Andy and Erin were kind enough to take care of the girls while we were away - a change from the usual staying with my/Ryan's parents. Uncle Rick was in town from Wenatchee and was nice enough to take us to Seatac airport...We decided it would be best to fly via Icelandair. They offer a direct flight to Reykjavic, Iceland and it only takes a little over 7 hours. The flight was pretty easy and the airline offered a lot of visual entertainment - YAY! I think I watched just about everything they had to offer! We left Seattle at 4:30pm on June 9th and arrived in Reykjavik at 6:45am on June 10th. We completely skipped the night! Tumi drove to the airport to pick us up on that morning...it felt like Seattle, cloudy and raining hard. It was so great to see Tumi (last saw him in December when he and Mary Frances were in town celebrating their new marriage!). Tumi decided to take us to get breakfast before heading to his apartment to see MEF and the new baby, Elsa Maria. I was so excited to see MEF and Elsa (for the first time) and couldn't wait to get there! Finally, we were introduced to the sleeping little Elsa. She is a perfect cross between Tumi and Mary Frances in every way. After visiting for about an hour, Tumi took us over to his parent's house where we would be staying. They were very formal and nice! Tumi's sister, Gunnhilder, actually gave us her room in the basement to stay while in Reykjavik. She took about a 4 hour nap (It seriously felt like 3 minutes!) then headed downtown to site see and eat. Here are a few pictures of Reykjavik...
Saturday, Tumi and MEF took us on The Golden Circle on our way to Tumi's summerhouse outside of town. The Golden Circle is a popular tourist route in South Iceland, covering about 300 km looping from Reykjavik into central Iceland and back. We saw an amazing waterfall (Gullfoss), a geysir (strokkur), geothermal activity and much more
After spending the day site seeing and being touristy, we headed to the summerhouse. Baby Elsa slept the whole way! The summerhouse (outside of Gullfoss I believe) was pushed back into the middle of no where. The house was so cute! No electricity and was heated by geothermal water which is pumped into large plates throughout the home. I cooked a nice spaghetti meal and it was so nice to sit down and visit with our great friends. After dinner, Tumi and Ryan went to play a round of golf (at 930pm!) and MEF, Elsa and I played a game of scrabble...well sort of...it was the Icelandic version : )
On our way back to Reykajik, Tumi and MEF took us to this open, hilly field to visit a hotspring. It was amazing! No one was around and we were able to relax in the hot pot while baby Elsa napped and MEF snapped some pictures...
The night before heading out on our adventure around the country, we were able to watch some of the world cup at Tumi's apartment with some of his friends. It was quite the experience being in Europe while "the world's game" was such a huge deal! Everyone was so excited!!
Sunday morning, Ryan and I headed out to our first destination, Vik......
To be continued.
