Our last day in Iceland we stayed close to the airport and explored the Reykjanes Peninsula.

The first place we stopped was cliff Valahnúkur, where we watched the ocean waves crash against the volcanic rocks and cliffs. The cliffs are part of the mid-Atlantic ridge, marking the boundary where the North American plate and Eurasian plate are slowly drifting apart.

The statue of the Last Great Auk, looking out toward Eldey Island. The large flightless penguins inhabited the area until they became extinct in 1830.

Eldey Island, home to one of the largest gannet colonies in the Atlantic.

Basalt columns

The force with which the waves crash against the volcanic rocks is really awesome and almost mesmerizing.

Next, we headed inland to the Gunnuhver mudpots.

It’s fascinating how much geothermal activity there is in Iceland, it really is the land of fire and ice.

Further along the coastal highway, we stopped at the Brimketill Lava Rock Pool.

As we ventured out onto the metal lookout platform, we saw some other tourists wearing rain ponchos with a plastic bag over their camera. I thought they were just extra cautious, until this happened! I stopped the video and ran as soon as I realized that we were about to be SOAKED, so it doesn’t capture the secondary splash that came in from the side… drenching us!

Our flight was leaving in a few hours, we had packed up all of our dirty clothes and checked out of the apartment that morning, and now we were soaking wet! That put an end to our sightseeing and we cranked the heat as we drove the rest of the way around the peninsula and out to the airport.

I never figured out what these rock statues were, but they were all over the place on the main road.

Since DJ had a dry coat, we had him drop us off at that airport with all the luggage and return the rental car by himself, so that we all didn’t freeze to death in our wet clothes. The kids and I dug out some dirty clothes from the suitcases to change into, pulled out our boots (since our shoes were soaked), and laid our wet socks across the radiators in the airport waiting area. It was not an ideal way to start our long trek home, but we’ll sure remember getting soaked by that giant wave!

Carter heading through security with his sword sticking out the top of his backpack.

Because Iceland Air cancelled all of their direct flights from DFW after we purchased our tickets, we ended up with some really horrible layovers. On the way home, we flew all the way over to Seattle where we had to spend 6 hours in the airport before catching our flight back home.

We finally landed at DFW on Monday morning at 5:00 a.m. local time… home sweet home!