Know or Don't Go

Trying to keep up with these young whippersnappers is hard work! Woke up a bit stiff from all of yesterday's adventures... But when I say I woke up, I use that term loosely because I was still sleepy when the two adventurers got me to a secret hot spring lagoon at 5 a.m. Don't worry, it was daylight. It is always daylight in this country. If that doesn't mess with your internal clock that is already battling jet lag, nothing will. Anyway, I am sad to say I wasn't adventurous enough to brave a hot spring dip. I like all my geothermal experiences to happen after 6 a.m. It's a personal rule of mine.

After Gray and Heather fulfilled their crack of dawn dip goal, we headed to Iceland's biggest waterfall. I really, really wish I could tell you the name. Probably something-floss or -laugen. It was AMAZING! We rank our Icelandic waterfalls based on chances of survival if one was to fall in. It's a pretty lame ranking system because so far the chances for any of them are ZERO.

Post-waterfall, one of Gray's Iceland goals came true. To feed a wild horse, of course. And like any good road-trippers, we have a produce section in the car (not to be confused with The Pantry AKA glove compartment), so he had a carrot at the ready. A couple fellow enthusiasts were on the side of the road, but the horses ditched them all when Gray approached them with vegetables and he suddenly had three new BFFs... But they just wanted him for his carrots. He ate an English cucumber, they ate carrots, and all parted ways.

You know you're getting way too immune to Iceland amazingness when you drive along and say calmly, "Oh, a geyser. Look, it just spouted." Actually, in this country we would spell it GEYSIR. Then we would probably turn on our turning signal, because people here love their turning signal. They do NOT love it when you don't love yours. We saw the geyser spout three times in ten minutes (with all of us losing the bet of which time it would erupt), then we moved on.

Moved on to a tomato farm! It was the coolest place that produces a ton of tomatoes a day. I wasn't exaggerating, I meant a literal ton. 2,000 lbs, if you will. We had a wonderful lunch there, although you might be reading that as sarcasm since some of you know I've never used "tomato" and "wonderful" in the same sentence before. That's true, but did I mention the tomato soup and bread buffet and table basil with little scissors so you could snip off some basil for your soup?! We finished off the early afternoon with some berries at a berry farm, which were "next level raspberries" (quotes by Gray).

There is a rule in this Subaru. You see three cars turn on a random road, you follow. That we did and came upon the coolest oasis of secret gardens and falls. See photo for mental image, it's 12:30 a.m. at the moment and I just can't do it for you. Side note: the blankets we rented from the camping supply store (Gray's second brilliant idea, second only to an in-car wifi hotspot... Can you say GAMECHANGER?!) was excellent for gnat swatting. They were everywhere at those falls, even though the lady at the tomato farm said, "We are an island. We don't have bugs." We beg to differ. We especially liked there were no signs or even paved roads to show how to get to the place. It was Iceland's way of saying figure it out, tourists. Know or don't go, as we say.

Flash forward two hours to a remote hot spring location... We had to ford a river in the car. Think Oregon Trail and Fort Laramie when you have to hire a guide to help you cross because you're in a rush to beat out your wagonmate's case of scurvy. Minus all that but plus Heather and I saying, "We don't know about this...." To which Gray responded, "If you're scared, close your eyes!" It wasn't scary or dangerous, so everyone calm down about that back home. The hot springs were surprisingly crowded, full of backpackers and other random wanderlusters.

We had lamb soup at an Icelandic homestay (please remove your shoes and show us all how you are the only Americans in here by your lack of socks), then started the trek back to Reykjavik.

More soon and I promise to up the fun once I get more than 4 hours of sleep!

Arctic adventuring!

Friends, I am back in business with a new adventure! This time... ICELAND! And this time... Cousin fest 2016! Heather and I left Fresno on Thursday at 5:30 am (shoutout to Auntie Linda for the ride to SFO). On the way we got a text from Wow Air saying our 12:30 flight was delayed. Sooo we ended up at SFO with exactly SEVEN hours to kill. Don't you worry, though, we made the most of it. First was noodle soup for breakfast served with minuscule spoons, so it took forever and a day to finish... Which was perfect because that's exactly how long we had to wait. Our seven hours fairly flew by, with many thanks to the Express Spa (facials and massages for all!) and the yoga room. We cleansed our auras and got out.

Some fellow travelers in line had dubbed Wow Air "Whoa Air". At least that's what I thought. After one flight I realize they meant WOE AIR.

You want a reclining chair? Nope.

You think you should get a snack on an 8 hour flight? Not today, friend.

Thirsty for water? That's not free.

An in-flight movie? Only if you brought your own.

It was a rough, rough 8 hours. But I know you probably don't feel sorry for me, so I'll move on.

Day one in a nutshell... We arrived in sunny (okay, freezing cold and windy) Reykjavik at 8 am and spent the day first being denied access to the Blue Lagoon (so apparently we needed to pre-book a hot springs soak), some geothermal geysers, a lighthouse or two, and... Wait for it... Being in two continents at the same time. It's true! We stood on the border of the North American plate and the Europe plate. Who knew plate tectonics could be so thrilling?!? Right foot, Europe. Left foot, North America. It was like the best game of Twister ever... without winners and losers, because we are all winners here.

Cousin Gray arrived from Dublin at 3 and we hit the road. First things first, town of Reyjkavik. Super cute town! Heather and I are excited to explore it when we have four days there next week. Best part... Trip Advisored best coffee and turns out it is across the street from our hotel for later in the week (Probably an intentional and amazing move by Shandon who found us our hotel) Which means the goal will be to have the barista know our order by heart. Bonus points if he knows our names.

Here is where our adventure really began!! With a tank of gas, 24 hours of sunlight on our side, and some trail mix, we hit the road. Our plan was no plan. We found two massive waterfalls (one with a rainbow and one without), a glacier, and a hike that ended with natural hot springs to sit in. Take THAT, Blue Lagoon.

We will post more pics tomorrow! Keep in mind the objects you see in these photos are colder than they appear.

Thailand. Check.

Well folks, our adventure has come to an end! We made it back to Bangkok from Phuket on our last Thai Smile flight (great airline, so Thai frown to it coming to an end). We spent yesterday morning (last night to you) taking one more lap around Patong Beach. We found the metropolitan area, which reminded us of New York. Shandon dubbed it "Thai Square"... Yes, I know. I wish I had thought of that too.

Tracy and I tried coffee treats at The Coffee Club (white mocha for me, mango smoothie for Tracy), then I got a haircut, and we left for the airport.

We head to Taiwan in a few hours, then back to the Land of the Free! It's been lovely, Thailand....