Iceland 2025 - Day 2

 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2025 // Day 2

“Iceland is one big volcano, you could say.” - Osk, our awesome tour director

We set off at 8AM to head west for the day to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. We drove for an hour before stopping for a stretch break, and Osk gave us a lot of interesting info about Iceland. One thing she told us about was the Icelandic elves...

The elves exist because once upon a time, Saturdays were meant for washing children. They would spend all day washing their children. One day, they heard God was coming, and they began to panic because they had only washed half of their children. To solve this problem, they hid all of the unwashed children, and presented only the washed children to God. God of course, knows everything, so when he realized this, he told them that the consequence would be that those children would stay hidden forever, and that’s how elves were born. They are the same size, shape, etc. as regular people; however they are very beautiful, but you don’t ever see them because they’re always hiding in rocks, hills, caves, etc. Though the population of Iceland is a little over 400,000, she joked that the actual population is closer to 800,000 due to the elves!

Osk also told us about the trolls of Iceland. They are horribly ugly and terrible creatures, and as horrible as you can imagine. The good thing is that they cannot come out in the day light bcause if the light touches them, they will turn to stone, so you're pretty safe from them in the summer. On the winter solstice is really when the trolls come out and look for misbehaving children. 

Osk shared with us a lot of fun facts about the overall geography of Iceland. She said that Iceland goes through active periods of volcanic eruption, and periods where they don’t see much activity. They have now been in an active period since around 2020 and have seen more volcanic activity since the 1800s.

After our stretch break, we drove another hour and a half to Búðir, where we walked out to the coastline which was lined with giant lava rocks. We also stumbled upon a whole skeleton! Based on the hooves, we figured it must be a sheep, then hypothesized that perhaps it got caught in the tide and drown, washing back up onto shore.

A little bit further down the road, we stopped in Arnarstapi where we had lunch at Snjófell Restaurant and wandered the cliffs. I had another round of fish and chips! The cliffs were really cool, though honestly the whole landscape of Iceland is pretty freakin’ fascinating. 

We continued along the road through the peninsula until we got to Djúpalónssandur Beach, a black sand beach (like all the beaches here!). We walked down the coastline where waves were smashing against the large volcanic rock lining the beach. You could tell how powerful the waves were because they would slam into those rocks! It’s important not to turn your back to the water, because those waves will shoot further than you expect them to and will sweep you right out into the Atlantic Ocean. We did end up running from a wave once as it overshot how high it had been going!

We continued to drive through the lava fields that had a lot of green most growing everywhere. This is a good thing! Osk said the moss often is a dull grayish color, but was currently a glowing green due to all the rain as of late.

Our next stop was Snæfellsjökull Glacier. It is the second largest glacier in Iceland, with the first largest being further east of Reykjavik. It was SO windy out, I was certain the bus was going to blow over as we drove down the road.

Our last official stop of the day was Mount Kirkjufell and a flowing waterfall. The view was beautiful, but man, that wind!!

We had a 2.5 hour drive back to Reykjavik, including a 5 minute, 10 second drive in a tunnel taking us under the water. When we got back we unloaded our things, then went for a walk to find dinner.

I knew exactly where I wanted to go - FUEGO Taqueria! It was in a food hall, so everyone got different things. I got a fish taco, a beef taco, and a pork taco. They were messy but tasty. Then Ike talked me into dessert but I couldn’t decide which so Aaron and I split both the chocolate lava cake and the orange crepes.

We did a little shopping along the street, then headed back to the hotel for the night. It is so easy to forget what time it is here. Partially due to it being vacation, partially due to the time change, but mostly due to the amount of time the sun is up! As I write this, it is 9PM, but it looks like it should be 6PM!

ICYMI

Iceland 2025 - Day 1

Iceland 2025 - Day 1

 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2025 // Day 0.5

Our flight was our of MSP at about 8PM on Thursday night. It was a six hour direct flight, but we would arrive in Iceland at 7AM with a full day ahead of us. I had all intentions of sleeping the whole flight, but I only manage half an hour. I should know better - when I went to Japan I didn't sleep a wink of the 13 hour flight. I'm too excited!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 2025 // Day 1

We arrived in Iceland by 7AM Icelandic time, which was 2AM back home. None of us slept more than an hour or two on the flight over, but we were starting our day and bound to make the most of it!

While going through the point of entry at the airport, the guy checking my passport asked if I worked for NASA (due to my Artemis Missions t-shirt, I assume).  I told him I wished, and he said he wished he did too so he could be the first man on Jupiter.  ‘Anywhere but here,’ he said.

I was excited to browse the airport shop - I love checking out snacks in different places! (Who am I kidding, I love checking out snacks in the Kwik Trip down the street). I grabbed a couple cans of Collab - what I knew as the Icelandic energy drink.

A shuttle picked us and two others up from the airport and took us to our hotel - Fosshotel Reykjavík. It was nowhere near time to check in, but we got changed, brushed our teeth, had some breakfast, etc. while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. 

Our first excursion of the day was to take a bus tour of Reykjavík. It’s a pretty walkable city, but it was quite wet out, so the bus was nice. We got to see a very large (think: the size of a classroom) topographical map of Iceland, saw the parliament, took photos of many statues, and visited the Hallgrímskirkja church. I learned that Reykjavík burned down in 1915.

We also got the highly bragged about Icelandic hot dogs. They had a nice snap to them. Aaron and I split a traditional hot dog that came with crispy onions and mustard. 

We walked to lunch at Brass Kitchen & Bar where we were served a starter of scallop, shrimp, and cod soup with bread and butter, and a main dish of duck confit with mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and broccoli. I promised I tried the soup - even the seafood part of it! I ate the broth, but ended up giving Aaron most of my seafood bits.

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel and those of us who were going to the Blue Lagoon hopped back onto the bus. We had a 45 minute drive ahead of us, and though I would have loved to stay awake for the views, I was quick to fall asleep.

Approaching the Blue Lagoon, we could see where the recent volcanic activity took place. The lava fields were super cool looking, and it was neat to see the newly settled volcanic rocks.

Getting off the bus at the Blue Lagoon, I was SO cold. My teeth were chattering, so I was ready to get in the water. Everything I had read about Blue Lagoon prior to going said that you needed to get nakey and shower THEN put your swim suit on. Which you totally can do - but once there we were told to put our suits on, go to the shower - which are individual stalls with doors, not the communal shower room that I imagined, take your suit off and shower, put your suit back on, then go into the lagoon. I also read to NOT let your hair get wet because the components of the water can strip your hair. I already have sticky hair, so I rinsed it, then lathered it in conditioner before putting it into a messy bun. I was taking NO chances!

After all the pre-lagoon maintenance, I quickly headed out to the geothermal pool.

Once I found my crew, we waded through the hot 100+ degree water in search of the bar. We found the mask bar first, but quickly ditched it for the actual bar, then wandered the vast pool. It was interesting how there were really hot pockets, and then cooler (but still warm) pockets. You could hear the distribution wells pulling in the hot geothermal seawater from 2000 meters in the earth - so cool!

The Blue Lagoon is special because it contains silica, algae, and natural minerals that have great benefits for your skin. I ended up paying for the lava mask because where else are you going to put lava on your face?! I did feel like my skin was softer! Getting it off was a bit of a pain. I learned the trick was to loosen it with lagoon water (but try not to get it in your mouth because ew), then use the little fountains on the side of the lagoon to scrub it off.

We stayed at the Blue Lagoon for about 2.5 hours, then boarded the bus back to the hotel. By this time we were able to get checked into our rooms, got our belongings sorted, and then headed down to the basement BJÓR GARĐURINN (beer garden) for dinner. My fish and chips were delicious!

The water here is also wonderful - straight from the tap is SO cold and refreshing. The cold water is naturally filtered through the lava fields in Iceland!

I was finally able to crawl into bed around 10PM with the intention of reading, but my eyeballs decided I was done for the day.

Coral, Crabs, and Cephalopods: Sea Camp 2025

SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2025

I was surprised to see a line at the luggage check in kiosks when I arrived at MSP around 330A. I always book pre-dawn flights, and I’ve never seen it that busy.

Regardless, I got my bag checked and was at my gate by 345A. I had plenty of time to catch some Pokémon and grab a drink and a snack from Caribou before my flight began boarding at 510A. 

I passed up on my normal window seat choice and grabbed an aisle seat as close to the front of the plane as my A34 boarding position would allow. I had a tight connection in St. Louis, and I wanted to make sure I could make that second flight.

Good thing I did, too, because we touched down at 716A and my connection began boarding at 710A. The people sitting in front of me were also heading to the same connection, so when we finally deplaned at 723A, we bolted together.

Luckily, our gate was only 10 gates down. Unluckily, as soon as I got to the gate my Adidas slide managed to make contact with someone’s entire latte that was all over the floor. I will say, it was a *very* graceful fall. So graceful that not a single drop of that sugary disaster ended up anywhere on me. My 2003 soccer nickname wasn’t Graceful Gretchen for nothing!

I managed to sneak onto the plane before C group began boarding so I snagged my preferred window seat over the wing. 

Y’all this head flight attendant had me rolling. I missed some of what he said because I was too engaged in the podcast streaming through my AirPods, but a few of his lines were:

• You may put one bag in the overhead bin. I understand if you’re a Longhorns fan you can’t count that high - we’ll get a Bull Dog to come help you out.
• What do you call a pencil that has fallen into the toilet? A number 2!
• The seatbelt is so easy an Alabama student could use it.
• …Leave everything - your bags, your suitcases - but do not leave your common sense!
• He is not holding up a toilet seat cover - it is a life preserver 
• A reflector is attached to each vest so the sharks can see where you are swimming
• If we can see if your shoes match your outfit, you have pushed your bag far enough
• If you’re smoking in the bathroom we will rat you out and the government will take a lot of money from you - roughly $3000. That’s a lot of money to spend flying and if you wanted to spend that much money flying I’m sure you would be flying Delta.
• make sure you have everything out of your seatback pocket. iPads, AirPods, press on nails.
• He then ended the flight by singing us a song that went something like this “May other airlines be forgotten / and never come to mind / Southwest Airlines got you here / and got you here on time / (I don’t remember this part) / Now go to baggage claim / We had our laughs / I sang my song /now we want you off the plane”

Anywho, I got off the plane to find a Sea Camp staff standing with a blue “SEA CAMP” sign. We still had a few flights to wait for, so we headed to the gate of the next incoming camper.

Strolling through the airport and I hear “Don’t Let Me Get Me” playing over the speakers and boy if that didn’t take me back to the 6th grade listening to P!nk on my Walkman!

As we sat at the gate, “Girl on TV” by LFO came on the speakers. Meanwhile, I noticed my college-aged co-staff was listening to something in his headphones. Headphones that also reminded me very much of those foam covered speakers I plugged into my Walkman in the sixth grade. I assumed he had them plugged into his phone - until I saw him reach to his pocket and heard buttons click. Buttons that’s sounded suspiciously like a Walkman… By this point I’d pretty much convinced myself that instead of boarding a plane to Texas, I’d boarded a time machine to 2001. BUT THEN, he pulls out a CASSETTE and flips it around in his portable CASSETTE PLAYER. 

Anywho, after many hours of waiting we finally had all 9 campers in tow and headed out to the bus that would haul us off to TAMUG. As the bus heads out, I overheard a conversation between the high school boys a few rows back.

• Texas boy: okay, let’s make introductions - (looks across the aisle to the boy in the seat next to him) you’re from Nashville?
• Nashville boy: yeah
• Texas boy: hey do you like that Nashville sauce? That hot sauce?
• Nashville boy: yeah….no one eats that…..
• Texas boy: WHAT. *absolutely flabbergasted*

Though I recognize this may be a you had to be there moment, it made me chuckle.

We got to the dorms in time for the end of check in, then had time to unpack before the whole camp headed to dinner, followed by the welcoming ceremony. 

My camp this year is Crabs, Coral, and Cephalopods (aka C3). I get to spend my week with 31 eleven and twelve year olds! I forget how fun the big kids are, and it makes me even more excited for middle school this year.

We only had one activity specific to our C3 group tonight, and that was to come up with team names for the week. The campers were split into 5 groups and had to come up with a name for their groups. Throughout the week, their teams can earn points and the winner will be announced at closing ceremony on Friday. The first competition was coolest name - we (the staff) voted and our winner was The Cruise Ship Crew!

I started reading my book I bought in Galveston last year - Ghosts of Galveston, then made sure to get to bed at a reasonable hour in preparation for the long day ahead of me tomorrow!

MONDAY, JULY 28, 2025

I got the girls up at 6:45A, though half of them were up and ready for breakfast. After breakfast we went to the campus bookstore and I got a new pair of sweats so that I’d have something warmer to sleep in. The dorms are freezing!!

We had a brief morning lesson about invertebrates - mostly sea life, but not exclusively.

Then we boarded the bus and headed to Moody Gardens aquarium. To start out our visit, we watched Secret Ocean in the IMAX theater. It was really cool! I do think ocean life is fascinating, but also terrifying. I know a fair amount about a lot of things, but marine life isn’t one of them, so it’s always fun to come to Sea Camp and learn how much I don’t know!

After our IMAX movie we had lunch in the cafeteria, then wandered through the aquarium. I think my favorite ocean animals are ones that look like plants and not animals like coral and the one I thought was the coolest - the basket star.

From there we headed back to campus for a brief presentation on coral reef before the kids began their group projects. In C3, the groups have to create an invertebrate animal. They need to list its prey, its predators, at least 3 adaptations, and where it lives.

We headed back to the dorms for an hour break before meeting in the lobby for our pizza and pool party. I love pool party night and free swim night because I love sitting at the pool. My dorm room is freezing and though I know I’m in Texas in July, it’s nice in the shade because apparently humidity doesn’t exist here.

TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2025

After another 6:45A wake up, I sent the girls to breakfast, went back to the campus bookstore to get a Celsius, and got my bag ready for the morning.

Our first destination was the East End Lagoon for some salt marsh seining. We boarded the bus and were soon following a color-changing cyber-truck, or as the kids were yelling - “LOOK! A DUMPSTER ON WHEELS!” 

Seining is basically dragging a big ole net through the water. The kids went out in two groups with nets to see what they could find. The coolest thing I saw in the net was a giant crab! And by giant I mean it was probably 10-12” across. The kids loved holding the fish they caught, but had equally as much fun hunting for hermit crabs on the waterline.

After an hour in the sea and sun, we boarded the bus to head back to the dorms for showers, then the cafeteria for lunch. I did manage to sneak in a 15 minute nap before we headed to the classrooms for a presentation on Mollusca.

Up next, squid dissection! The squids were smaller than I expected them to be. The first thing we took out was the beak. Inside the beak is the brain! Then we cut into the squid to find the lens - kind of like the eye. The kids cut down the center of the squid, then open the flaps to examine the organs. The organs were then removed in one long pull! One group completely busted open the ink sack!

We headed back to the dorms before going to dinner at 5. The last activity of the night was sand volleyball! I got sandy and sweaty, but no broken bones!

I needed a shower afterwards and though I started with hot water, I quickly turned it to cold. I was hot enough! Unfortunately, it seemed I did not turn it to cold fast enough, because when I got out the shower and left the bathroom door open, the steam ventured out and up, setting off the fire alarm! I’ve never thrown clothes on so fast in my life. Thankfully it was just the alarm to my suite, not the whole building. A university worker came to check it out and make sure it was 100% the shower that set it off, then he turned the alarm off. Campus PD had to come reset the alarm completely though. Apparently that’s the third time it’s happened this summer in this suite. 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2025

Our group split in half today and Garrett and I took our group on a boat trip in the morning. We spent about two and a half hours out on a Texas A&M vessel. As soon as we were out on the water we saw dolphins leaping through the air. According to our captain, “it’s like SeaWorld!” 

Then we dropped a benthic grab in the water to pick up sediment from the bottom and see if there was anything interesting in it. There were only a couple tiny worms, so not that interesting. The kids put sediment on their faces because apparently it’s good for your skin. I did not because I knew two hours with dried mud on my face would be a sensory nightmare.

We then dropped the trawling net in and cruised slowly for 20 minutes to see what we could catch. When we pulled the net up and dumped it in the cooler, there were so many neat things! Two big crabs - one male and one female - who ended up fighting with each other. There was also a smaller crab that the kids got to hold. There was a tiny baby squid - I held this one! Also some fish, including a catfish and both a male and female sting ray. Honestly the kids impress me so much. All the information they know about all these different ocean creatures is impressive. We spent another hour cruising on the water - there were so many dolphins out! None that were leaping out of the water like the beginning of the boat ride, but there were pods of them and you could see their fins coming up out of the water and back down.

We made it back to land at about 11:30 and headed straight for lunch. I ate quick and headed back to my room in desperate need of a shower after being out in the sun all morning. One thing I learned at Sea Camp last year was to pack at least two pairs of clothes per day!

In the afternoon, the other group went out on the boat ride and my group had a presentation on Echinodermata, followed by a dissection of a starfish, a sea urchin, and a sea cucumber.

The kids then made coral reef snow globes with clay, and I made a SpongeBob. While creating, we also watched Chasing Coral on Netflix, which was a fascinating documentary and I highly recommend watching it to learn about what is happening to the reefs! I need to re-watch because there was too much happening for me to really take it in.

We had dinner in the caf, then finished our scheduled activities with a game of dodgeball in the gym.

Fun fact of the day: How many tentacles does an octopus have? None - it has arms. Arms have suctions all the way down, tentacles do not.

THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2025

When I left the dorms for breakfast at 7, it was dark and gloomy outside. No rain yet, but lots of dark clouds! I came across a handful of my girls on the path and they were trying to take pictures of the lightning in the distance. It did end up raining for about an hour, but luckily for us our bus was picking us up at the dorms and taking us to our first (indoors) activity.

We headed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) building. There was only two staff members there, as the remaining staff were all out at sea! We started as a whole group and one of the staff put on a presentation about the overview of what they do. They have a lot of focus on the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico. I learned that the coral reefs ARE in the Gulf, just not in shallow areas. You have to go out about 100 miles to get to the coral. 

We then split into two groups with my group going downstairs and the other group staying upstairs. We got to explore coral skeletons, like those from brain coral and swiftia, which I find so fascinating. Like what do you mean this flowy creature has a skeleton?!? 

We also got to see an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) that they use to explore into deeper water. They said that the hardest part of running the ROV was fighting the currents that try to take it one way when you want it to go another. Additionally, we talked about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill back in 2010. First of all, it shocked me that it has been 15 years since that happened! Second, the fact that it took 87 days to stop the dang oil flow seems insane to me. SO MUCH OIL.

Then we switched places with the other group and headed back upstairs. We began the lesson talking about coral and how they eat. We did a little activity where the kids put on a glove to represent a coral polyp, then used a green sharpie to add zooxanthellae (algae) to their polyp. Then they all sat together on the mat. The NOAA staff member had them act out being coral during the day time and they pretended that their algae produced food through photosynthesis. Then, I turned the lights out and they had to 'stop' photosynthesis. The staff thew cheerios towards them to represent plankton and they had to try to catch the 'plankton' without moving. They talked about how difficult it was to 'catch' the plankton since they couldn't move to catch it, but then discussed the benefits of the coral sharing amongst each other.

The second activity began with the kids being assigned sea animals. A handful were coral, a few less were parrotfish, a few less were grouper fish, then two were sharks. They looked at what would happen to the remaining creatures if certain ones died off for whatever reason.

At the end, we all came back together for a wrap up before taking the bus back to campus for lunch.

After lunch, we took a tour of the Sea Life building on campus. We got to see various research that students of TAMUG are working on. We saw upside down jellyfish, stingrays, an axolotl, clown fish, and some other fish that I don't remember the name of. I thought all the little clownfish were so cute!

We headed back to our classroom for crab dissection! We started by cutting off the top shell of the crab - the carapace. Then we could pick out the different organs - specifically the heart, gills, the gonads, and the eyes.

When we finished with the crabs, we had the kids get back into their rec groups to begin the final version of their group project.

We headed back to the dorms a little early so everyone could change at get ready for the beach party! This is another one of my favorite parts of camp. All the camps go to the beach for an hour or so of swimming, a cook out, rec games, and s'mores! Since this is the last week of camp for the summer, they hosted a staff party for all of the recurring staff, as well as us counselors who just came in for the week (or some a few weeks). The kids had chips and hot dogs, but staff had loaded potatoes with brisket and sausage, mac n cheese, and my favorite thing ever - banana pudding!! It was all so delicious (especially the pudding!) I read a little on the beach, but then enjoyed time conversing with the other adults - its always nice to have adult interaction when you spend so much time interacting with kids during the day!

As the dark descended, we got everything cleaned up and the kids loaded on the bus to head back to the dorms for showers and sleep.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2025

Friday was a pretty chill day. Somehow the kids still had endless amounts of energy! 

Our day began with group project completion, presentations, and judging. The kids had to finish their final posters as well as make a 3D model with clay of the invertebrate they designed. Once their posters and clay models were completed, they practiced presenting before presenting to the whole group. When they finished, we (the counselors & instructors) had to vote on who had the best project. It was a tough choice! I was really impressed with the creative ideas the kids had. When it came down to it, the winner was the Himalayan Deer Beetle.

From their we took a bus to the Strand for lunch and shopping. The Strand is like the strip of Galveston. At least that is my impression of it! For lunch we ate at Yaga's. Then, the instructors took the kids shopping and I got some time to myself. I did a little shopping, but mostly just wandered, appreciating the architecture and history of Galveston. I did get some ice cream from La King's - two scoops! Though my interpretation of two scoops and their interpretation of two scoops are two very different things!

After a few hours on the Strand, we took the bus back to campus for some free time (aka packing time) before closing ceremony. At closing ceremony, the kids were all recognized and the winning group got to present their animal creation project. After finding out that I volunteer and don't get paid, one of the kiddo's dads tried to give me $50! I gave it back to him and told him I should be paying him for raising such a great kid!

A lot of kids left after closing ceremony to go home, so I went to dinner with a few of our remaining girls and Garrett. These girls kept me on my toes all week, and it didn't change over dinner! I ended up with my pink lemonade spilled all over me, if that is any indication as to how dinner went! I kid - it was fun. It was a great week, and while I was excited to go home to my own bed for the first time in a week and a half, I was bummed it was over so fast.

Sea Camp 2024