Well, We Landed On The Moon

As I maneuvered our sweet rental car—a fetching white Kia Sorento EV (every other car here is an EV)—onto the the i-41 from Reykjavik on our way to the famous Blue Lagoon, Mon and I kept looking at each other and wondered if we had, indeed, been rerouted to the moon. Lava rock and nothing as far as the eye could see. Barren and beautiful is an understatement. Is this where they shot Apollo 11? (I could almost imagine Buzz Aldrin and a green screen.)

We were immediately in love with the whole scene. AND THEN…

The Blue Lagoon

We were re-routed a bit thanks to a cantankerous lava flow that had spilled over the main road a few months ago. Makeshift dirt/lava rock road it was. Bumping up and down in our Kia Moonlander, we finally found ourselves at this other-worldy spot that some might confuse for the headquarters of a James Bond villain.

We walked in, showered, suited, and then headed out to a lake-sized hot tub of milky blue elixir that’ll forever change my life. Words don’t do it justice. It feels familiar and foreign all at the same time.

Happily, we made our way over the to “face mask” area where you can rub all manner of silica masks on yourself. And then you kinda just hang out and wander around looking at people from all over the world with their own weirdo face masks. Randos looking weird together. It’s really, really great. Really great. This is a must for every bucket list.

After about an hour, the girls’ hair was completely destroyed—this is a known thing, the minerals do a number on long hair. I, of course, didn’t have that problem. Thank you paternal grandfather hairlines and the balding gene. ChuckDub’s hair just got curlier.

We then spent the next several days touring all around the golden circle, marveling at the landscape, the waterfalls, and of course the horses. I’ve thrown in a few photos below with some key highlights:

Oxararfoss

Fun little hike along an actual tectonic plate/fault line to this amazing little waterfall. FYI, anything ending in ‘foss’ probably means waterfall. Also, the Icelandic language is impossible and everyone who speaks it is a freaking genius.

Gullfoss

This one takes your breath away. You can hike down closer to the edge, but our crew was both tired and cold, so we opted not to get too close—you’ll absolutely get soaked if you brave it.

Geysir

I can’t remember if there’s more to the name of this one, but it’s worth a stop. If you’re an Old Faithful aficionado, you might think this one is a bit perfunctory, but you get to walk right up to the edge of the thing and really breath in the sulfur. Lil’G kept asking, “Why does it smell like farts everywhere?” We watched the Geysir erupt 3 times—goes off every 4-10 minutes. Two were meh. One was big enough to drench the crowd. (Fear not, it was just water. Not acid. I repeat, not acid. No one got their face burned off.)

Horseback Riding

This was a favorite of all our girls. Icelandic horses are apparently known for being chill, nice, and pretty much all around awesome. Kinda like a bunch of equine Paul Rudds. You can make reservations at a number of places. Ours was Núpshestar. People couldn’t be nicer. Horses couldn’t be Paul Ruddier.

I think Iceland will be one of those places I’ll return to sometime to spend a little more time exploring more of the island. ChuckDub agreed. Wouldn’t mind if he was called on a mission here, he says. (We actually talked to the LDS mission president and found out that a dozen missionaries serve on the island and are a part of the Copenhagen, Denmark mission. But, the Iceland missionaries stay in Iceland. You just rotate around with the same dozen Elders. Could be awesome, unless you have a few duds, in which case, ugh.

A few other sweet photos: