Iceland-Part 1

Hi Everybody! It is GOOD to be back with you today! This summer I’ve slowed the blog down to just Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays because life, kids, and summer with everyone at home leaves me with much less time to work. I’ve talked to so many friends who feel the same way! I love having them all here but there’s way less time. Tab and I returned last week from an AMAZING six day Iceland vacation. This trip was an incentive trip Darr Equipment won {the company Tab works for} and typically the owner would attend but he and his family already had plans for the week so the trip fell to us. Let me just tell you-we weren’t mad about it. ;).

We had a flight to Minneapolis, a small layover, and then a six hour flight to Iceland! The best thing about a flight is having something to do-computer, book, movie, etc. AND a coffee.

And just like that…Tab and I arrived in Reykjavik, Iceland. We stayed at the cute Hotel Borg, which was right in the heart of downtown. We could walk to tons of shopping, food, etc. We arrived and the company was lined up to greet us. Tab and I looked like zombies hugging and shaking everyone’s hands. haha! We were so tired! It was nothing a quick breakfast, a nice nap and then some outside air couldn’t fix.

We took a little stroll around the area to see what was happening and grab some lunch.

See how cute the hotel was?!

Saturday just so happened to be a mandatory NFL zoom meeting for Tab. So he set up shop with his computer and wifi while I periodically went out to get us snacks, coffee, and dinner while I worked and watched Bowen’s baseball games via my phone.

There was a darling little food hall {kind of reminded me of Legacy Hall for my local Texas girls} less than a block from our hotel that had fish ‘n chips, tacos, sushi, pizza, pasta, etc.

It was BUSY when I went back for sushi that night but you can kind of see the charm in the pics.

We had dinner plans with the group every night but I was told Fishmarket and Sushi Social are THE BEST sushi options. They’re both open for dinner only so we couldn’t try them. We did have Djusi Sushi twice during our stay because it was THAT good! Djusi Sushi is located right inside the food hall.

The most delicious sushi we’ve ever had! I’m telling you we were living our best life!

I missed the memo on the fact the sun never really sets and gets DARK in June in Iceland. This was our room at 11:00 p.m. After a couple days, I got used to it but I’d often wake up panicked we’d missed the alarm because of all the light.

Day two was a busy day full of fun activities for the entire group. They loaded us up in these super cool jeeps.

Our group was about fifty people. I knew several from the Santa Barbara trip, Tab knew more, and then there were a few who were totally new to us.

Our first stop was Thingvellir National Park.

We got to get some up close and personal looks at geysers.

This little patch of the day reminded me of when we visited Yellowstone in 2021.

There’s one geyser that goes off consistently every 4-6 minutes so we got to ooh and aaah over that one.

And then our group had a private look at how the chefs make geyser bread. They mix the dough up and place it down inside the geyser to cook instead of an oven. They pulled these loaves of bread RIGHT out of the geyser and served it to us. It was delicious! But then they encouraged us to eat it with a raw fish and egg-I was out on that. 😉

We popped into the Geyser Restaurant where they had several groups being served a lunch buffet.

And then back in the super cool rides for the next stop….

GLACIERS!!!

One of THE funniest moments was everyone getting geared up and another lady and I put our head wraps on at the same time, spotted each other and DIED laughing! We were a LEWWWWK! Let me tell you!

I wish Tab would have told me to take the helmet off! hahaha! We got our gear on at the bottom of the glacier and then they drove us up to the top where the snow mobiles were waiting.

Don’t let this picture fool you….I was getting nervous.

The guides gave us a speech about how when we turn BOTH of us must lean into the turn in order for the snow mobile to turn. Again, I’m NERVOUS at this point. Tab drove us the first half, then we stopped midway, regrouped and took some pics. We decided I’d drive us back.

So we got geared up for the second half back.

Right after we snapped a few pics. 🙂

The guides then started to let each group take off. We were the THIRD snow mobile to get released. I had to pull out straight and then turn to the right to follow the leader. I started turning. I was LEANING just as hard as I could. Tab SAYS he was leaning with me but BAM-I flipped the snow mobile right there after driving for approximately four seconds. Tab was a great sport and we quickly decided I wasn’t made to drive those so we switched spots, which later turned out to be such a blessing because the visibility went way down as the clouds lowered and we could hardly see the person in front of us. I’d have been a MESS if I was driving. BUT we MADE IT out!

And then found some STUNNING waterfalls!

My phone is telling me this was in Blaskogabyggo. Highly recommend the spot and the views!

It was GORGEOUS!

And our evening adventure was THE CUTEST thing! We went to Fridheimar where we first watched an Icelandic horse show…

And got some interesting facts…370,000 people in Iceland and over 100,000 Icelandic horses.

They played some Icelandic music and explained the special things about Icelandic horses.

The weather was perfection and this little spot in Iceland, Fridheimer, was just so cute!

After the show they served drinks and you could pop into the stables to take pictures with the horses.

Seriously, the cutest little place.

I kept telling Tab this stable was everything my eight-year-old dreams were made of.

And from the stables we made our way into the tomato greenhouses where we had dinner.

I’m telling you-the VIEWS at this place. This bread display paired with tomato soup was absolute perfection! The entire theme of the restaurant side is tomatoes {because we’re inside a tomato greenhouse}. From appetizers to desserts to drinks the entire menu consists of tomatoes.

With a few gorgeous touches thrown in.

There were rows and rows of tomato plants.

They served the tomato soup with delicious bread, chicken in a tomato cream sauce, veggies and rice with an apple and tomato crisp for dessert.

As dinner was wrapping up in Iceland, this happened back home…

Bowen’s team snagged the CHAMPIONSHIP!

Big thanks to my parents for holding down the fort on this particularly HOT week!

We loaded up in the buses and I was falling asleep as we drove back to the hotel.

At this point, we were still in awe at how BRIGHT it was outside when it was after 10 p.m. Can you tell by my face I needed sleep? But what an AMAZING DAY we had! Iceland, we didn’t know what to expect but by day two you’d captured our hearts!

XO