ALASTAIR + LALEINIA

Here is a quick recap of our trip to Iceland! Enjoy.

Today was the day that I was looking forward to. This whole trip was for a babymoon, to relax, but it was more adventurous than anything. But today, we were going to officially relax! We arrived at the Blue Lagoon around 10 a.m. and headed straight for the changing rooms. Once we got into our bathing suits, we went straight into the water. There was no reason to hang out in the chilly air because the water was so warm and inviting! We waded in the water for hours, slathering on mud masks and sipping on smoothies. Throughout the whole lagoon, there are boxes filled with silica mud where you can slather it onto your whole body. We definitely partook and it really did make your skin feel fantastic. (We’ve been back for two days now and Alastair just mentioned that my legs felt really smooth. Thank you, Blue Lagoon!) We also did an algae mask, which really made my face feel great! They also had this waterfall that you can stand under and let it massage your back. That felt real...

Iceland day three: Alastair's day. A few months ago it was a picture of a south coast town named Vík that made me really excited about Iceland. Upon further study of things to do in Iceland, the most exciting seemed to be Jökulsárlón, a glacier lagoon about four and a half hours from Reykjavík. Day three was the all-important day for both places to be experienced. We headed out early, about 7am, and by the time the sun came up at around 9:30, we were already in Vík. We took some pictures of a beautiful church and the "trolls" in the ocean, but headed off quickly because we wanted to be at the glacier lagoon earlier. We planned on coming back to Vík later on. The drive to Jökulsárlón was long, but very beautiful. We passed through lava fields, mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, even the famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano from the Secret Life of Walter Mitty movie. We passed through patches of light rain, heavy rain, fog, and sunshine, and finally arrive...

Iceland day two: Laleinia's choice. Oddly enough, Lain loves all things geology. Rock formations, plate tectonics, erosion, you name it, she loves it. So the plan for day two was to do the Golden Circle. We got up before the sunrise (about 9:30 a.m.) and headed out in our rental car. Our first stop was an unanticipated (benefit of a rental car vs. tour buses) stop by a field full of horses. There are so many horses in Iceland, and they're smaller and furrier than their British and American counterparts. My goal was to jump on one and see what would happen, so I jumped the fence with some bread. All of a sudden, there were about 30 horses nipping and kicking each other and blocking me in! I got out and we took some photos. No riding, I'm afraid. Next up was Þingvellir, the site of parliament since 930 AD, and the scene of the separating tectonic plates on the mid-Atlantic ridge. It was pretty cool to see nature in action. Laleinia was in her eleme...

One thing that we are pretty determined to continue once we have our baby is traveling. Most people think that this wont happen. Well, we shall see. Anyways, to get off on the right foot, we decided to head on over to Iceland for our "babymoon." For those of you who don't know what that is, google defines it as "a relaxing or romantic holiday taken by parents-to-be before their baby is born." This also fits with one of our goals for the year, which was to go on a trip just to relax. So we headed out to Reykjavik, Iceland, in the middle of November. As we were flying through the night somewhere between Canada and Greenland, Alastair suddenly realized that his window was facing the North, and that we were close enough to the North Pole that we should be able to see the Northern Lights. Sure enough, there they were, the Northern Lights! All green and moving around, we spent some time looking at them from 39,000 feet! Kind of surreal, and we are hoping to se...