Day 59-Spencer's 6th birthday

   March 3-For the last few weeks, Spencer has been counting down the days to today. 

  More precisely, he has often been undercounting the days in the hopes of making it come quicker and he has also tried to parlay his upcoming birthday into preferential treatment.  While these tactics were not as successful as he might have liked, his birthday finally came, and we told him that he could decide what we did today.  So, first on the list was present-opening.  He got to open a card from his great-grandparents earlier this week, but he still had a package from his grandparents and presents and cards from us to open.  Next, we had a breakfast consisting of orange juice and a coffee cake that we bought at the Hraunborg bake sale on Thursday.  After that, we headed out for various activities. 

  Thankfully, there was some blue sky today and the temperature was above freezing.  This relatively good weather allowed Spencer to choose from various outdoor options.  First, though, he wanted to go shopping for his birthday cake at the bakeries in Borgarnes and Akranes, which produce dozens of delicious cakes and other baked good every day.  Spencer settled on a coconut-chocolate cake at Borgarnes, so we skipped the Akranes bakery and drove back up the valley on the east side of the Hvitá instead.

  This allowed us to visit some sites we had missed in earlier drives, including Hvanneyri, where the Icelandic farming college is located.  We also stopped at the Deildartunguhver thermal spring, which is the largest hot spring in the world, in terms of total outflow of hot water, which amounts to nearly 50 gallons per second! 

  Since the water temperature is right below the boiling point, this amounts to a lot of energy being spewed out.  It has been used locally for heating since the 1920s.  In 1981 a pipeline was completed that allowed the water to be pumped to Hvanneyri, Borgarnes, and Akranes.  It takes about one full day for the water to travel the 50 miles to Akranes and in that distance it cools from 210 degrees Fahrenheit to about 160 degrees Fahrenheit.  Altogether, some 10,000 people rely on this spring for their hot water and the heat in their houses and their businesses.  I should point out that this is not odd over here, because almost all of the buildings in Iceland are now geothermally heated. 

  Since farms were the center of social life for most of Iceland's history, each major farm had its own church and parish priest.  Consequently, you see a little church every few miles when driving around over here.  Sally has taken a liking to them and now our trips take longer, because we have to stop every time we see a church so she can take a picture of it.

  We also stopped by Hraunfossar again, because we thought they were so beautiful the last time we were there.  Since it was warmer today than the during the last visit, we were more comfortable standing around taking in the views.  The water was flowing higher this time, so the falls did look a little different.  

Blonde hair, still wet from an outdoor winter swim;
Lopi wool sweaters; standing in the ruins of a sheep pen;
and an Icelandic mountain backdrop.
Watch out, these kids may be going native! 

  One of the main things that Spencer wanted to do today was swim, so we looked for nearby swimming pools and discovered one at Húsafell, which is a few miles above Hraunfossar.  Spencer decided that it would be fun to try a new swimming pool, so this was our ultimate destination as we had made our way up the Hvitá valley. Húsafell is near the top of the valley and its scenic location made it an ideal location to develop a resort, including a swimming pool.   The last time we were up this valley, the only thing we noted were a few dozen summer homes.  As we get closer to summer, I imagine that it will be more difficult to not notice as the crowds of visitors swell.  On the positive side, the opening hours for Húsafell's pool, restaurant, and mini-market will expand, so we can use them more.  For right now, these things are only open for a short time in the weekends.  The pool facility included two hot pots, two small pools and a slide, which was enough to keep us entertained for a couple of hours.

  After we wore ourselves out in the warm water,  we gave Spencer the choice of going out to eat supper or eating pasta at home.  He decided to have pasta so we headed for home and enjoyed the beautiful scenery as the Sun set on Spencer's Icelandic birthday.  Back at the house, Sally made pasta while Spencer finally got to play with the toys he had opened that morning.  I think that was the reason he chose eating at home over eating out! 

  We capped off the day by pulling out the coconut-chocolate cake Spencer had selected in Borgarnes.  Grammy had included in her package a candle shaped like a "6," which we have not seen over here at all, so we added it on top of the cake.  We all sang Spencer "happy birthday" in English and Icelandic and then dug into the cake.  Oh, my, was it delicious!  It was a great way to end the day.  Spencer said that he had a great birthday and the rest of us enjoyed it as well.