(2) Iceland Day One (?) Chasing the Sun

And so it begins…

Gotta love leaving early, (thinking there might be July 4th residue traffic heading home). But what better place to start an adventure than with Brandon, the Adventure Killah himself,  as our guide and chauffeur.

No traffic? No problem! … extra time for a detour to Trillium Lake.

This vacation is starting right!

Yes, I messed with a Photoshop effect. But I like it, so I’m sticking with it. Besides a grin from both of my men?! Yeah baby.

 

Then, of course, what’s a good beginning without a good breakfast – no food shots this time, sorry. But, Trinkets, Southeast (?) Portland (Brandon led us there, so I’m don’t know)…. but YUM!

Okay, moving on… (literally) and sticking with a “real” vacation tradition, ’cause you have to, right?:

and for those of you that don’t “get” this photo… fly the quirky skies of Portland, Oregon someday, and you will.

But enough of this silliness. The truth is Chris has never flown internationally, and it’s been 25+ years for me, so this all was a BIG deal. TOO big. Packing, repacking, weighing, searching for customs regulations, figuring out the do’s and the don’ts, the fits and the won’ts… And with all the variables of looming unknowns, it was enough to make two old fogies heads spin (and did I mention I am prone to motion sickness?) So, yeah, this initiation part of the trip was checking off the hoop jumping tricks and praying to God to make it to the other side (and did I mention how much peace Brandon was in this whole process? He didn’t even laugh or roll his eyes (on the outside) even once! What a guy.)

Boarding pass. Check.

Bags under weight limit. CHECK! (Whew!) Was packing some grocery weight on that one! (We hear Iceland is spendy!)

Hugs goodbye. Heart check.

Herded with cattle prods through security. Check…. Oops. They spotted my Coffeemate. (It’s sent back through its own personal check. Ha! Yeah, yeah, I know, Coffeemate? Haven’t left the Dark Side on that one yet.)

Then the waiting begins. Decided, though, to change some dollars into Krona on this side first (Fees are a bit cheaper over here, but I’m sure an official bank would have given a better rate. You pay for convenience, ya know, but we were alright with that this time, ’cause hey, I got my Coffeemate through!)

And now it suddenly seems real. Kinda. As I start to chant, “This is not play money. This is not play money. This is not play money.” (But isn’t it cool looking?)

Time to board. Wait, what? (They put us in First Class seats! Panic sets in that I made a mistake.  And like the good wife that I am, I don’t tell Chris. (I checked later, though. Whew! I booked correctly. Just a sweet gift from above with lots of extra leg space. 🙂 )

Okay. So now it IS real… and we are really on our way.

How strange it was to see the sun set… and then just a few hours later in the fog of a cat nap gone south, see it rise again. Same side of plane. Just a window’s length to the right of this. Chasing the sun, we met it waiting for us on the other side. Cool.

Yawn. 11:15 pm. Oregon time. 6:15 am Iceland time.

What should have been the end of this first day’s journey, was just beginning… as we descended into the gray, socked-in, rainy, wind-infested muck of jet lag and Reykajvik , Iceland. (Ray-kuh-vick,(roll your R))

Oh sweet Iceland, I hope I haven’t been duped by the marketing ploy of a few sunny pictures. Oh dear, sweet Iceland…  You tell me it’s time to wake up. But, seriously, my Airbnb says “Not until 3.” and I’m just wondering… can I sleep now?