Lots of fish, carousels and lousy photos...

That's mostly what I saw/did in California. Not a lot of pics to be shared this time, as most of my photos were incredibly blurry. I blame the shakiness on jet lag. Yeah. That's it. Jet lag.

Anyway.

We flew into San Francisco and explored the town for a few days before driving down the coast to Carmel by the Sea, where my brother was getting married. SF is a great town, with an astonishing number of carousels. But it's DAMN cold there. Seriously, Iceland was warmer.

The first day we arrived, we checked into the hotel and wandered down to Pier 39. Holy cheezball tourist trap. But still, lots of fun.



The Aquarium of the Bay was our first stop, and it was SO much fun to go through the tunnels and gape at the sharks swimming over our heads.



As you can see, the kids enjoyed themselves too. Perhaps in different ways...but there were still many giggles. After that, we wandered up and down the pier, watched the sea lion sunning themselves (stinky!),



ate our way through the wharf, watched a pirate magic show, and the kids had their first ride on a carousel. After that, we crashed at the hotel. We were staying on Fisherman's Wharf, and the view was stunning.



Though, just looking at Alcatraz gave me the willies, day or night.



There's some seriously bad vibes coming out of that place.

The next day we visited Golden Gate Park, and the California Academy of Sciences.



I think that this was my favourite of the aquarium/museums that we visited. It was AMAZING. Highly recommend it if you're in SF, above all other options.



Honestly, we could have stayed there all day and night.



Here are some of the denizens of the Academy:







and after we left the Academy, guess what we found? An awesome playground, complete with carousel.



Next post, the Exploratorium and *that* bridge.

Interlude...

That's what it felt like, the brief two week period between trips last month. During that time, we threw Mr. Munchkin an awesome birthday party at the Halifax Citadel. The fella in charge of the party dressed all the boys up in kilts, handed them wooden muskets and marched them around the parade grounds. AND encouraged them to swarm random tourists wandering through the park. Best part was that the tourists either giggled, roared back enthusiastically at the boys or took pictures of them.



I mean, really...isn't it every boy's dream to be encouraged to run rampage through a fort with cannons? We were lucky enough to be at the fort during Canada's Parks Day, so there was the added bonus of an artillery display. Lots and lots of cannons going off at all times. And men in kilts.



While the birthday was pretty simple to put together, I couldn't help myself and needed to craft a little something...just to take the edge off.



There were two toddler girls at the party - Doodle and Miss E. And they needed loot bags too, right? Since I knew that Alison would be the kind of gal to appreciate something handmade, I whipped up these two crayon/notepad pouches for the wee girls. Made from scraps from the linen napkins, they came together rather quickly. I've since absconded with the one that held Miss E's stuff. It's the perfect size for a catch-all in my purse. She hasn't noticed yet. Shhhhh.

The other crafting that I did during the sweet sweet downtime was to make something for the flight to California. I don't know about you, but I'm willing to do anything it takes to amuse two kids on a cross-continent trip...to spare my sanity and that of my fellow travellers. From this cute tutorial, I made Miss E a travelling dollhouse.


I think that my seam allowances were off, but otherwise...this was a very gratifying crafty experience. If I were to make another one, I think that I'd use less obnoxious hair elastics for the fasteners. But otherwise, GREAT tutorial.



Lots of applique (yes, I know the thread on the door is loose - these pics were taken AFTER the trip, so the house has gone through a lot of lovin' already...)



She loved it. And I loved the peace and quiet on the plane. I even got some knitting done! Miracles of miracles. Next up, California!

Knights! Who sometimes say Ni.

Which is to say that most of our time in Germany was spent with my in-laws, packing, sorting and pitching stuff out the door of Mr. Ninja's childhood home. But, there was one day...

We went to a medieval faire! In a castle! In Germany!!!

Yeah.

Ok, now that I've got that out of my system, here are some pics.

We drove to the medieval market with friends of ours who are really into the whole scene - they have costumes, a tent, etc. Since we were only driving up for the day, they didn't bother with most of that, but they did go in costume, which was awesome. Especially considering the heat which was hovering somewhere around 36 degrees Celsius, not including humidity.

The market was held in a castle ruin somewhere in the Pfalz (the name of the town escapes me).


The booths all lined the path, and there were the most amazing food, trinkets, and weapon/armor vendors.


We saw trees


musicians


small duels


large duels


and encampments.


The last encampment even had a working trebuchet that they were using to fling water balloons at a bunch of giggling kids.


As fun as the market was, the best part of the day (for me!) was still to come. We accompanied our friends to a BBQ at their friend's home - an old farm. And when I say old, I think that it dated back to something like 1627.


But guess what they were raising on the farm?


ALPACAS! Who were getting sheared. What a perfect day, eh?

It just doesn't stop, does it...

Sorry about the delay in the Iceland travelogue, but I was away last week in California. I tell you, the jet lag is messing me up something fierce. I hope to wake up sometime before noon before the month is over. Anyway...on our last day in Iceland, we packed up and sadly left the cottage. Headed to Keflavik and the world famous Blue Lagoon. But on the way, we saw a turn off, and spontaneously decided to investigate.

We were rewarded with a lava tube to explore!


It had collapsed at one end, so it wasn't really viable to explore. But it was very fun to clamber around on the rocks.


After this, we drove a little further west and checked into our hotel, which was right next to the Blue Lagoon.


The buildings with the red roofs are the hotel complex and you can see the geothermal heating plant that is the source of the Blue Lagoon's heat just behind the hotel. Btw, I highly recommend the Northern Light Inn - it's a great place, family-run operation, and the food is super nummy.

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day in the Blue Lagoon. In all honestly, I wasn't overly impressed with the place. After seeing the fantastic swimming pools in the rest of Iceland, the BL struck me as a real tourist trap. Additionally, the fact that NO ONE (especially the beer swilling pack of Russian men who hogged the entire counter at the swim-up bar) ever got out of the lagoon to go to the bathroom...was seriously icky. And you know that there aren't any chemicals in the water...so... ewwwwww.

The next day, we flew to Germany. But we'll definitely be going back to Iceland someday!

Headed Down the South Coast...

WARNING: VERY photo heavy post ahead...

The next day, we drove along the southern coast road. As you might be able to see from the photos, it was rainy. And misty. And foggy. Not the best of days to take photos, but a really good day to see waterfalls!


This particular one was glacier fed, and was cascading off the side of Eyjafjallajökull. COoooOOOoooold. Very very very cold. Apparently, as cold as a million ice cubes, according to Mr. Munchkin.


So, when we climbed behind the waterfall, we only stayed long enough to pick up a rock for Mr. Ninja's ever-growing collection. Of course, it was muddy and grotty...so the boys rinsed it in the little stream flowing from the waterfall, screaming the entire time about how cold the water was. Yeesh.

We continued on our merry way, and while driving along, the rainclouds began to rise. This treated us to quite the view.

The notorious volcano.


And the valley beside it, still covered in ash.


The difference between the field that had been cleaned and those left fallow was remarkable.


At one point, I made Mr. Ninja stop the car so that I could hop out and grab a bag of volcanic ash. I don't really know why I wanted some, it was just an impulse. It's got the most peculiar texture to it...almost granular. The bag is happily living in an Icelandic cheese box. Don't ask. It's got vikings on it, 'nuff said.

Kept on driving, and we passed this abandoned house that was built into the volcano.


I tell you, whoever built this place either had cahones the size of boulders, or was really really dumb. But dude. Respect. (Said in an Ali G voice.) It's almost like the builder was taunting the volcano, telling it that it smelt like elderberries...

We arrived at Skogar next - home to another gorgeous waterfall, and one of the best folk museums I've even been in. Why, you ask, is this one so special?


You can see that there's a video documenting this moment. If you watch the movie, my jaw drops wiiiide open, and my pupils dilate. But you knitters understand...right? It was called the knitting and spinning room, and it was incredibly hard for the rest of the crew to drag me out of there. I vaguely remember some kicking and screaming and clinging to the door jam...might have been me. Dunno. Things got a little hazy once I saw the looms.

The museum also had some preserved buildings that had been moved onto the grounds - most of them were of the traditional turf house type. You might think that they would be damp, dark and rather unpleasant, eh?


But this particular one was almost hobbitish - a very sweet place to call home, I imagine.

Back on the road, on our way to Vik, I saw this farm and rather liked the look of it. Looks like a nice place to watch the grass grow, and to count your sheep.


A short drive later, we were on the beach. The very very cold beach.


Look! Black sand!


The three stone columns in the surf are supposedly trolls that turned into stone when daylight struck them. The kids kept themselves busy, stomping up and down the beach to stay warm.


We stayed for quite awhile, but the novelty wore off (we do live in Nova Scotia, after all - where there are WARM beaches) and we headed back to the cottage.


After all, when you have this to come back to...it's almost a shame to leave the hot pot in the first place.

Golden Circle Time...

So, the Golden Circle tour is the one thing that all tourists seem to do in Iceland. Makes sense - it's only a day trip, but it takes you to very beautiful and iconic places. First up, Gullfoss.


I do like waterfalls, and this one is pretty cool. However. The midges were enough to drive you off the cliff and right into the water. They weren't biting insects, but they certainly liked to swarm. I had one even get between my camera lens and the lens cap, at one point. Yuck. As you can see, someone else was also highly unimpressed by the maddening bugs.


But he cheered up once we told him that we were going to see superheated explosions next.

Geysir (yup, it's the one that all the others in the world are named after) is a short drive down the road from Gullfoss, and we saw quite a few cyclists while making the trip between the two. Apparently, it's quite a big thing to cycle through Iceland. Personally, I felt bad for the cyclists...it looked like no one told them that the rain in Iceland is pretty much constant, and they were very soaked. But I bet they dried off pretty quickly once they reached the steamy grounds of Geysir.


Nifty, eh? This is actually Strokkur, another geyser close to Geysir. Geysir's been blocked up by rocks thrown by tourists in the 50's...so it doesn't go off that regularly. But Strokkur's pretty reliable - every five minutes or so, it goes off with a biiiiig whoosh.

After some time oogling the pillars of water and steam, we hopped back in the Jimny and made our way over to Þingvellir. We did make one side stop, though.


This is a cave that's been in use since Viking times. (The yellow and blue smudges are Mr. Ninja and Mr. Munchkin, respectively.) Used as a temporary shelter for shepherds and travelers, it was used as permanent housing by a few families at different times during the 1900s. But the neat thing about this place is that it's also inhabited by elves. Yeah, hokey, I know. But I think that if there's any place that there would be elves, trolls, dwarves, and so on...it would be Iceland. After exploring the cave (which was filled with the poop of half-wild sheep), we continued onto Þingvellir, home of the Althing.

I should mention that it was on this "highway" that I apologized to my husband for being skeptical about the need for a 4x4. We would pass rental cars that were driving the other way, and you could see the white knuckles of the drivers through their windshields. The road was closest to being a rough gravel road, and when driving on a sharply inclining road that is barely hugging the side of a mountain...let's just say that I was glad that I packed Gravol in my bag that day. In the end, it was worth it.



We wandered around the park for a good three hours or so, then made ourselves a picnic at the top of the mountain. Since everyone was pretty much wiped out at this point, we headed home for more hot pot soaking. Oh, but I have to show you this:

There were beautiful purple lupins EVERYWHERE in Iceland.


And sheep.


Fluffy, tasty sheep. Baaah.