5 hours to Vík í Mýrdal. We parked the car by Hotel Katla, dismounted the e-bikes, and rode inland to two beautiful gullies, Remundargil and Þakgil (“gil” is Icelandic for “gully”).

The weather played along for the most part, just the very last bit had some wind and rain. We neglected to check out the elevation profile though… We thought we were biking upwards to the gullies, and then downwards on the way back. In actuality, we sort of climbed over a “mountain” to get there, and of course, had to climb over it on the way back.

My brother’s bike battery died when about 10% remained of the trip, meaning the bike got super heavy to bike, so he got to test the guide’s tether for the last little bit as we rode against the wind and the rain. My battery ran out as we turned back into the parking lot. Range anxiety on e-bikes is a real thing!

We arrived back in town just in time for me to make it to my long-since-bought-tickets for Emiliana Torrini and the Colorist Orchestra at Harpa Concert Hall. They were so much fun!! (70-ish images total)

Sunday 19 June 2022

Photo from Remundargil, such a gorgeous place!

Independence Day & Hiking Glymur Waterfall

2022-06-17Us Standard

[Photos taken 17 – 18 June 2022, posted online 11 February 2023. Just returned from a week-long couples’ vacation in Tenerife, and now there’s a storm raging outside. Very Icelandic.]

Independence day was a relatively quiet affair, with Finnur off on a work-trip in London. The day after I hiked 13 km up Glymur, Iceland’s second highest waterfall, to Hvalvatn (Whale-Water), and back again with my hiking group. (60-ish images total)

Independence Day Friday 17 June 2022

Kiddos with a flag we found lying in our street on Independence Day.

E-biking Around Meðalfell, Hiking Þríhyrningur & Passenger Concert

2022-06-08Us Standard

[Photos taken 08 – 16 June 2022, posted online 22 January 2023. The Big Thaw has turned into The Snowstorm, and there are tumultuous weather-times ahead after six weeks of solid frost, breaking a 100 year old record.]

The second week of June ramped up the activity-pace considerably from the previous week.

First off was a late-afternoon trip e-bike trip around Meðalfell and Meðalfellsvatn, then I began an info-brain-dump of our upcoming and rather complicated US trip, I kept going to the gym, we had friends over for dinner, Finnur took off for London, I hiked up and down Þríhyrningur, Anna returned from Mexico, I went on a dinner-and-concert (Passenger) date with some friends, Emma started horse-camp, we attended a birthday party, haircuts happened, a new nephew was born, and I met up with fellow EEs from undergrad. All in the space of 9 days!?!?!?!? (90-ish images total)