Good grief, I can't believe we're actually waiting in this line... we forgot to bring something to sit on. :(

I'm not sure how this got started, but he's pretty much dancing non-stop lately.  He's even going to take tap lessons.  He's been BEGGING for tap lessons.

Found this little car at a consignment shop here in town. Porter peddles and can steer it around the driveway. Nice rubber tires and everything.

Trying out a dog mask, a pirate hat (and a sword, which he LOVED), and the firefighter outfit with a new hose.  We'll see if one of these wins out, or if a dark horse arises in the next few weeks.

     

Click here to download:

Porters_potential_Halloween_co.zip (1939 KB)

Trying to capture the Fall feeling, even though it's still around 90 outside.

I must admit to being a little bit proud of my not-even-three year old son, who refuses to use the tee 'cause "it's for babies".  Still needs to work on his eye, but it's a start. :)

So, we're back.  Had a ton of fun.  Posted all the pictures on my Facebook profile, but took some video as well. As a warning to anyone who speaks Icelandic, I know that I'm missing a plethora of umlats and dipthongs in spelling these words.  I'm sorry.

Behind Seljalandsfoss:

Solheimskali Glacier:

A view of how desolate we found it:

Sheep on a hillside near Skogar:

Skogar up close.  You really need to be there to get the full effect (that sound you hear at the end is me stunned beyond words):

At Geysir National Park:

River of icebergs:

Things I like about Iceland:

1. The people are probably the most honest folks you could imagine, ever.  Two examples here:  We left our camera outside on the lip of the hot tub for literally three minutes while my wife and I went inside to get dried off and dressed.  Someone saw it, and rather than leave it alone (or take it), they immediately brought it to the office.  Not so amazing, you say?  Fine, get this one...  We were at Geysir (the original geyser, where our English word is taken from) on Tuesday.  I had my iPod touch in my pocket, and it must have fallen out.  Bear in mind that this is one of the most well-known and frequented locations in Iceland, with tons of people going through every day.  Someone found it, and rather than keeping it, turned it in to someone at the gift shop.  That person, rather than keep it, found my email address on the device, sent me an email, and found a way to connect with me to get it back.  Gives me faith in humanity.
2. I've already touched on this one, but it's really pretty here.
3. The silence is amazing.  For the past two nights, we've been staying at a B&B on a farm.  The quietest places I've ever been to in the States were also farms.  However, when you go outside at night in the States, you could always hear something; bugs or cars passing on a distant road or whatever.  Here, there was absolutely no sound.  It was awesome.  I don't really know how to describe such an utter lack of any noise whatsoever.  Maybe not that big of a deal to you, but it was pretty cool to me.
4. Hot springs, geothermal energy, and the best showers ever.  The hot water doesn't run out or get lukewarm or anything.  It's the best.
5. Everyone speaks English.  I know, you're thinking I'm the epitome of the horrible American tourist.  Listen:  I speak English, Mandarin, and I can get by in Spanish.  My wife speaks Arabic. If one of us knew Hindi or some other major language of India, we could speak to about 5/6ths of the planet's population.  We're not xenophobes.  It's just nice to be able to communicate to some of those folks who don't speak one of those major languages because they can speak ours.

Things that Iceland could improve on:

1. The roads.  There are a couple of factors here.  One, a lot of "major" roads (i.e.- going to big tourist attractions) aren't paved, and they're not even maintained that well.  I know, the cold and weather cause a lot of issues, but big, honking rocks are not what I want to drive over with a rental car for kilometers at a time.  Two, the speed limits are ridiculous.  The top speed limit is 90 kilometers per hour (56 mph).  Seriously?  You have 300,000 people in your whole country, 200,000 of which live in the greater Reykjavik area (300 square miles).  With so much distance between things to look at, it might be nice to be able to drive faster than my grandparents do.
2. Their economy.  With the big meltdown of their economy, I was hoping to score a little arbitrage in a typically expensive European country.  Wrong.  They've just pushed up the prices to compensate.  We spent $15 a piece for a soup and salad lunch today in what was supposed to be a reasonably priced cafe where locals eat.  It took me over $80 to fill up my rental Subaru Legacy before I took it back to Budget today.  Wow.  It's really tough to gauge these things until you get in-country.  It's definitely not something we could have found on the internet.
3. The ferry service from Iceland to the Westman Islands.  I've never been so sick in my entire life as on this ferry ride.  I know I have whatever the opposite of a cast iron stomach is.  I once got motion sick on a Ferris wheel.  But this was the worst.  'Nuf said.  I told my wife that she's going to have to have me drugged unconscious when we head back to Iceland on Friday, because I don't know if I can do that again.

So, internet is still spotty.  May be better when we spend Saturday in Reykjavik before we go home, or maybe not.  That means no pictures for a while longer.  I've got some pretty cool ones, though.  They'll be up on FB eventually.