Takk!!
June 29, 2023
Hellos again, good people! Iceland 1A has been one for the books! Trekking proved to be equally challenging and rewarding. Our first day consisted of making the difficult decision to take a super van up to our hut for the night due to hazardous weather conditions. This particular hut was so Icelandic. Waking up in a warm room was exactly what the group needed, and we were off to concur the day!
Although the rain continued, the vibes were high. Multiple lunch breaks were had. Bradford and Martha made the over 12 mile day look easy with Zach at the front of the group. Nora, Kelty, and Merritt kept the group morale up by cracking jokes the whole way. Once at the campsite, hot chocolate was an immediate must. Dinner was freshly caught Icelandic Salmon and rice. Russell, Everett, and Olivia taught everyone how to play Hearts, the perfect rainy day past time! As the rain cleared up, everyone went outside to enjoy the sunshine. Eli, Hal, and Ben stayed up all night (an easy thing to do when the sun never sets) and admired the beautiful mountains and glaciers that we couldn’t see before!
“Good Morning Chickens!” Is our morning routine to wake the kids up out of their tents. This means we have a full day of hiking ahead of us! With the sun shining and everything packed up, it was time to trek to our final campsite of the trip, and what we would later realize was our favorite one yet! Not only did the sun come out, but Kate saw a huge rainbow from the top of a mountain! Collins suggested we find the golf at the end of the rainbow. I personally think we found better than gold, a fantastic campsite! The residential puppy dog, Mr. Tinkles, greeted us and showed us around the camp grounds. Ben and the kids struck up a game of soccer and Zach surprised us with a lamb chop feast for dinner!! Moonup was done under the visible moon for the first time this trip, and everyone went to bed.
We ended our two week trip with a town day in Reykjavik and a banquet dinner of hamburgers at a fancy fish and chips restaurant. The day could not have been complete without stopping at a local crepe and ice cream shop, yum! Airport day is tomorrow and we could not be more grateful for the opportunity to have these amazing kids with us! Thank you again! These past two weeks have been amazing!
Takk ,
Ella and Ben
Polar Plunges in Iceland!
June 27, 2023
Hello, again warm people! We are currently huddled up in a very warm and dry hut in the middle of Iceland. The Highlands of Iceland patiently await us. An update on what we have been up to in this amazing country-
After spending the night at our favorite campsite at the farm, we departed early in the morning to our whitewater rafting location. After Kate and Russell took the rapids by storm on the bull (front) of the rafts, Ella’s raft proceeded to jump onto Ben’s raft and successfully empty the raft of all passengers. Rafting in Kernlingafjoll (try saying that 5 times fast) would not be complete without a bit of freezing-cold cliff jumping! Ben and I were over the moon that everyone jumped. In case you haven’t caught on to the trend, every cold water activity is appropriately followed up by a long soak in the hot tub! After a long soak and steam room shenanigans, we were pleasantly surprised with cheeseburgers and fries for dinner. Yay! A heartfelt Moonup was had on an Icelandic in-ground trampoline, and everyone went to bed worn out by our fun-filled day!
In the morning, everyone woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with first-day trekking jitters!! We drove to our hiking destination while jamming out to some Icelandic tunes by Ásgeir. While the trek was difficult, the views were absolutely out of this world (similar to Mars for those who have been). No Icelandic trek is complete without seeing how fast everyone could sled down the snowy mountain fully suited up in their rain jackets and rain pants!
We will conclude our trip trekking through the Highlands with our amazing guide, Zach. More updates to come! Thank you for sharing your wonderful kids with us!
Here are shoutouts to our amazing student’s families and friends:
Hey everybody, I love you all and am missing everyone a bunch. I can’t wait to get home and see everyone and watch King’s Man 3 and Criminal Minds. I am having a great time too. P.S. Happy Father’s Day. I have a present for you! -Russell
I want to visit Scotland with my new best friend Hal! -Everett
I am having a lot of fun and I want to go to Scotland with Everett! Maybe we will go to Egypt next… -Hal
Iceland is a ton of fun! It’s kind of weird that it doesn’t get dark so I a looking forward to being back in Boone. -Eli
Hi guys, I miss you so so much and I can’t wait to see you! It is really. Cold here but it is fun! We’ve done so much in the past few days and. I can’t wait to see you when I come! Also, happy birthday Anderson! Love, Nora
Hey Mom and Dad! I’m having. So much fun and I miss you guys. It’s really cold here and we are about to start trekking in the Highlands! Love y’all so much and tell Mamabett and Dad that I say hey. Love you, Nora
Hey Mom and Dad. Hope y’all are doing great. Met a few nice folks and will see you soon. Tell Clayton that I’m sorry I couldn’t build a second fort with her and that I hope C.C. is having fun without me. Love y’all. -Collins
Hey Mom and Dad! I am having a great time here in Iceland. So far we have gone to a lot of hot springs and we have white water rafted and sea. Kayaked. We have to still hike to the Highlands. I should have brought more swim shorts but whatever. Anyways love y’all. -Merritt
Hi guys! Iceland is so fun and beautiful!! We went snorkeling, white water rafting, hiking, and. Saw. Waterfalls. Next, we are going trekking. It’s cold here but I love it here a lot. I miss you guys and I can’t wait to see you and be at Groveway. -Olivia
Hey Mom and Dad. Iceland is really fun. My group and my leaders are good. It is really cold and wet but not too bad. The sun never nest so it is hard to sleep at night. I guess I did not need that headlamp! The hikes are a lot more difficult than last time but still really fun. We do a lot of water activities and the water is like 35 degrees. Which is freezing. I love y’all and miss y’all. I especially miss your cooking! Please make me something good when I get back! Love you -Bradford
Hi! I wanted to let you know how much fun I am having! I’ve made a lot of friends and done so many new things. I love and miss you all!! Also don’t worry, I’ve taken plenty of pictures. -Kelty
Hey y’all! I’m having so much fun and love these people. Can’t wait to see y’all soon! -Kate
Stay Classy,
Ella and Ben
Exploring Iceland!
June 20, 2023
What’s up ladies and gentlemen, hope you guys are doing well over in the warm States! We have arrived in Iceland! It is awfully cloudy and cold, but the vibes are high!
Day 1 consisted of rocks, lots of them. Hope you guys are into Geology because this country of 300,000 people is the rock capital of the world. Exploration of two tectonic plates was had. Russell from Euroasia screamed informative, wacky facts to Hal in North America. From the two tectonic plates holding North America and Euroasia together, we headed to Gunna the enchanted geyser. The legend of Gunna goes that an old woman named Gunna lived in a small community on the Reykjanes peninsula sometime in the 18th century. She was largely disliked and suspected of being a witch because there was always something brewing in her pot. Martha and Nora confirmed this rumor as they came across the face of Gunna while looking down into the geyser. Don’t worry, no injuries were suspected! Gunna left a lasting impression on us. Spooked from possibly being cursed, we needed to cleanse our souls. The infamous blue lagoon was the perfect place to repent. At the blue lagoon, everyone took a nice warm dip. The blue lagoon was generous enough to provide foliating face masks and delicious juice. The lagoon was the perfect rest and relaxation we needed. From there, we headed to the most notorious hostel in Iceland, the Bus Hostel. That night, we got to know each other and ate delicious local pizza (from Dominos)!
Although the Bus Hostel provided us with an amazing night of rest, it was time to move on to bigger and better things!! (TENTS)!! We drove further into the beautiful scenery of Iceland and arrived at the Silfra Lake for snorkeling! The kids suited up into their dry suits and jumped into the 30-degree water. Everett, Collins, and Eli saw an underwater canyon and loved how cold the water was. It is safe to say that the perfect post-freezing water snorkel snack is hot chocolate and Icelandic cookies. Back at our campsite at the farm, we were greeted with farm chores! Merritt laughed so hard he peed while feeding the baby lambs their warm milk. We had traditional lamb lasagna for Icelandic Independence Day cooked by our gracious hosts!
Farm animals are fun and all, but it was time to sea kayak the Atlantic Ocean to our private island for the night. Kelty and Martha overcame their fear of being swallowed by a humpback whale and we all arrived safely on our island for the night. We cooked up some warm stew and circled up to see how many times we could pass the hacky sack around. A cool thing about this island is that it is the breeding ground for the native birds of Iceland (and it is currently peak mating season). We were lucky enough to observe the ducks taking care of their precious eggs while fending off the seagulls who were very interested in the eggs, yikes!!! Olivia and Eli even found a tiny speckled turtle egg. We woke up to the sound of hundreds of birds chirping at the late hour of 6AM and made our way back to the mainland via kayak. What’s the best way to end a two-day kayaking trip you ask? A local stop for fish and chips, of course!! Kate and Bradford found a hot tub overlooking the ocean which we all enjoyed to end the perfect day with our perfect kids.
We are currently on our way to the whitewater section of the trip and cannot wait to keep you all updated!
Stay classy,
Ella and Ben
Greetings from Iceland!
June 16, 2023
Hello Iceland Families!
We heard from our leaders and the group has landed safely in Iceland! The trip is off to a great start, and we cannot wait to hear more stories from their adventure.
Please remember our leaders and students will be unplugged during their trips but we will be posting up to three trip updates throughout the next couple of weeks! This will allow you to follow along with the trip and the students will also give a special shout out mid-way through! You can also follow us on Instagram, @moondanceadventures, to see more of what we are up to this summer!
-Moondance HQ
