Puffins! And back home safe and sound

Ah, it's wonderful to be back home safe and sound, in the glorious Seattle sunshine, though my heart still yearns for Iceland! Our last day was the perfect end to the adventure. A relatively early morning on the farm, we were charmed by the sheep dog whose Icelandic name was unpronouncable, but translated to Tail (because of her happy disposition). Tail supervised our loading the car, and we made our way to the coast of Vik one last time to spot the elusive Puffin. We wandered along the black sand beach, windy and chilly, with dramatic skies and huge waves. The cliffs above the beach reached to the sky, and the rocks formed strange vertical columns we climbed on for cute pics. And tiny, tiny, in the nooks and crannies, we spotted them! Puffins! They were small but distinctive, and we were so happy to finally catch a sight. After the beach, we white knuckled the 3 hour drive back to the airport, overland in dense fog and rain, back toward civilization. The countryside had been so big and so remote, we encountered cars only once in a while, even on the major road. The Ring Road around wasn't even paved for the whole way, and we had spent many miles on gravel roads, and navagating countless single lane bridges. We hadn't been through a stop light in days. It was crazy being back in traffic again, however light. But, back in the city, all began to resemble normal again and we reveled in the abundance of grocery stores and restaurants, so few and far between in the north. All told we put around 2,200 glorious kilometers on our Ford rental car. My GPS was the only thing that could pronounce the names of the towns; we surely couldn't! Much as we would have loved to linger, we made it just in time for our uneventful flight home. My sweet boys, Gobi and the Turk, were happy to see me and very interested to sniff the slight volcano smell in my battered blue jeans. Sending my love! Love T