It’s hard to be really cognizant after only a few hours of sleep on the overnight flight of only 5 hours. So the first day, after checking in, we wandered around Reykjavik. We ended up seeing more than I expected as most of the items to see where so close together in the downtown area. We found Sólfarið (Viking statue in almost every guide book), Tjörnin, the Harpa building, and amazingly got in a short nap.

The next day I had scheduled a while watching trip. The ocean was a bit choppy, but not too bad. We ended up seeing minke whales, humpback whales, and porpoises along with puffins, gannets, and the plain old sea gull. Even though the air temperature was in the mid-40’s it still felt cold on the ocean. So afterwards we were exhausted. There was only enough energy left to see the view from the cathedral Hallgrímskirkja.

Since we were still trying to adjust to the time difference (we hadn’t gotten too much sleep on the plane ride) we tried to take it easy with a day hike up Ms. Esja after picking up a rental car. There were a surprising number of people on the trails for a Monday, and they didn’t look like tourists. Turns out it was a holiday (May 1st is the equivalent of Labor Day), which we discovered when we tried to find dinner. Luckily the convenience store 11/11 was still open - so we stocked up for dinner.

Then it was off on the Golden Circle drive with our rental car. We hiked through some rocky crags and saw a waterfall near the Þingvallavatn park visitor center. Then it was off to see Geysir. The geysir went off so frequently. It was really amazing, and it was just on the side of the road (so it was very easy to find). We took tons of pictures, and Ian kept counting down till the next water explosion. We had been pretty lucky with our timings being just out of the rain, till we got to Gullfoss. We got soaked in cold wet rain. So we didn’t say so long. But it was an impressively large waterfall. Our next stop on the Golden Circle was Kerið. It didn’t look very large from the side, but after trying to throw a rock in - you really get an appreciation for how large it is.

The highlights of the trip really turned out the next day as we headed south west. Our first stop was Kleifarvatn. No trip to a large body of water is complete till you throw a few stones in. Then it was off to Seltun. Although it was pretty smelly with the sulfur, it was also pretty amazing to be so close to bubbling mud, and steam continuously flowing out of the ground. Looks like most tour busses don’t stop here, but it was definitely worth the trip to be able to walk around. Then we stopped over to the Blue Lagoon. I thought it might be over-hyped, but even with 4 year old in tow, it was amazingly relaxing. It was the unanimous favorite thing from the vacation. After swimming around, Ian was too tired to see the Continental bridge. The bridge probably would have felt more awesome had we not just been at the Blue Lagoon.

Since we had only one more full day, we decided to keep the rental car and bum around the south west some more. We saw lava gottos in Hellisgerði park in Hafnarfjörður and finally made it to Garður where we got to run around on our own private lava field next to the ocean.

Sadly we didn’t get to see more, but perhaps there will be a chance for a return trip.

We kept our hikes short, but I was really surprised at how good Ian did on them.  On our first day I had only expected to make it to the first set of falls in Johnston Canyon, but Ian wanted to see the upper falls too.  He made it the whole way!  After that we still had time to make some hearty Vegetable soup for the the rest of our stay.

On Monday, it happened to be raining at Baker Creek, so we headed up to the Columbia Ice field’s Athabasca Glacier.  On the drive, we saw rain, sleet, and snow!  After we got back, Ian finally got to meet Leah and Flynn (who live up at Baker Creek Chalets) , who he got to play with the rest of our stay.

My grandmother really loves Yoho and spent years camping there.  So it was a lot of fun on Tuesday to take a tour of Yoho.  We got to see Takakkaw Falls, take a canoe ride on Emerald Lake, and see the Spiral Tunnel.  On the way back to the cabin, we saw a small Blackbear eating clover on the side of the road!  It was very exciting.

The next day was so pretty and sunny, that we took a Gondola ride up the Lake Louise ski slopes.  We saw a coyote on the slopes below.  From the top there was a nice view of Lake Louise.  After that, we drove over to Lake Louise for a picnic lunch.  It was nice to see the lake from two different perspectives.

We also experienced Ian’s first turn at roasting marshmallows.  He seemed to like eating them out of the bag better than waiting for them to roast. 

On our last day in the Parks, we went to Kootenay National Park which had had a large forest fire in 2003.  However, the fireweed and new pines that had come out and were growing everywhere were gorgeous.  We hiked up to the paint pots and through marble canyon (definitely a really fun hike for a younger audience).  On our way back to the cabin, we saw an elk eating grass on the side of the road (definitely a reason to end quiet time).

That evening we had an early celebration for my grandmother’s 87th birthday with brownies, sprite (for Ian) and campaign.  Definitely a good party.

Glad we made the trip home in two days (first day was driving to Calgary).  It gave us time to see the zoo, where we got to see some of the animals we didn’t see in the wild.