Glacier lagoon, ice beach, and lamb

Currently, we are sitting in the dining room and main reception area of the sheep farm where we are staying for the next three nights. It's an unbelievable 360 degree view of the entire area with mountains, farm land, ocean, and lots of snow.

This morning we had a typical Icelandic breakfast of yogurt from a milk carton, muesli and corn flakes with coffee... Not so tasty but it did the job. I had some of the geyser bread that we bought from the dairy farm on our first night near godafoss... It's similar to a dense muffin but as bread.

We stopped at the N1 gas station and talked to the local guides who are supposed to lead an ice cave tour for us later this week but they are completely sold out so they are trying to squeeze us in as they are fans of SmugMug! Keeping our fingers crossed...as they are crossed for aurora tonight.

Off to the glacier lagoon and ice beach. It looks totally different from last year and you can see the recession of the glacier. The ice beach is in a different spot and there are barely any large icebergs to photograph! 

We hiked to a spot along the glacier lagoon that was nice last year and flew the drone and took some shots. We met up with another photographer friend of Aarons and he tagged along. Super nice guy from Toronto and he was shooting a phase one, so cool! We even took a drone selfie!

(That's a screen shot from the computer)

We were going to hike out to another spot along the lagoon but decided to do that in the morning when the light is better. So we made some lunch, chips and salsa and peanut butter and jelly and then decided to drive 35 minutes to check in to our hotel. We had planned to drive back to the lagoon to photograph sunset. We had to check into our hotel during certain hours so we thought we would check in early and then leave. However, we got here and fell in love! So we decided not to drive more and found some spots to photograph sunset and hopefully the aurora tonight!

The hotel is just a few rooms on a farm and for dinner we were served lamb that was grown here, local beer and some French chocolate cake. There is a French couple living here that does the cooking so they made us a chocolate cake as the boys were craving dessert. A pretty nice day as the sun was out! We are hoping the weather cooperates for a few more days, but we'll see! There is only wifi in the common area here so we are all just sitting around a table talking, drinking Icelandic beer and catching up on wifi related things as we wait for the aurora.

Hiking, glacier walks and yummy pb&j on the hood of the car

A short drive back into Vik this morning allowed us to see the salt stacks and walk along the black sand beach for a few minutes before we got on our way towards skaftafell. 

It was about an hour and a half drive and I drove today.... Through wind, snow, sleet and rain. As we turned one of my favorite corners on route one here, the sky started to clear a bit and the sun came out! Luckily for us, it appeared right when we got to the glacier. There are three glaciers in a few mile radius here and we went to the third one first because Aaron said that we could walk up right above it and it was a great view. We took the drone and my camera bag and hiked up a short distance, about 5-10 minutes. As we were setting up the drone, we realized we never put the memory card back in and I ran back to the car and grabbed it. Flying the drone is really neat. It was super windy so we were very concerned about it and the footage came out well but you can see the choppers moving in some of it because of the wind. Still awesome though!

Lunch time came and we made our organic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the hood of our car and ate them looking at the glacier. We later found out that Jackie chan is filming a movie on this glacier... It would have been cool to run into him!

We decided to drive back to the skaftafell glacier visitors center because there were two hikes we wanted to do that we didn't get to do last year because it was too snowy. There is a lot less snow this year and it's warmer but the wind is still vicious. Kelsey and Eric met us at the visitors center and we all hiked to a waterfall together a few miles away. 

Then we trekked out to the skaftafell glacier which was supposed to be a short hike yet it turned into a few hours because we actually walked onto the glacier and into the crevasses. It was by far the coolest thing we've done so far! 

We explored for quite some time and it started to rain hail on us for a few minutes but then it stopped. As the time was closing in on 6pm, we realized we needed to book it back to the cars before we lost the light. Of course we had head lamps just in case, but we did not want to be in the glacier at night time. My yak tracks worked pretty well on some of the ice but Aarons crampons were much more effective and some of the slippery glacial glass was impassable for me without his help. He helped Kelsey and Erik across those sections too. We walked through the wet, volcanic glacier bottom to get back to the trail and the visitors center.  After a ten mile day, Aaron and I were a bit tired. It was about a 20 minute drive to our hotel, hof 1, and we quickly checked in, walked into what felt like a dorm hallway and a dorm room that smelled like poop and then went to eat some dinner. I had the veggie option which was delicious. We craved the hot tub from the day and luckily there was a spa there and we ended our evening with a nice dip!

Short flight and drive to Vik.. Aaron wanted me to name this, I pooped today.

We are currently sitting on the tiny propeller plane from Akureyri to Reykjavik; it's a quick 40 minute flight where there is barely enough time for me to write one sentence on my iPad.

Yesterday evening, we ventured about 35 minutes from our lovely Aurora guesthouse for dinner at a dairy farm. Literally a dairy farm. We walked into the building and there were cows chewing and a side room for milking them, and then about 15 tables.

 We were seated at a four top. Yes, it smelled like a dairy farm, but the food was quite good. We tried to order dishes with dairy in it as that's what they are known for, so we tried their homemade mozzarella which was good, grittier than the usual mozzarella we are used to. We had Arctic char and then their desserts were delicious! It was a nice meal with good cow company. We had wanted to go to the hot springs after dinner, but everyone was feeling kind of tired, so I drove us home. Kelsey and Eric slept on the way to dinner and Aaron tried really hard not to fall asleep on the way home, but right as he was dozing off, he flipped his phone up into the air and back onto his lap; even though this doesn't necessarily sound funny, it was so hilarious that I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. We all slept well.

Today, we woke up to the smell of yummy coffee and a table full of typical Icelandic items, all organic. Smoked lamb meat, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, homemade bread, waffles, jams. A delicious start to the day. 

Kelsey and Eric really wanted to hike while they were here but they didn't exactly realize that not much is accessible during the winter. Last night, I asked the restaurant for any good trails around here and they told us of one that is usually packed down enough to hike on. So that's where we went this morning! Hiking around volcanic rock in the snow. Beautiful and good exercise. 

We also finally could stop and take some photos of the Icelandic horses that I've been trying to photograph since the last trip here! 

The lake here, Lake Myvatn is gorgeous and I'm sure it's even more beautiful when it's not frozen over.  We had to rush a bit on the way back, so I drove a bit faster than usual to make it... Pick up our bags at the aurora guesthouse and then a quickie stop at godafoss for one last viewing and then arrived at the airport at 1:10 for our 1:40 flight. Right on time. The regional airports here do not have any security at all... Nothing to walk through or check, so it does make it much easier. 

However, when Aaron and I tried to board this flight, the woman was unfortunately not very nice and made me weigh my camera pack and of course it's 4kg overweight so she said that I had to wait until everyone boarded to put my camera bag in last. What a pita! We waited until everyone boarded and then had to hand our packs to the luggage guy so he could put them on top of the other bags on the side of the place. Not the most ideal situation, but we are making the best of it. Hopefully everything will be okay when we land. The rental car company is meeting us at the airport to take us to their headquarters to pick up our SUVs for the rest of the trip. I'm excited. I took some delta pillows so that we can make the car a bit more comfortable too especially if we are waiting for the aurora during the evenings! Ok, landing now. Quick flight over the beautiful country.

Flying in the small planes are nice and easy and smooth, which was a pleasant way to have our midday. When we landed, the rental car company said they got lost coming to pick us up at the airport so we waited for about 45 mins for them to get there... This is the regional tiny airport in Reykjavik and the woman driving grew up here, so that seemed odd to us. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the rental car place once we got into the white van with clear plastic covering everything... It was very clean. They didn't have the cars that we rented and we're excited about and gave us an upgraded car with an automatic transmission. I was hoping for a manual as they are much better in the snow around here. We have a Hyundai Tucson which is old but functions. It smells like gasoline inside the car and when we started driving and needed the windshield wipers to work, we discovered that they were totally destroyed. I mean completely falling apart. So about 20 minutes into our drive, we stopped at an N1, the gas stations around here, and measured and bought new wipers. We also went grocery shopping to stock up on some lunch foods and snacks... Chips and salsa, Icelandic Brie and French bread, sushi, digestif's, and some water. Oh, and organic peanut butter and jam and bread. :)

We had to rush a bit as it was getting late and we wanted to go to two waterfalls before sunset, but we ran out of time so ended up just getting to Seljalandsfoss and precariously with our crampons on hiked up behind the waterfall to photograph it. The sun didn't make an appearance, but it was still beautiful!

A quick stop at the next waterfall even though it was dark to scout if the moon would be in the correct direction for a moon bow, but unfortunately it was not, so off we went another half an hour to our hotel just outside of Vik. It's much larger than we had planned, but a good change.  We quickly got a bowl of soup and had some of our cheese and bread for dinner and then went into the natural hot tub! We spent almost an hour in there with Icelandic white ale, which was quite good. And finally sleep and recharging batteries, our personal ones and our electronics!

The breakfast from this hotel was ok, but the view of the sea stacks from here is quite beautiful!

A long first day with flower power!

Today was a long day yet a nice start to our trip. My mom drove me to the airport in the evening during rush hour traffic, yet surprisingly check-in was a breeze and I was the only one doing pre check.  The other three flew from SFO and were hanging out at shake shack in terminal 4 so I met them and hung out for a few minutes before we had to board. Aaron and I were sitting in economy comfort and luckily we had the middle seat open so we could stretch out for the whole trip! When I flew Iceland air last year, the flight was eh and we didn't get any food. On delta, we received a full dinner and drinks and the flight was great! Even if it's a bit more expensive, it's worth it. 

We landed half an hour early in Keflavik and our gate crew couldn't figure out how to get the ramp to us and after ten minutes finally figured it out and we could deplane. Passport control was quick and finding out duffels, easy. We all bought SIM cards so our phones would work too and then found our way to the bus that was supposed to take us directly to the regional Reykjavik airport but ended up going to the bus terminal and then we had to transfer onto a smaller van to take us to the tiny airport. We got there super early so relaxed and napped and hung out for a while (two hours) before we could even check in! The airport was pretty much just a room, no security and one woman who eventually took our bags. We were all exhausted, so I had some espresso and Aaron had two slices of pizza.

After we finally checked in, they called our gate number and everyone in the one room piles into one line, hands their boarding pass (which looks like a receipt) to a woman and you walk to the prop plane. It held about 25 people. It was a smooth flight and beautiful as we flew from south west Iceland to due north Iceland. The whole flight took about forty minutes. We arrived and found our rental car company was not there but we were able to call them and eventually a man came and gave us our car: a sweet Mazda station wagon. 

We made our way to Godafoss, the whole reason for this excursion up here and walked out to the waterfall. In English, godafoss means God's waterfall. It certainly did not disappoint. It was beautiful and quite cold. 15F with wind today here. Good thing I over dressed on the plane! We stayed at the falls for at least an hour photographing from different spots. 

As we were leaving from one side of the falls, Aaron backed us into a bit of a ditch and we were stuck. Luckily there were ten guys standing around and after half an hour of digging and pushing, they pushed us out while I drove. Always an adventure!

Our hotel was just down the road, so we made it, with one stop to get the snow out of the tires and it was starting to smoke and burn...not so safe! We are staying in a cute homestead called the North Aurora guesthouse and we have two rooms: flower power and volcano. After today, it's very fitting.

We were hoping to get back to godafoss to take sunset photos tonight, but the clouds have made their way in. So instead, we are going to dinner and then a place called the Myvatn nature baths... Natural hot baths. If I have enough energy after all of that, I'll write about this evenings adventures!

We made it, are here, and very glad we are! More later. Please remember that all photos in this blog are taken from my iPhone.

Travel Day Commences

I once heard that if a trip always starts out going smoothly, it doesn't always stay that way... For the most part, my trips are usually smooth and if not, I figure out and adjust accordingly. Well, I woke up this morning to no power and had to turn on the generator with mom so that things could function a bit! There was quite a winter thunderstorm here last night with high winds. I'm glad I didn't leave last night as I would still be sitting at the airport. Never a dull moment here!

Aaron and our other two adventureers (did I just make that up?!) left SFO this morning very early and are currently flying to JFK where I am headed to join them in a bit.

I'm hoping that since things have not started out so well this morning, that it will mean the trip will go smoothly! Here's to crossing fingers!

Bon Voyage!

Iceland!

In just 72 hours, I will embarking on my second trip to Iceland! I'm starting to get excited and I am crossing my fingers that the kp level for the aurora stays high while I am there. This trip I am again going with three other traveling partners, though only one of them is a photographer as well. Our itinerary is full and many of our locations are new, yet there are a few that are on my list to return to as they are too beautiful to skip. (such as the ice beach!) Plus a few adventures will be added in. We are not renting camper van's this time so I'm hoping to have a little bit more Wi-Fi than I did last time and will update the blog daily if possible.
Follow along on my journey and comment and ask questions if you have any!

Our first sighting of the Northern Lights last year, February 2015!

On a side note, for as much as Aaron and I have traveled together, we have never flown on the same plane to any of our destinations. This trip will be a first as he is meeting me at JFK from SFO! Yay for not flying international alone! :)

Prepping for 3 trips... and a 4th

Over the past couple of years I've perfected my packing abilities for trips and for learning how to take only the essentials. Usually the trips I take are spread out just enough that I have plenty of time to be at home, regroup, do laundry, relax and plan. The past couple of months, my trips have coincided and overlapped a bit, but they revolved around going to similar places so my gear was the same.

However, in just a couple of weeks, I will be embarking on three trips spanning a month, and heading to three very different locales around the globe. Hence, packing for three trips. I certainly do not have enough underwear for a month and Victoria's Secret or Hanky Panky has not lowered their prices enough for me to carry a month worth of them with me! Plus, that takes up space and underwear is very easy to clean in the shower! (One of my tips for traveling lighter)

The only clothing that will be the same for all three trips is my bathing suit. That's not super helpful! When I pack, I use these amazing different size bags to organize by Eagle Creek, so I can separate different types of clothing into each of them. When I arrive at a destination, I can just put the individual bags in drawers (if i'm at a location long enough to do so), and then open the zipper and can gain easy access to my clothes without having to dig around to find what i'm looking for. Gallon size zip lock bags also work to help organize.

Packing for the first trip... my initial pairings!

 I will have a 12 hour layover to do laundry and repack for the second two trips which will be Vegas and Utah... Flying into Vegas with three pairs of skis will be interesting!

The fourth trip I mentioned is actually my brother's and since he literally has no time, except maybe to shower, I am packing for him for a trip he's taking to another continent!
I will update with more as we get closer and of course, I will try my best to write daily updates when I travel.

January Travels

I spent most of January out west in Utah and Wyoming. Much work and some skiing. With about 10-12 feet of snow throughout the month, it was hard not to ski. I had the pleasure of photographing a four month old for a week; he was absolutely adorable! Time spent with family was also wonderful. I have a big trip coming up at the end of February so stay tuned!  In the meantime, I may venture up to Vermont or Maine for a weekend of snowy photos!