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The kids were very sad to leave Iceland. We did so much in a few days.

Day 2:  We drove the Golden Circle which contains a lot of the sites in Iceland, including the largest geysir and largest waterfall in the country, Kerio Crater and Thingvellar Park. Most of the drive was through countryside with the happiest horses and sheep I’ve ever seen.  They literally looked like they were smiling –  frolicking with their friends.  And there were baby sheep and horses everywhere.  We also stopped at a bathhouse, with 4 different geothermal pools (basically natural hot tubs) and an icey lake filled with mountain water.  The kids had a blast in the freezing lake – Greg and I preferred the hot pools with a cold beer.

Day 3:  This was a long day.  We left at 8:00 am and got home at 11:00pm.  We drove the southern part of the island, first stopping at a huge waterfall we could walk behind.  It was rocky and slippery and wet, and Taylor didn’t want to go at first, but she mustered up the courage and was very proud of herself for doing it.  Then we stopped at the black sandy beaches at Dulhoeny, the southernmost tip, where the kids ran into the icey ocean and spotted a seal swimming just a few feet from them.  Next we headed to Jokulson, the glacier lagoon where the ocean water comes in to melt the glacier and creates a lagoon full of icebergs. We took a boat ride around and got to taste a piece of 1,000 year-old ice that broke off from the glacier and spilled into the lagoon.  It was a long drive back from there.  But the views were amazing, filled with ice capped volcanos, lava fields, purple flowers as far as the eye can see called Arctic Lupins, beautiful beaches, and mountains containing as many as 22 waterfalls.

Day 4: We hung around our place for much of the day after sleeping in for the first time since we arrived.  We visited a petting zoo so Taylor could hold some baby bunnies and baby kitties as she was getting a little fed up with the natural sites Iceland has to offer.   It even had a putting and miniature golf area for Trip (and Greg).  And a soccer field where Trip played with a few Icelandic boys.  Then we headed to the Blue Lagoon, a huge geothermal pool in the natural volcanic rock.  It was like being in a beautiful steamy pool on the moon.  And we all got silica mud masks – the kids hated them.  Greg and I also got an algae mask which was supposed to make us look 10 years younger.  The kids said it didn’t work.  Darn.

Day 5:  The kids and I went horseback riding, a must-do for Taylor. They were the sweetest, most docile horses, and they nuzzled with the kids when we finished our ride.

We checked out of our place with a few tears from the kids.  Trip especially loves Iceland – says he could live here, that it’s “very calm”  and there’s so much to do.  We all would like to visit again someday.  But for now, we are off to the next country…Italy: Milan, Florence and Rome.