Day 6 - Jokulsarlon bound

After a blissful night of slumber in our quiet cottage, we set out the next morning to drive another couple hours southeast over to our final destination- the Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon.  But of course, we couldn't just hop in the van and crank it out, we stopped many, many times.  :-)  The first stop was to take a picture of a massive glacier spilling down the mountain.  It felt like we were in the Alps instead of green Iceland.

Our next stop was at the twisted wreckage of a bridge that had been washed away by a massive flood years back.

And here's Ryan using my parent's binoculars to check out another glacier.

We also stopped at the very-easy-to-pronounce park below to hike up to one of Iceland's most famous falls- Svartifoss.

We hadn't realized the hike was going to be straight uphill for the better part of an hour...even longer when after 40 minutes, your three-year old demands to be carried the rest of the way up (and down).  :-)  In our normally lazy little boy's defense, he really did a great job up until he somehow managed to chafe both his legs while walking.

We did get a few great pics at the near empty falls (love traveling in low tourist season!), pouring over some the basalt columns.

On the way down, since it wasn't that cold, we decided to let Rizzle take off his pants (the source of the chafing).  I could tell the other European tourists were really impressed with my parenting skills. :-)

Once we left the falls, we charged the last remaining miles over to the much anticipated Jokulsarlon lagoon.  And lordy, lordy...it did not disappoint.  We stood on the banks of the lagoon for hours just watching the icebergs drift around- occasionally creaking, groaning, breaking apart and splashing into the water.

There was also a pole there with some hooks on the end for people to try and hook onto a piece of floating ice and haul it in to photograph and taste.

As fun as it was to be there, it was also quite bittersweet.  The lagoon wasn't there 75 years ago.  It formed in large part because of global warming, with the glacier feeding the growing lagoon by retreating/melting at an unprecedented rate.  :-(  So um...stop buying aerosol hairspray...and save a glacier!

After taking in the beauty of the lagoon (including a colony of about 5 dozen frolicking seals that call the lagoon home), we splurged and went for a 40-minute ride on the lagoon in an amphibious boat (my first time on such a boat).

Because Ryan was already wearing a long sleeved t-shirt, a sweater and a thick down-filled jacket, the puffy life vest nearly incapacitated him.  He could barely move his upper body other than to weeble and wobble around a bit.

I had thought Ryan would be swooning over the fact that he was able to ride a car that turned into a boat, but to be honest, he looked rather bored the entire trip!  I couldn't believe it.  Even the guide was laughing at his nonchalance/relative boredom.  He just calmly sat in his seat the whole time and only really became quite animated once they started handing out ice chips (from 1,000 year old ice) for everyone to sample.  Because if there is one thing Ryan looooves- its chomping on ice.

The amphibious boat!

The entire family cruising the lagoon (no fears of sea sickness since the water was so quiet and still)!

The little boy giving his Uncle an Eskimo kiss on board.

 Ryan's favorite activity that day- crushing chunks of glacier to make ever more ice chips to munch on.

Happiest place on Earth!  Bidding adieu (or as the Icelanders would say- Bless!) to the beautiful lagoon.