SFO > DAL

Long time no travel, huh guys?

My mom told me to write a blog while on this trip, so that's the main reason I'm putting this down. But also, on the flight, I started listening to "Broken" by Jenny Lawson and she says she writes because she can't remember and I want to be reminded, if I can't recall.

Skipping all of my feelings on COVID for the moment, I will say that I have been on one trip in the last 17 months - to Disneyland when masks were still cool (mandated) and I felt as safe as an on-the-verge-of-agoraphobic-person might.

My work has been gracious and accommodating enough to keep us all afloat and working remotely for the duration, but plans are changing and they will likely want us in the office come September (though I'm sure they will play it by ear and listen to science and who knows what exactly will happen). But with this looming return to the office, I felt an incredible urge to take advantage while the COVID numbers were low(ish) and work from another place for a week. 

I had reserved myself two vacation days in August, assuming I would take a long weekend somewhere, but in the end decided to travel the weekend prior, work M-W from a hotel and then drive around, explore, etc Thur-Sun. 

Where to go, I asked myself, and then pulled up Google Maps and zoomed out until I could see all of the US. I've done this a number of times in the past. Spinning the globe, as it were, and picking a place at random to travel. Norway, Iceland, Barcelona, Ireland. And Europe is always my first choice (sorry Australia) because there are so many different countries and personalities to check out. I'm still not ready for Europe yet and, honestly, I don't know if Europe wants me/Americans right now. So, I limited my dreaming to the US and tried to come up with a place that I REALLY wanted to visit, but that no one else did. I say "REALLY" because if I'm going to break out of my anxiety to get on a plane with strangers and see a new city that I don't trust at all (I only trust my own house at the mo'), I better REALLY want to go.

Friends and family offered ideas. Go to Utah, see Arches and Zion. Go to Savanah. Go to North Carolina. I had my own ideas. Maybe Minnesota or Wisconsin. I sort of wanted to go there and do want to see all 50 states some day (I've already been to 36, but who's counting). 

In the end, I decided on Oklahoma City. But WHY, I hear you ask. I'll summarize.

• I watched this TED talk in 2013 and found it entertaining and interesting. 
• I liked the TV show Saving Grace, which was based in Oklahoma City
• I really wanted to be myself again and do something off-the-wall that no one would understand. I find joy in being the oddball traveler. 

So, that brings us up to today. My wife drove me to SFO airport, where I flew first class (it was only $100 more than economy and had NO frills other than a single window seat) to Dallas, TX. "Wait, I thought you were going to Oklahoma City." Didn't you just see me say that I'm the oddball traveler? If I'm going to spend 9 days away from home, I'm going to make it worth it and having a connecting flight is not my idea of a good time. Driving 3 1/2 hours to OKC after a night in a fancy pants hotel in Dallas sounds just like the slow adventure I'm looking for. All I hope to see tomorrow are fields and maybe an antelope or something. 

When I booked the tickets, which was only a few weeks ago, all COVID numbers were so low they were comforting. BUT that pesky Delta variant had to rear its ugly head and start spreading itself all about. 

Now, you know I live in California where we like to wear masks even when vaccinated and "save grandma" by not spreading COVID. We're liberal as hell and, to me, that means having a ridiculous amount of empathy for others. I knew I'd be coming from hippyland and that maybe this part of the country wouldn't be on the same page. But I did not expect to go into a restaurant to pick up my dinner and not see one mask. I did not expect to check into my hotel, which has a bustling lobby and bar with live music, and not see ONE mask. I'm confused by this, but mostly just curious. What are Texans hearing that they feel masks are not...what's the word...valuable? Are they right? Are we too cautious? I mean, I'd rather be overly cautious than not, but I also realize this is MY decision and everybody can do what they want. No one gave me funny looks, so I'm going to keep putting that thin cloth over my face on this trip and the locals can do what the locals want to do.

Anyway, I'm going to tell one funny story and then sign off for the night. I hope in the next couple of days I can convince you (and myself) that OKC is kind cool and maybe worth a visit. I hope you enjoy my evening ramblings.

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Storytime:

I landed in Dallas at 5pm. It was 99 degrees out. I picked up a rental car, some dinner and checked into my hotel, giving my car to the valet. After I had a bite, I realized that I only had 8oz of water with me (courtesy of Alaska Airlines) and definitely needed more, given the heat! I looked on Google Maps (a really helpful tool) and saw that two blocks away was a Wine, Spirits and More shop, so I changed into shorts and flip flops and started walking. The shop was on the same side of the road as the hotel, the shady side, but the sidewalk was closed and blocked by a very tall fence. Still there seemed to be enough room on the grass and dirt between the road and the fence to walk and not get hit by a car. I quickly realized that the tree roots were not flip flop friendly, or broken glass, but I managed to go slow and not sprain an ankle or get sliced.

When I reached the shop, gently glistening from the 90+ degree heat, I was sad to find the door was not on the street side, but rather around back near the parking lot. Not that big a deal, but I don't like being hot and just didn't wanna (imitates a toddler's fit). The place was BEAUTIFULLY air conditioned and I could have stayed in there all day. There must have been 50 customers (no masks) and 10 employees (no masks). I took a lap and decided that I should also have some gin for my troubles and picked up a small bottle for the week. I could not find water. I did make eye contact with a lovely older gentleman who worked there and asked, "Do you have water?" He was slightly surprised. I mean, who goes to "Wine, Spirits and More" for H2O? He took me to a walk-in freezer and pointed at a case of water. There were no single bottles available. I thought, "Well, I will need a lot of water during the trip and it is hot and OKC is in the 90's too. Sure, I'll take a case." When I went to pick it up by the plastic on the side of the case, it ripped a healthy strip of plastic right off, dropping the case on the ground. I hadn't done enough damage to loosen any bottles, so I picked up the case in my arms like a heavy, squirming child and somehow also gripped the gin in my fist. By the time I got to the cashier, I realized that I have to carry this half broken, heavy ass case of water back over the tree roots and shards of glass. But I talked myself up. "You got this! You're strong and capable and it's only 2 blocks." I made my purchased and head outside.

Thank goodness the cashier gave me a plastic bag with a handle to hold the gin. I looped that around my wrist and hefted the case of water onto my shoulder. I started walking, feeling very confident and thankful that the water had been in that super cold room. That was going to help get me back to the hotel and not die of heat. And that's when two water bottles fell out of the case and hit the ground. Ok, so I had to stop, pick up the bottles, which I put in the plastic bag (awesome) and repositioned the case on my shoulder long ways up, so the spot where I tore the plastic was facing the sky. By the time I reached the street (remember the door was near the parking lot), I was no longer glistening but damp and panting a little. I took my mask off of one ear to let in hang off my left ear, so I could get fresher, yet humid, air. 

Slowly, I walked over the tree roots and avoided the broken glass. I switched shoulders with the water and flung the bag of gin all around, but kept it all together. I just had to cross a small alley to get to the next sidewalk. Unfortunately, my mask, which had been looped around my ear, came a little loose, threatening to fall off. So, while crossing the street with case of water on one shoulder, bag of gin and bottles of water looped around a wrist, I tilted my head at a ridiculous angle to try to hold onto the mask with my ear (I don't know if you've ever tried to use ear muscles, but it isn't that successful). When I reached the next sidewalk, which was on the corner of the hotel, I had to stop at the bus stop and rearrange everything. By this time, I'm pouring sweat, putting the mask back on, and not looking forward to dragging my white trash ass through the lobby of this fancy hotel. I walk passed some country-club looking people and had the most brilliant idea of my life. I asked the Valet to put the case of water in my trunk (since they had my car and I had two bottles of water in the bag). She was lovely and accommodating and now I was flying high that I wouldn't have to walk through the lobby with a case of water on my shoulder. 

I went to open the door to the lobby and it just sort of wobbled, but didn't open. I tried the other door. Also wobbled. I turned around and saw a guest of the hotel and said, "Am I broken?" Which must have seemed like a fair question, considering I just gave a case of water to the valet, was pouring sweat and couldn't open a door. But he was nice and said he had the same problem earlier, and that the door sticks. Finally I made it in and up to my room, where I stripped off my drenched clothes and stood directly under the ceiling fan drinking an entire bottle of water. 

How would it feel to have Shingles?

Let me set the scene.

It's two days before your 40th birthday. You are just getting to work, excited because you have weekend plans to fly to another state and celebrate your big 4-0 with friends! A good friend already flew there. Your flights are booked (with upgraded seats). The Airbnb is booked. Rollerskating and other fun activities are planned. But something is wrong. A strange pain in your ribs. It started this morning and felt like you had a sunburn that had been scratched. You looked in the mirror to check for a bug bite or scratch, but there was nothing. When you got to work an hour later, you walked straight to the bathroom, because it felt worse and worse and there you see it. Two blotchy spots of a rash.

And this was my exact experience on July 19th. I made a doctor's appointment for 2:30pm and opened an incognito window to Google "Shingles". It sure seemed like it might be shingles but I was holding out hope that it was nothing serious and I could still go to Seattle.

From the time I got to work to the Dr's appointment, the skin on my ribs hurt more and more. I could not find a comfortable position to sit in that didn't irritate the skin. I will explain the sensation more later.

I explained to the doctor what I was feeling and that I thought it might be shingles. Before she looked at it, she winced with a face full of sympathy and said, "Yeah, it's probably shingles." And it was. She asked when I noticed the rash, because if you treat it with anti-viral medication in the first couple of days, you might be able to reduce the duration. Typical duration is 3-5 WEEKS! I was able to tell her that I actually looked this morning, saw nothing, and looked again around 10am and saw the rash. I took my first dose within 8 hours of identifying it. More on the anti-virals later. Spoiler Alert: they suck.

Let me test something out in the spirit of my "How would it feel" experiment. I have these questions in mind.

• Before: What did I think it would feel like?
• Before: What did I think I would get out of it?
• During: What did it actually feel like?
• During: What surprised me?
• After: What did I get out of it that I was/wasn't expecting?

Beforehand, I did not know what the shingles were. I felt like it was something for the elderly and was in the butt area. (Just being real folks). I never thought about shingles in my life. I never expected to get them and never heard of anyone having them.

During: What surprised me was how uncomfortable shingles are, which leads me to what did it actually feel like. With that, I want to address physical and emotional feelings.

Let's start with the Mayo Clinic's Explanation of Shingles. Any quote in this blog comes from this website.

Let me answer you the two questions EVERYONE asked me. How did you get it and is it contagious?

The shingles virus is the same as the chickenpox virus. "After you've had the chickenpox, the virus lies inactive in nerve tissue near your spinal cord and brain. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles." If you have shingles, you can give the chickenpox to someone who has never had it. It is recommended that you stay away from little kids, pregnant women or adults who have never had chickenpox. You cannot spread shingles. Therefore, you cannot catch shingles. It just pops up one day like an unexpected, uninvited, unwelcome, down right rude house guest. And the house is your body.

The physical sensation is nearly indescribable and I think that's why every damned website out there has this sentence, "Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash." I don't know about you, but "painful rash" to me elicits zero, nothing, no ideas. I don't know what a painful rash would be. I've had itchy rashes. That's what rashes do, right?

But it's not the shingles rash that was the problem for me. It's the fact that this is nerve related. Your skin hurts. Because it is nerve related, the pain radiates away from the source (the rash or nerves near the rash). The best analogy I could come up with: It is like a painful purple sunburn. There is no way to sit comfortably and if anything touches it, even air, the nerves light up like little tiny electric waves of discomfort. At times, it feels like you're being poked/stabbed with electrified needles one at a time. Sometimes, it feels like you're having chills, but instead of it being chills of cold air, it's chills of pain over the rash.

When I saw the doctor, she warned me that the rash would spread from my two little spots and boy was she right. Within 3 days, the rash spread across my ribs on the right side of my body and around the back to my spine. The rash band was about 3 inches wide. I also told her that my pain intensity, on a scale of 0 (no pain) to 10 (hospital pain), was a 3 or 4. This would increase to a 7 or 8 within days.

When I got home that night, a Thursday, I knew this was going to be bad. I cancelled my trip to Seattle and ended up spending my shingle-y birthday at my friend's house (who flew back from Seattle early to host my sad birthday). I ended up curled up in a ball most of the time and eventually just took a nap in her spare room before going home. I did have macrons though, which were delicious (Thanks Krista!).

Now I will explain my decline.

I started taking the anti-viral pills as soon as I could. Three pills a day for ten days. But these were the biggest pills I'd ever seen, no exaggeration. I knew I'd never be able to swallow them whole. I have a hard enough time with things like Advil. The first night, I cut the pills into quarters and swallowed them down. The next day, at some point one of the pieces was maybe too big or too sticky, but got caught in my throat. My throat seized on it and I bent over to try to cough it out, but had no air, so I sort of puked it up. There was no vomit, it wasn't a puke from my stomach, but just my throat pushed that little pill out into the sink. And because I knew I needed to get that pill inside me for fear of having shingles longer, I popped that sucker back in my mouth and choked it down. But this started a psychological spiral. I believed I couldn't swallow these pills and soon enough I really couldn't. I had a few more episodes of choking on very small portions of the pill before I decided to crush them and eat them in applesauce, which was bitter and disgusting. I ended up, over the next 9 or 10 days, figuring out a ritual/formula that worked for me. Crush, crush, crush, applesauce WITH JAM, eat it as fast as possible, don't chew and done!

I was determined to take all of these pills, but I found out soon enough that I was having a bad side effect. The anti-viral pills were activating the nerve pain and spreading it from my hips to mid-chest and down my arms to my wrists. At it's worst, I couldn't move without agony and just shut my eyes, covered up with a blanket and tried to sleep it off.

Through all of this, Advil helped. And thank God, my brain believed that I could swallow Advil. And I could.

So, the pain was bad, but worse than that the pain was constant. (I'm nearly three weeks in as I write this and am still uncomfortable - level 2 or 3 pain at most.) The constant pain, even if wavering between a level 3 to a level 8 to a level 4 was exhausting and drove me up the wall. Having no relief was unbearable. I could not calm my mind about it. All I thought about was how uncomfortable I was and how I could not find a good position to sit or lay. I could not swallow pills. I felt like this would go on forever. I spun out and became sad, anxious, more anxious and more anxious.

When I was at my original Dr's appointment, I asked her, "Do you have anything for the stress?" Let me say that I do NOT like taking pills. I do not want to need anti-anxiety meds and am by no means a pill seeker, but my stress level was at a new high this year. It felt like a prolonged stress too. I had a bad, bad flu first thing in January, visited my folks in April, then I had my wedding and honeymoon in June, a weekend trip to Cleveland to visit 40 relatives, and my 40th birthday in July. Even if it was "good stress" like traveling or a wedding, it still stresses the body. The Doc gave me Lorazepam, which took the edge off during those particularly terrible days. (CBD Oil also helped *legal in CA)

Getting back to my question: What surprised me? The whole thing! I didn't expect to get shingles. I didn't expect the type of pain or the duration. But it's not over yet. I went for a follow up appointment on Monday (yesterday) and my doc said I have about another 10 days of this before I'm back to myself.

I think it's still too "during" to talk about the "after" of this horrible experiment, so stay tuned.

And if this was boring or gross, just wait. The subjects of these posts will change (and be more positive).

This is 40: My Year of Experiments

Hi everybody. I know this was a travel blog for my major trips, but I'm thinking about doing an experiment. Or rather, a year worth of experiments.

When I was in my 20s, a friend of mine did a project for herself where she took a picture of her bed every morning for a year. I did 365 days of happiness (more on this later).

It feels like ages since I've had a year-long project.

Now that I am 40 (hopefully twice as good as my 20th year), I am thinking about doing a year's worth of experiments with the premise “What would it feel like if…?”. The thought being that, for a year, I would run experiments for different lengths of time (weekly, monthly, etc) testing things out to see how it feels. Here are some examples of what I’m thinking.

What would it feel like if I used lotion for a month
What would it feel like if I had shingles for a month (THIS experiment happened without my provocation)
What would it feel like if I took Gabapentin for two weeks?
What would it feel like if I took an antiviral for 10 days?
What would it feel like if I walked to BART rather than drove to BART for a month?
What would it feel like if I cut out processed foods for a month?
What would it feel like if I did push-ups every night before bed for a month?
What would It feel like if I made a personal phone call every day for a month?
What would it feel like if I sent a postcard every day for a month?
What would it feel like if I meditated for 20 minutes everyday for a month?
What would it feel like if I flossed everyday for a month?
What would it feel like if I focused on looking up or looking down?
What would it feel like to watch a Khan Academy video everyday?

My idea is to ask a question and document it. Say what I feel beforehand, what I expect to feel during, and what I feel afterwards. What are the changes I noticed? What are the changes I expected but didn’t notice? Do I want to continue something to extend the duration of x benefit?

Just by thinking "how would it feel", I’m already noticing a change. I've had to open my mind to come up with "experiments" that I don’t already do now, that I’d be willing to try, that I believe will have positive outcomes.

This reminds me of the 100 Days of Happiness phenomenon. I was feeling down in the dumps and decided to post one good thing a day on Facebook for 100 days. I thought it would be nice to find at least something good everyday. What I didn't expect is that by looking for something good everyday, I ended up looking for something good ALL THE TIME. And even after I posted a good thing, I'd keep looking for an even better thing. When the 100 days were up, I decided to extend it to a full year because my overall happiness had increased tremendously since day one and I didn't want it to stop.

Side note: Bad things happened during those 365 days. A good friend passed away. My grandmother passed away. Coming up with something happy on those days was hard, but HAVING to find something good those days was mood altering. Instead of wallowing in sadness, looking for only sad things, I had to (if only for a few minutes) broaden my mind and look for something good. "I had a root beer today" was one of those posts. It didn't turn my whole day around, but it might have stopped the slippery slope into depression. Knowing that I could find happiness in very dark times was and continues to be valuable.

Coming back to the year-long experiment...I feel like even the act of thinking up experiments has opened my mind. It makes me think how many things can I do that are new and how many experiences I was going to have anyway would be enhanced by asking the question "How would this make me feel" or "what can I gain from this?"

Krista and I booked tickets to travel to Yellowstone and now I’m asking the question "How would it feel to camp for five days?" I know when I camped for two days my level of cleanliness decreased, because you just get used to being dirty. I know that my mind slowed down, because I didn't need to do something every five minutes. What else will I learn?

If nothing else, this mindset is the experiment. How aware can I be this year? What can I learn from being so aware and from trying new things? What will surprise me?

I'm open to it. I'm up for it.

If you are too, feel free to follow along.

2017 going on 2018

Things I've learned in the last year or so (in no particular order):

• If I blog on a vacation, I never get around to writing about the last day of the trip.
• My metabolism has officially given out, teaching me that loose shirts are a wonderful and flattering thing.
• Disneyland can help you recover from mild depressive episodes brought on by politics, news and/or celebrity death.
• Iceland is not always freezing, but it doesn't typically get hotter than 70 degrees F.
• Norway is full of trees, generally beautiful and has an amazingly long coastline.
• I should always read the price of a hotel room thoroughly. "Per person" is a nasty thing to find out later.
• Holding on tight to bad feelings, in the hopes of squashing them into nothing, will not make you feel better. Letting go is a much smarter option.
• Settlers of Catan is a fantastic game. So is Ticket to Ride, Stratego and Exploding Kittens (I'm still not sure about Bears vs Babies).
• As I get older, my body starts to feel worse in strange ways (numb/tingling limbs for one). Physical therapy is a life saver, but I need to maintain a strict practice of strength and flexibility training so I can extend my "good years" as long as possible.
• I am officially allergic to cold medicine (dextromethorphan) and even if I use alternative remedies to clear my stuffy nose, it will only make it worse over the course of the cold.
• Sudafed is my savior when I'm sick.
• I love my job. I love it so much that I find ways to do the same work in my personal life.
• Asking, "Why am I this way," is maybe the wrong question. "How can I be better?" is more forward thinking. The past got me here, but is not worth giving valuable "now" energy.
• Reading is so important. I read only two books this year and though I listened to many, many interesting audio books, there is nothing like reading to give you focus, open your mind, teach you new words, expand your imagination, distract you from yourself or general crap (Facebook, news, fake news, etc.)...
• For the fluffiest, yummiest scrambled eggs add salt to the raw eggs for 10 minutes before cooking, also add milk for creaminess and cook on a low/medium heat.
• It's the sugar in crepe batter that makes them brown up real nice.
• QVC is a lovely, mindless (yet entertaining) thing to leave on in the background and they stream three channels.
• Index Funds are a good thing to invest in.
• In my 20's, I generally hung out with my two closest male friends (affectionately known as "the boys"). In my 30's, most of them anyway, I spent a lot of time alone or trying to be alone with the occasional female friend here and there. Now that I'm rounding out my 30's, I'm spending a lot more time saying "yes" to friend-time and "yes" to being friends with women. I don't know what I'm learning from that yet, but it feels a lot more collaborative, supportive, soul quenching (does that sound right?).
• I enjoy Bordeaux or Cotes du Rhone.
• I enjoy gin gimlets on the rocks or straight up with lemon syrup and sage.
• You can have 40lb boxes of cat litter delivered to your house with free delivery (if you have Amazon Prime) and save your back the pain of lugging it around the store or in and out of your car.
• Cupping may leave bruises on your back that look like constellations, but it's worth it!
• Also worth it, spending $100 to fly to Portland, Seattle or LA to catch up with good/old friends for the weekend.
• I miss writing.
• I am a pretty good dancer, especially in the kitchen.
• Camping is great, when everybody splits ownership of meals and the weather is perfect.
• And finally -- I love talking to strangers. Hearing their life story in an hour or two. The highlights or low lights they chose to share. Love it!

Northern Lights - Day 8 1/2

This is the website we've been checking every day!

I recommend you click on the link above. This is the aurora borealis (or Northern Lights) forecast for Iceland. It is complicated to read. Let me simplify. 

There is a general outline of Iceland (the picture with white and green). White means no cloud cover, green means a lot of cloud cover. Below that is a sliding scale of day and time. When you adjust the day and time, the "aurora forecast" on the right may change. 

The Kp scale (estimated activity level) is from 0-9. The activity level is a combination of how probable and/or active the lights may be. If it's a 0, stay in bed. If it's a 2 or 3, you should probably look outside. If it's a 4+, maybe run outside and start looking up!

For most of the trip (and we've been checking since Norway), it's been at 0 aka minimum. Upon arriving in Iceland, the numbers have been creeping up slowly. And they do change quite often. Still, mostly it's been a 1 or 2, tops.

The first few days of our trip were shrouded in storms with rain and clouds. Reykjavik for two days - 0. Sauðafell Guesthouse - 1 or 2. We kept waking up in the middle of the night to look out our window.  

Each day we travelled a little more north. Closer to prime viewing. On day 4 in Iceland, day 8 of our trip, we were at the Fosshotel Westfjords in Patreksfjörður. 

Krista was checking the forecast hourly. To give you an idea of the weather that evening, here are pictures from our dinner table. These were taken over maybe 15 minutes.

Oh wow, look at that cliff. 

Where did that cliff go?

Oh! It's back!

JESUS! The sun just got CRAZY bright! And where's the dang cliff again!?

Here's a time lapse.

So, like I said, Krista was checking the forecast kinda often. The sun set.

Dinner was done, we'd had a LONG day of driving and hiking. Frankly, I was ready for sleep. 

Quick side note (some of this will come in handy for tomorrow's blog post some of this is a useless, but possibly cute, story). We arrived to the hotel around 5pm. I was starving. We had not planned our lunch and ended up snacking a little throughout the day. Dinner at the restaurant didn't open until 6. I begged Krista to find another restaurant in the area that was open NOW for dinner. We took a short drive (like 6 minutes) around town, found two restaurants "closed for the season" and ended up back at the hotel for "happy hour", wasting time before dinner. --- Then dinner and pictures as seen above. --- We decided to step across the street to see the sunset (gorgeous). Somewhere between the rock wall across the street and hotel reception, we heard a strange noise, like plastic was falling out of my pockets. I checked. Keys, wallet, phone, mints (a staple in my life). Everything was there. Meh. And we went up to the room (time lapse as seen above). 

I wrote a blog entry for way too long and was totally ready for bed. We were in PJ's, ready to turn off the lights when Krista checked the forecast one more time. It showed a 3 and "moderate". She decided to look out the window. 

Now, as you can see in the time lapse above we had a streetlight directly outside our window. Squinting beyond the light, Krista saw what looked like a small, opaque cloud...with a slightly green tint. "Uh, baby," she said, "could that be..." and with that we were throwing on every piece of clothing we owned. Waterproof pants, rain jackets, sweaters. I tucked at least two layers of clothing under my arm, grabbed my camera bag. We were like storm chasers in Twister (one of my all time favorite movies - don't judge me!)

OUT the door at 11:56pm.

We jumped in the car to drive out of town, just in case this little green cloud in the sky turned into something. We desperately wanted to get away from the "city" lights. To give you perspective, we had to drive for 3 minutes to be in the dark. On the way, we passed a car parked on the side of the road with the driver and passenger standing next to their car staring into the sky! Great sign!!

We got to a dark spot on the two lane road, found a pull off on the opposite side of the road and I turned around (at a turtle's pace) to park there, fearing that I might accidentally drive off a cliff to see some Northern Lights. 

The next five minutes were a blur for me. We jumped out of the car and sure enough, IT WAS HAPPENING! Krista, who can be reserved, was damned near yelling into the wind, "WOW! WHOA! WOW!" My problem was two fold.

1) The wind was blowing a gale of freezing wind right through my body because I was CARRYING my windbreaker and 
2) my camera, which, by the way, does not just automatically focus on green streaks of amazing lights spreading across the sky.

Krista told me to forget trying to take a picture and be in the moment, but I was on my way to getting hypothermia with that flipping wind. I could NOT focus on anything but my jacket. I felt like I was trying to slip one of those inflatable dancers on in the dark.

Once fully dressed and not about to freeze to death, I could settle into the moment and join the utterances of, "WOW! WHOA!!!"

There are no pictures of what we saw because you have to be a professional, or at least PREPARED.

I don't know what I expected. Maybe a huge wall of light just like a cloud rolling in, but it's not like that. The light can start white and small and turn green (or other colors, but all we got was a spectacular green). Then like someone drawing with a thick sky-marker, the line spreads across the sky. Or the light spreads like spilled milk on a table. Green expanded across the sky and TOOK OVER. At one point, everywhere we looked was covered in the lights. We were leaning on the car, looking up, just gobsmacked and feeling SO LUCKY. 

The lights dimmed and disappeared after a few minutes, so we escaped into the car for a little warmth, all the while looking out every window. Then a light would show up and we'd jump out of the car, making sure to HUG the car so we wouldn't fall off a cliff (when our eyes adjusted, we realized we had like 6 feet on every possible side of the car and it wasn't a cliff, but a slope...still scary in the dark!) We also got freaked out that we might not be alone out there in the dark. There are no preditors in Iceland but there can be sheep, horses, cows...that kind of thing. At one point, I flashed my iPhone's flashlight out into the wilderness and saw no glowing eyes, so I was feeling ok (later, I learned, Krista saw sheep eyes everywhere and it freaked her out).

We were watching a new streaky batch of green, when from behind a cloud white lights turned up like a dimmer switch until a DANCING white campfire show was stealing our hearts. It faded and back to the green we looked. So strong and thick were the lights that I thought I could try the camera again. I pointed it to the sky (saw nothing), looked at the sky directly and we both saw a shooting star cross through the lights!!!!! We both nearly fell over, hooting and hollering, "DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!"

A few minutes later, it was all over. All up, I'd say we were out there for 20-30 minutes.

SHOUT OUT to KRISTA! Thank you so much for checking the forecast one last time before bed. Without that, we would have slept through that miracle. 

Sauðafell Guesthouse to Fosshotel Westfjords in Patreksfjörður - Day 8

We woke up to an amazing view this morning! If last night's airbnb was as city as city gets in Iceland, this is as country as it gets.

The view from our Window

My first thought was to be thankful that we stopped to have dinner before driving out here. Originally, we had toyed with the idea of driving to Saudafell and grabbing dinner at a local cafe or restaurant. Yeah...there's nothing out here.

Krista and her Blue Bottle coffee on the back porch, hanging with the local sheep

Sheep!

You could hear sheep bleating near and far. They really started going when the rain kicked in. "Heeyeyey," they'd say, "Do you feel that?! It's Raaiaiain!" And a reply from the next farm, "Baaaah. Rain!" 

The guesthouse and my rental car - dirty from the drive

A cemetery on site. Family, to be sure.

An honest to God sheepdog. He was trying to keep an eye on us.

Ground mutton (sorry, it had to be said)

Breakfast consisted of bread, salami, cheese and fruit. Krista had yogurt and when making her coffee, poured some Mjolk in, expecting milk or cream. What she got was pouring yogurt! Aaaand then made a fresh coffee.

Being a guest house, there were about 10 other people in the house. There were five women traveling together from Reykjavik. The women from Iceland were very nice and of course spoke English perfectly, like everyone else. They asked where we were from. "Berkeley, California," we said. "Oh, there are two other women here from Sacramento!" They asked where we were going. "The Westfjords," we said. "Where are you going next," and I replied, "Fosshotel Westfjords." She said, "Which fjord, there are a lot of them." "Patreksfjordur." They were pleased. "Why did you choose to go to the Westfjords rather than go South to the Blue Lagoon and Golden Circle?" I said, "Well, we heard all the Californians were going down South so we decided to go North/West." They laughed, really got a kick out of that. 

Then one of the women from Sacramento came down. She said she'd driven all around with her companion. The Iceland ladies said, "but you skipped the Westfjords." "No, I think we went there." And the ladies shook their head, "No." I found this amusing. The Sacramento lady also said she saw seals. "No." Great stuff!

We packed up and hit the road. The GPS predicted a 3 1/2 hour drive to our next destination. After last night's rough road experience, we did some snooping on the internet and found out which roads we'd be driving would be paved and which would be "gravel". Today's drive was mostly paved (phew). I still assumed it would take like 6 hours to get to our location.

Within 20 minutes, we saw this sign! 

Geothermal/Natural Hot Spring this way

My understanding is that the hot springs are free to the public and definitely on our bucket list. Of course we'd stop!

It was sprinkling with a light rain and was maybe 60 degrees out. Perfect for a dip in some nice warm water. We decided to jump all over this detour. 

Cute little bridge to the changing room and hot spring

Krista soaking in the warmth

ICELAND, HOT SPRING, YES!

This little changing room made me feel like a hobbit
 and after the hot springs, I think I looked like one too!

On we drove. The weather cleared up and we took advantage of the great lighting.

Krista took this amazing shot of some horses about to drop an album.

This horse is feeling cheesy.

I tried to make my own album but it ended up baaaAAAaaad. 

And then, the weather changed (again).

Hours later we stopped for a bathroom break at the ONLY store we'd seen in A WHILE. Krista walked to the front door where she was greeted by a woman and her dog. "Are you open?" "No." "Do you know of a place with a bathroom in the area?" "Yes, in Bifrost about an hour back that way." Not willing to turn back, we continued towards the Westfjords, where we found a bathroom and restaurant in like 10 minutes. That cheeky so-and-so!

Also, the weather changed again!

Icelandic Bumble Bee

We love being the only ones on the road. And we love taking pictures!

The wind and COLD picked up and we found ourselves crossing a bridge over choppy waters. It was at this point I realized just how BIG and DEEP and GRAND the Fjords are. They are SO full of water, sometimes whales come in for a feeding. We haven't been lucky enough to see one yet, but are hopeful, even though it's the very end of the season.

I got very excited about the wind and the cold and the water! I started keeping my eye out for a place to pull over and run around. Soon enough, we were at sea level with access to a decent, if FREEZING, beach. (No, I did not dare go for a swim or even touch the water).

I was loving it!

And then we RAN back to the car to warm up!

What ARE these? Floating tractors?

Eventually, we arrived at our hotel, checked in, ate dinner and settled down for the night.

Or so we thought...

Reykjavik to Snæfellsnes Peninsula to Grundarfjörður to Stykkishólmur to Sauðafell Guesthouse - Day 7

Holy huge day, Batman! 

On the road again

We started by checking out a local cafe. Jói Fel in Reykjavik. We ordered a this and a that (who knows what they were called). We basically got a puff pastry with bacon and bechamel and a pastry with cinnamon, butter and yum stuff on top. 

Krista was looking forward to breakfast

A storm was brewing and we were in no rush to greet it on the road, so we gave into our geeky, tourist desires and went to a local museum: Whales of Iceland 

Narwahl. My favorite whale. Interesting feature: A LONG tooth.

Fun fact learned: Narwahls were once hunted, not for their fat or meat, but so their long tooth could be gifted to royalty as "genuine unicorn horn." 

Sperm Whale. Interesting feature: That noggin!

Fun fact learned: The sperm whale was the inspiration for the whale in Pinocchio. 

Virtual Reality!

This was not my favorite activity, but Krista loved it. You could "tap" on a whale outline and WHAM-O the whale would ZOOM up to you and fun facts were presented on either side. 

Even the wall to the bathroom was cool: Think your grandma is tough? Orca grannies lead their pods on brutal hunts slaying great white sharks!

Takk Fyrir (Thank you), Whales of Iceland Museum for a great time!

It was time to brave the storm. Very windy, rainy and cold, but it wasn't so bad from the car. It was getting OUT of the car to take pictures that was ridiculous!

Krista dry and warm / Sarah freezing and rained on (but getting great mediocre pictures)

Mist blowing off the waves

30km outside of Reykjavik - a local airport

You saw that right...it's basically sheep grazing and the occasional plane

Somewhere along the line we saw lava fields!

I'm convinced that little dude on top is a secret Troll

Then we came across this house with a witch painted on it.

Some Icelandic Horses

Today we hit up Grudarfjordur and Stykkish

Lots of driving to be done

Through mist and rain, wind and well more rain, we arrived in Grundarfjörður. 

Our first view of Mt Kirkjufell in the misty distance

This mountain was filmed in Season 6 of Game of Thrones, "Winter is coming". 

Then we stopped to have lunch in the only place open in town. 

Emil's cafe

Happy Marriage Cake - A very popular cake in Iceland (it tasted like if an oatmeal cookie was cakified)

The only savory items on the menu were Fish Soup and Asparagus Soup. While we were at Emil's cafe, TWO tour buses showed up. The bathroom line was ridiculous for like an hour. 

Interesting feature of this cafe was the theatre inside which ran a looped slide show of the history of their town. No one likes a slide show, amiright?

This is where I skip the third handed slide show by NOT putting you through that. Basically, there were a few people and a couple horses, the car was introduced and then there were a few more people. Then, I guess, soup and tour buses came into play. I don't know. I got bored.

Across the street, there was a general store. Post office, convenience store and excellent parking.

HUGE Wheelchairs Only

Why?

We had to backtrack a little bit to reach our next destination

We will take this road...all by ourselves.

Awesome lava fields

More awesome lava fields

We stopped by a cemetery on the outskirts of town

Hey "Oddsson" - we were picked up outside of Oddsson hotel yesterday

There are never "too many" stops for pictures!

Next stop, Stykkisholmur, the northern most point of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula.

Ferry from Stykkishólmur to a town we would end up driving to tomorrow

Stairs? Already climbed them! Where did they lead?

Ooh, there's a lighthouse up here!

Krista's a natural for the cover of Outside magazine

A natural, I tell ya

The town of Stykkishólmur

Another view from the top of the hill

 All this driving and picture taking is hungry work, so to dinner we went.

If you look really hard, you can see the lighthouse on top of that hill.

Fish burger with vegetable ash bun

Ice Cream from a local creamery (it was amazing!) Strawberry, Caramel and Pistachio. Noms!

As the sun began to set, we figured it was time to head out and make our way to our accommodation: Sauðafell Guesthouse.

Fun *not fun* thing number 1: The sun was setting

Fun *not fun* thing number 2: Sauðafell Guesthouse (or Sauðafell the town even) was NOT in the GPS

Fun *not fun* thing number 3: The paved road was now a semi-paved road with potholes that could eat a watermelon whole. 

We knew the general direction and began our harrowing journey.

The speed limit on the road is listed at 80k's. I maxed out at 50 with the potholes and the rain. Ugh.

Still beautiful and worth stopping for pictures

Hey, its getting dark. Is that a castle?

Why is the road RED all the sudden? Is this the start of a horror movie?

Still cute. Awww, look. A house and sheep!

Narrow, one lane "bridge"

These are small potholes. I could not stop to take a picture of the large ones.

When there was no more sun, the road was not as enjoyable, but there were fun surprises. Example number 1, BIRDS decided to fly out of the grass towards my headlights (no birds were harmed in the driving of this road). Example number 2, when were "closer" we tried the GPS again and Sauðafell came up as an option. As three or four options, actually, with all different distances. We picked the nearest one and when we arrived, by some MIRACLE, we were at the driveway to our place. Sauðafell Guesthouse! 

Up the driveway we drove, into the house we walked and there was a note telling us we were in room 4. We sacked out immediately, waking up occasionally to look out the window (hoping for Northern Lights...no luck that night).