Halle here! We finally made it to Iceland bright and early! We had to wait in the airport for a while for our ride to our van, and then we got to have our first glimpse of Iceland! So beautiful and vast, and cold which felt great after Colorado summer. We got our sweet camper van, hit the grocery store, then we were off to explore!

Just driving, the scenery was breathtaking with mountains, rocks, cliffs, the ocean and little farmhouses and houses dotted across. Dad and I were the only ones awake for the majority of the day, with everyone else passed out in the back of the van. They were just missing out, especially when we went through an almost 6 minute long tunnel right under the channel. It was awesome. We saw our first of so many sheep and Icelandic ponies, and loved pointing them out every time we passed some. We saw our first glimpse of a black sand beach then made it to cliffs that looked perfectly carved in the rock. We had fun climbing up and seeing the view.

Then we went to seal beach!! The seals are only there some of the time, so we had fingers crossed and it delivered! I counted 11 seals and it was so fun to see them lounging around, stretching, then a bunch of them hopped their way into the ocean.

Next stop, first roadside waterfall! We saw sooooo many waterfalls, and Josh said he wondered what made a waterfall special enough to get its own roadside spot, and what ones you just drive by. Waterfalls are so pretty and powerful.

We made a quick stop at a little black church where a wedding was about to begin. Then onto Blake’s favorite thing, a steep climb to a cave that had a river running through it that you could tromp through with your boots on. Blake and Josh were very adventurous and went up numerous levels, which ended with Josh’s leg soaked in water but they both had a great time. Blake could only find one of his gloves and he really wished he had the other so he could continue to climb up the rope over a small waterfall. But the water was too freezing to continue without the glove.

Moved on closer to the ocean and saw the most amazing sea cliffs at Arnarstapi! They were so majestic right on the ocean, and we took pictures on the stone bridge outcropping. We had pizza and fish and chips for dinner at a cute turf roof restaurant.

Our last stop was at the famous Kirkjufell. So pretty.

Then we had quite the adventure trying to find our place for the night. There was a long drive down a dirt road. We made it and found out, much to Blake and Josh’s excitement, that it had a sauna. Mom, Blake and Josh immediately got to work filling it with water and getting it heated up. It was still light at 11:30!

We all collapsed into bed absolutely exhausted that night, armed with sleep masks for the 3 am sunrise.