ÉG ást Ísland (Part 4 -Egilsstaðir )

This was by far my favorite drive so far in Iceland! Instead of driving around all the fjords to Egilsstaðir, we decided to drive to the biggest glacier in Europe and take an underground tunnel through the mountains into the town.







Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Iceland. It is located in the south-east of the island and covers more than 8% of the country! It is the largest ice cap in Europe and under the ice cap there are several volcanoes.








It was amazing to see ice and snow for miles and miles! It looked like a disease that covered the mountain side and spread as far as the eye could see. It was extremely windy and cold walking around the base of the glacier but one of the most interesting experiences of my life. The glacier went right up to the Atlantic ocean.




We finally made it to Egilsstaðir (kind of had a hard time finding our housing) but still made it! Egilsstaðir seemed a little more up with the times so Ryan and I decided to jet out for a couple beers and dinner. We went to the original farmhouse in Egilsstaðir, Saenautasel. Saenautasel is one of its most popular attractions. The farmhouse was built in 1843 once was a turf farmhouse which was unihabited after 1943 and left to gradually decay. Now, the farmhouse has been restored to its original state by member of the local community and is open to dine and stay.



After dinner, we became to walk back to our housing and found a cute little bistro and decided to have a couple beers. A couple beers turned into quite a few beers! We had such a great time talking, laughing, playing games, walking through town (swing sets in neighbor's yards!) and eventually made it back.




The next morning, we hit the road headed for our next stop... Húsavík.

To be continued...

ÉG ást Ísland (Part 3 - Höfn)

We decided to stop on our way and visit our first glacier (Vatnajökull) at the Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður National Park. Vatnajökull National Park is a large park that covers more than 13% of Iceland. Despite a large part of the national park being underneath the icecap of the glacier Vatnajökull, its landscape is diverse, predominantly due to the interplay of volcanic activity and glaciers. The glacier was completely black due to the volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull earlier that month.









On the road again! Ryan and I left Vik pretty early in the morning and began our drive into the town of Höfn. The drive was extremely beautiful and the views were amazing. We started to notice that every waterfall coming off a moutain or hill side, had a little farm by it. Also, most farms had Icelandic horses and sheep roaming in their fields. Very amazing. On our way to Höfn, we began drive some fjords (winding roads around the coast of the island). It was crazy to see the patterns in the hillside. It almost painted a picture of the volcanic eruptions that occurred throughout the year on the island. CRAZY!





Höfn was a sleepy little fishery town in the southeatern part of the country. A cultural highlight of the town in the annual Humarhátíð (lobster festival) held on the first weekend of July...RYAN JUST MISSED IT! Höfn was a little too sleepy for me and we decided to have an early dinner and go to bed and head out early to our next stop, Egilsstaðir

To be continued...

ÉG ást Ísland (Part 2 - Vík í Mýrdal)

After spending several days with Tumi, MEF and Elsa Maria, Ryan and I decided it was time to hit the road. We began our road trip on Sunday and planned on heading East (driving around the coast) toward our first destination, Vik. Vik is the southermost village in Iceland and is located on the main ring road around the island. Only 300 people live in the village, making it very personal and special.

The drive to Vik was GORGEOUS! The first major site we saw was Skógafoss waterfall. Skógafoss is stiauted in the south of Iceland at the cliffs of the former coastline. It is one of the biggest waterfalls of Iceland. There was so much spray from the waterfall, we saw several rainbows : ) A little story I found fun was that the first Viking settler in the area, Þrasi Þórólfsson, buried a treasure in a cave behind the waterfall. A local boy found the chest years later, but was only able to grasp the ring on the side of the chest before it disappeared again. I love it! Ryan and I decided to climb up the side of the waterfall and take a look to see where the water was coming from. Great choice! There was a beautiful river going down the country side. After walking a bit, we realized the ground was a little bouncy...in fact...it felt like carpet! We bent down and ran our hands through the grass and found that it was filled with ash from Eyjafjallajokull volcano!! It was the weirdest feeling, very dry and light.








After climbing down the waterfall and returning to our car, we finished our journey to Vik. Vik was absolutely beautiful and probably one of my favorite places on earth. Not only was it visually pleasing, it was friendly and quiet. When we finished unpacking for the night, we decided to walk through the town and head towards the beach. Vik's black sand beach was named one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. It was amazing looking off into the distance and seeing absolutely nothing. The town of Vik was pretty common looking...houses, cars, a school and a church but the landscape around it was very uncommon. The hills of flowers, the way the sunlight poured into the valley, the birds and the beach. Breathtaking.








After a cozy night in our little cabin, we packed up and began our next drive to Höfn.

To be continued.....

ÉG ást Ísland (Part 1 - Reykjavik)

Well Ladies and Gentlemen...The big trip to Iceland was a success! After many years of planning and anticipation, Ryan and I traveled to Iceland to visit friends and drive around the country. This is going to be a llloooonnnnngggggg entry and I might even break it up a little so bare with me!

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.

A Bird's-Eye View

Today, I was talking with some of my co-workers about a bird's nest that was made right outside our window. There was a mama crow guarding her eggs and relaxing in the cool shade. That little bird reminded me of a incident that occurred a couple weeks ago.

I was riding the 66 bus downtown to catch my transfer when I got off at Stewart and
9th. I proceeded to walk down the street, passing a huge group of people waiting for their buses. I looked down for literally 2 seconds to change the song on my iPod and when I looked up, a pigeon was coming straight towards my face! There was no time to react! The pigeon flew straight into my forehead!! I began to scream and wipe my face off frantically. Everyone at the bus stop starting laughing and pointing at me! After I stopped freaking out, I looked down to see the little flying rat that hit me and to my surprise, it was totally deformed. One leg, one eye and missing more than half of its feathers! GROSS!!! Needless to say, that was extremely embarassing and I will now keep my eyes forward downtown : )

The power of poultry

As a vegan, I very rarely have meat in our house. But I have noticed that when I decide to cook chicken, the dogs turn into addicts. They immediately smell the chicken and flock to the kitchen where they begin to stalk me. Even after the meal, they attempt to knock over the trash can and get into the chicken bits. Basil will stand on the kitchen rug for hours hoping that maybe, just maybe, a piece of chicken will magically fall onto the floor. I guess that is just animal instinct.

Reality Check

Let me start this post by saying how much I love my brother. He is the most caring and gracious person I have ever come across. He gave us the biggest scare on Friday and I will never forget how I felt.

I started my Friday kind of bummed out because I wanted to take the day off and go to the ocean with K and S but someone already had the day off. Things were super crazy at work in the morning...so I was all over the place! I was on the phone with a patient when I noticed my mom was calling my cell phone. I figured I would let it go to voicemail and call her back after I finish up with my patient. I then noticed she sent me a text, 911. Something was seriously wrong. I immediately called my mom back and she was screaming and crying something about my brother. I told her to calm down and tell me what was happening. She told me that Ryan (Yes, I have two very important Ryans in my life) was in an accident. He apparently had fallen off a 15 foot roof at a jobsite he was working and was unconscious and in route to Harborview. A wave of panic flowed through my veins. I told my mom to calm down, there is nothing she can do right now. I dropped everything at my desk (I even left my computer logged on, lights on and the phone on) and ran over to my boss and told him I was leaving. My fantastic coworkers swooped in and covered me.

I think it took me all of 2 minutes to get to Harborview from south lake union (I don't even remember driving). When I parked, I decided to call his girlfriend Heather. She was very upset and told me she needed to come down there. I flew to the ED and immediately demanded to see my brother. The lady told me that he was still on his way...I couldn't believe I beat the ambulance!! While I was waiting, I started to get my brother registered with Harborview. She was impressed by how much I knew about him! I knew just about everything besides his blood type! (Thank you, Thank you). I felt my mom walk into the ED and got up and hugged her. Right when she walked in, the social worker called my name, he was here, FINALLY. The social worker took us back to see him and as we walked towards his room, there were about 20 medical staff running around in the room. We started to panick and the social worker said that a trauma just came into his room and we needed to wait a little while longer to see him. I was happy to wait because I was relieved that wasn't him.

As we were escorted to the waiting room again, I notice Heather had arrived. We hugged and I told her what we knew. The social worker promised us that we could see him now and that he is awake and talking. As we approached his room, I braced myself for the worst. I needed to be strong for him and my mom. The curtain was closed and we could hear him screaming "Owwww!! OWWWWW!!!" My mom started to cry... Finally they let us in. He was strapped to a back board with a neck brace on. I rushed to his face, he was awake. I began wiping his tears with my hands and telling him everything is going to be fine. He looked up and me and said "Jess...your freckles are coming out already." This totally made me cry! My mom and Heather said hello and showered him with kisses. He repeatedly thanked us for being there for him (like we wouldn't). He is always thinking of others.

I did my best to make him as comfortable as he could be. He was so concerned about work and demanded that he finish his job. He didn't want to create more work for dad. I wetted his lips with water and dusted all the dirt off of his face, the whole time never letting go of his hand. He is absolutely SCARED of blood and needles so this was an experience for him. The RN needed to take 3 different hemoglobin draws to determine if he was bleeding internally. This could not be done by IV, it needed to be different pokes. He was brave through the whole thing, I tried to comfort him and distract from the anxiety of the draw. Soon, dad arrived. I don't think I have ever seen my dad so upset in my life. He kissed my brother and let him know everything was going to be ok at work and that he shouldn't worry.

Finally, he was ready for his imaging. My family (and hopefully him) wanted me to go with him because of my radiology experience. First stop, CT. He started to get nausea because of the morphine...I told what to expect and what to speak up about. The techs let me go into the control room while they scanned him. THANK GOD I payed attention while in CT! After every scan (head, cervical spine, tspine, chest, abdomen, pelvis) everything was looking ok. RELIEF! Next stop, general xray. They tortured him by adjusting his arms back and forth (he was complaining about his L collar bone the most). The RN came in a gave him more morphine to make it through...he did great! I looked through all the imaging and didn't see anything! Could my brother have fallen that far and done nothing to himself??

We return back to the ED from imaging and it is just me and him. Still holding hands, he begins to talk about what happened. Apparently, he remembers starting to slide down the roof of the house, panicking and thinking "OH MY GOD!". He doesn't remember hitting the ground, or the ladder (which was on the roof) fallen on him. The poor thing. My family comes back into the room, including Ryan (husband). We are then greeted by the admitting clerk. Admitting?? We haven't even spoken to the physician! We requested her to find the physician and figure out what is going on. Shortly after, the attending walks in and tells us the situation. Ryan had broken the bone under his collar bone, bruised his L lung and the fall created a pocket of air between the chest wall and lung that they needed to watch. This pocket could increase and might collapse his lung. Scary.

He is finally looking a little more relaxed and doped up. I had to go back to work and close everything down for the weekend. It was so hard to leave him...I wish I could have just curled up next to him on the bed. I told him my plan of finishing up at work, going home to change and eat and coming back down. He seemed ok with that.

Later, I arrived back at the hospital to find my brother alone in his room, throwing up and scared. Apparently he had told his nurse that he was sick and was paging her over and over again with no response. Throwing up certaining hurt him because of the broken bone. He finally decided to use the morphine machine and was a little more happy : ) He is now comfy at mom's house and has had several guests. I'm so glad he is ok. I don't know what I would have done without my little brother. He is such an important part of my life. I love you Ryan