Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

Anna Travels with Tina & Justin Along the South Coast of Iceland

2015-08-18Anna, Iceland, Traveling Standard

[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)

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By Jökulsárlón on Day 1.

Patti Smith Concert

2015-08-17Hrefna Standard

[Photos from 17 AUGUST 2015, posted on 4 November 2015. Laaaate!]

Earlier this summer I saw that Patti Smith was coming to Iceland to perform her album Horses in celebration of it being 40 years since its release. Since my mom is a big fan, and I’ve always been curious, I bought tickets for the two of us.

Fast forward a few months, and all of a sudden it was concert time!

I must say that she blew me away. She’s a goddess of a performer, seemingly giving off massive amounts of her energy, but also receiving energy in return from the room in spades. I can only hope that I’ll by as spry at the tender age of 68! (7 images total)

Me and mom by Harpa, the concert hall.

Tina & Justin: The Golden Circle

2015-08-16Friends Standard

[Photos from 16 AUGUST 2015, posted on 3 November 2015. That’s bewildering!]

The initial plan for day two of Tina and Justin’s stay in Iceland, was for all of us to go visit the Golden Circle (Þingvellir, Gullfoss, Geysir), in two cars. Then we realized our lovely electric car would never make it there and back again on one charge, so the plan changed to me and Anna taking Tina and Justin on a road trip, while Finnur oversaw the little ones.

Off we went! (48 images total)

Stop #1: Thingvellir. This outlook post is new-ish, I’d at least never gone there, although I’d seen people standing on it from afar.

Tina and Justin Visit Iceland

2015-08-15Friends Standard

[Photos from 15 AUGUST 2015, put online 1 November 2015. Half the way through August, finally!!]

Our good friend, Tina, and her son, Justin, came to stay with us for a few days. They landed on Saturday, hung out with us that weekend, then took Anna on a trip along the south coast of Iceland for a couple of days, before spending a somewhat quiet Wednesday in the city, and then they left early Thursday morning.

We kept the Saturday fairly low key, except we went to the Museum of Old Houses (Árbæjarsafn) and then hung out in a swimming pool (Lágafellslaug). (8 images total)

The gang, minus me.

Emma Vs. Water Vs. Gravity

2015-08-14Emma Standard

[Photo from Friday 14 AUGUST 2015, post from 1 November 2015. The weather’s different now.] Bumped into this photo of Emma playing with street water, probably after returning from daycare. Sometimes the phone camera comes through!Read more

Back From the US

2015-08-13Uncategorized Standard

This is just to document that last night we returned from a two week vacation in the Washington DC area in the US. We stayed with Elsa and Þráinn (whom we met at Stanford many a moon ago) in the very spacious house they’ve been renting there for the past year. We did a bunchRead more

Day #14 in DC: Flying Back Home

2015-08-12USA Standard

[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

2015-08-11USA Standard

[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

2015-08-10USA Standard

[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

2015-08-09USA Standard

[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!