We left our hotel in Brookings, Oregon at 8:20 and headed to Harris Beach.
Harris Beach was named after the Scottish pioneer George Harris who settled here in the late 1880s to raise sheep and cattle. The park boasts the largest island off the Oregon coast. Bird Island (also called Goat Island) is a National Wildlife Sanctuary and breeding site for such rare birds as the tufted puffin.
Once again we are off on another road trip with our friends. We can’t wait to see where we go today.
Our first stop was at a lake.
Next we saw a lighthouse. Could we be going to the beach?
Yes it was the beach we were going to.
Then we started home and came across this amazing pipeline.
Of course we had to end the day with a couple of beers at the Micro Bar.
Then we went to the tapa bar where we just had a drink while our friends ate. We do have to watch our figure.
Brennivin
Brennivin is an Icelandic schnapps made from fermented potato pulp and flavoured with caraway seeds. The word brennivín literally translates into burning wine, and it certainly has a strong and distinct taste.
Well we called it a day then. Looking forward to tomorrow.
We decided to go look at the south coast of Iceland. Of course, we didn’t get to do the whole thing because of time. We headed out on this beautiful sunny day, our first, to find a nice sandy beach to walk on. We didn’t find any sandy beaches but we found volcanic beaches which were still just as amazing.
First stop before we even got into the car I wanted to get photos of these pretty flowers. I had been looking at them and today I took the time to smell the flowers.
Then off we went on our next road trip. If you haven’t notice we try to take all the back roads.
Our first stop was a nice lake. I had to take photos of some the hills that surrounded us because lines in the rocks are amazing.
We went looking for a lighthouse which meant driving down this old dirt road and never found it. What we did find though was well worth the trip because I had never seen so many sea birds nesting in the cliffs before. Iceland claim to have more birds nesting in their cliffs than anywhere else.
Off we went to find another lighthouse. This one we did find and a church, which are all over this country. Most of them seem to be built pretty much the same and a lot are on people’s farms. Also, I just could not get over how such tiny flowers can grow in all the lava rocks.
Our next stop was at the end point of the greatest lava flow on earth since the end of the last Ice Age.
Then we found another lighthouse and a road to the beach.
We saw all these white birds in a field, which we think are some kind of goose due to all the honking. I also finally got a couple photos of the Icelandic horses, which are the size of a pony.
We decided we should probably start heading back. So we stopped to take a picture of one last river flowing into the ocean and off we went home.
We of course found a road we had not been on yet. We were following along the bottom of Lake Pringvallavatn.
Before we hit the main road we found a dirt road we had not taken. As we rounded a bend we saw in the distance steam coming up from a valley. As we got closer we noticed it was a geothermal plant. It was pumping hot water down to the cities and towns. The pipeline was quite interesting compared to the one in Alaska that we are used to. We followed the pipeline most of the way back to town.
Road in Iceland
On our way back to town the traffic was the worst we had seen. Everyone must have had our idea and left town for the day or the weekend and were going home.
We decided to leave the car at the apartment and walk downtown to find something to eat. We came upon a huge screen showing the world cup and people were sitting or standing watching it. I guess they are really into soccer over here.
We then headed to the Micro Bar because we had met the manager at one of the breweries we visited. It was well worth the stop. They have 14 taps and had about 5 pages of fine print bottle beers.
We also made a new friend there named Tobias from Sweden. Hopefully, he will bring his family to Alaska some time. He did say it was on his bucket list.
Then off to dinner. I wanted to eat something truly Icelandic, Tobias recommended a tapa bar right by us. They had Icelandic food tapas, puffin, whale, lamb, lobster, blue ling, and char. Some of the food looked so good when it came to the table we started eating before I got a photo. Sorry about that. I do think that the food was probably a little more fancy than the normal Icelander would cook it but it was delicious.
After we ate we started our walk home. I took a photo of this building across the street because I just thought it was cute. Then along came a mother and her two kids crossing the street. They walked with us a way.
We stopped at a store because I still had not had any dried fish. I am wondering how it compares to our squaw candy. I will let you know when I have tried it.
There was this interesting van we kept walking by, so we decided to take some photos of it.
Another wonderful day in Iceland has come to an end now. Wonder what our adventures will bring tomorrow.
