So this morning we started early. It always seems so much earlier than it is, like 3 in the morning to something because it is still so dark out. But, we left at about 8:30am. Breakfast was really good, I shared photos of all the different breakfast options. Very fancy as far as 'Continental" style is concerned. This place was cool too, because in the shared room where we hung out and waited for the Northern Lights, there was a wipe off board where you could put an "x' on your room if you wanted to be woken up if somebody spotted the Northern Lights. But alas, this did not happen last night.

I would like to tell you how cool the farm was where we stayed, but we never saw it in the daylight. I can tell you, they were self-sustainable and very focused on zero waste, and keeping things local and organic, which was super cool.

Our first stop of the day was at the Skofafoss Waterfall, one of Iceland's biggest! It was very loud and powerful. It was SUPER windy though, so you got wet standing even far away from it. On a sunny day you can usaually see rainbows, but it was not sunny. Lucky for us, we did see a couple of rainbows later in the day while driving, though!

So there are some stairs you can climb to go all the way to the top of the hill to get a view of the waterfall, and I was the only one in the group who braved this climb. It was windy and kind of scary, but I did it! And my legs were super sore after too. But everybody was in the shuttle, they said there were just watching me and cheering me on. I felt pretty proud. Esecially since I didn't fall and land on my face or something.

Along our drive, we stopped for a pit stop in a city called Vik, and got to see Reynisdrangar, which are rock formations out on the water. They are also called the "Three Trolls." There is a legend that three trolls waded out in the water to try and pull a ship in from sea. However they failed, and were out there too long and were frozen to stone by the sun.

Iceland has a lot of folklore regarding trolls and fairies. Karl explained a lot of them too us, too many for me to remember or re-tell. But a few tidbits are that some of the stones in the hills and mountains form kind of a face or head that are said to be trolls. Sometimes snow that is left unmelted on the mountains catches the moonlight and will glow, that is said to be the fairies in the hills. There little houses that people build that are meant to be for the fairies. If you go back to the photo of me and Jaime at the Secret Lagoon, you can see a little house in the background. That is for fairies!

Anyways, after our pit stop we were making excellent time, so Karl took us to this amazing place that was not even on our itinerary. It was called Fjadrargljufur. It was a freaking gorgeous canyon and waterfall.

You will notice the album that goes along with this Blog entry has more photos than the other albums. We saw so much cool stuff today, I just wanted to show as much of it as I could.

Another stop we made along the way was at Hvannadalshnukur, which is a peak on the Oraefjokull Volcano. We got a good little selfie there.

And now for the final two stops, and two of my favorite things. (Another one being the Canyon earlier) We are now all the way on the East Coast of Iceland in Jokulsarlon. We stopped at a place called Glacier Lagoon. This had just beautiful icebergs in the water, and Karl said every day you go back there, it looks different because the ice melts, and new formations form. He said it was one of his favorite places as well.

Our final stop before heading to our farm for the night was at Diamond Beach. This place really left both me and Jaime breathless. First of all, the sand was black. Very unique. Also, the water is so cold that ice forms, and it gets washed up onto the beach. They sit there in the black sand and look like diamonds. Hence the name, Diamond Beach. Each little chunk of ice was super unique, and it was really amazing to watch the waves crash up against the ice and break it apart. We just stood there on the shore watching this happen, literally mesmerized by what was happening. This was another moment of just wow, take a moment to really reflect on where we were.

The things we saw today almost made us forget how freaking cold it was. However, according to Karl, it was not that cold as far as Iceland is concerned. But as far as Californians are concerned, yes it was cold.

We had yet another wonderful dinner (posted the pictures!) and went to bed not even attempting to see the Northern Lights because it was so cloudy. We did meet a couple of guys that were also staying there (not part of our group) and one of them was from Los Angeles! What are the odds? They were cool to talk to and swap stories of our experiences in Iceland.

Tomorrow will be yet another early day, and pending the weather we will be partaking in a Glacier walk. So cross your fingers for good weather!