Day 3 in Ísland
Father’s Day in Laugarvatn…
Father’s Day in Iceland started slow. Cheetah and mommy woke up first, around 8, and had wanted to get some breakfast somewhere other than the hotel. $55 USD for breakfast wasn’t crazy, but not what we wanted to pay. We set to out while the others slept to find some options. No luck… nearest grocery/market opened at 10am, no restaurants nearby did breakfast and we were starving. :( We had wanted to surprise Daddy with a nice coffee and donut ((Kleinur) on Father’s Day, but opted for just a fancy coffee from the hotel. We had a nice breakfast in the hotel while Daddy headed out for his usually morning run.
We headed to the Fontana Spa just steps from our hotel to spend the day at the pool, hot springs and sauna. We realized there was a ton of people there at 10am when they opened and started asking around what was happening. Met a couple of Michiganders who were part of a Marathon Tours expedition. Basically they sign up for these vacation tours where they run between 5-10 miles each day or every few days in a cool location. To be honest, these people did not look like runners. They looked like old codgers that would be better off in a Lazy Boy race, but I’m impressed they are out there running or walking! Unfortunately, we need reservations and they were full, so they recommended we make a reservation for later in the day. We got a reservation for 4pm! Instead, we decided to visit a cool waterfall, Bruarfoss and a geiser, called Geysir.
The waterfall had such clear blue waters! It was crazy how turquoise blue it was. The river sure was rushing and the parts where the water fell, as well as the pool it created at the bottom were bright blue. The waterfall was a quick a quick 1/4 mile from the parking lot which was nice for the kids legs after an epic adventure yesterday. We didn’t spend much time at the waterfall as it was quite windy and some of us forgot out jackets (after being reminded numerous times :eyeroll: ). Onto the next adventure, Geysir.
The Geysir was actually pretty cool and reminded me a lot of Yellowstone NP. The big geysir apparently doesn’t blow anymore due to tourists throwing trash/rocks into it. The big Geysir is said to blow higher than Old Faithful, although ovbiously not as consistent on timing. The second largest Geysir there is called Strokkur (The Churn) which blows every 10 minutes or so. It will often blow twice in a row, but not always. While we were there we did see it blow twice numerous times, but then once in awhile it would blow only once or a second blow would be tiny, like a burp. There were many hotpots nearby with walkways to them and also a nice hike up to a lookout point which overlooked the Geysir area on one side and a cliff off the back overlooking a rural farming valley tucked in between mountains. We had stopped at the gas station/market on the way and grabbed PB&J and lunch stuff so we had a picnic outside, spreading our PB&J with a straw from the nearby expensive restaurant ;)
We then headed back to the hotel to rest for an hour, mommy got a nap, before heading to the Fontana Spa.
The Atlantic Ocean! It was cold and we found some cool shells. We didn’t stay long because it was windy, cold and a bit drizzly.
