Day 196-Joslyn goes to sea

   July 18-Today was cloudy and cool and it rained off and on, so we mostly stayed inside.  Shan worked on the blog, Alex and Spencer relaxed in the apartment with their grandparents, and Sally helped her folks pack their stuff up from the van so they could leave the next day.  We also packed another bag with our stuff so the Easleys could take it back with them.  Shan went to Borgarnes to buy some more minutes for the two cell phones, so we would be able to stay in touch for the rest of our time in Iceland.  Spencer went over to Freyja‘s apartment for her 6th birthday party.
   Joslyn had a much more active day than us.  Gaui took her and Ágústa to the fishermen’s cabin since the fishermen were leaving today and both girls got turns driving the SUV again.  When they returned, Gaui got the motorboat around and the family took it out fishing on Bitrufjörður. 

Gaui baits the long line, while Ágústa and Joslyn patiently wait.

Joslyn reels the long line back in.  Unfortunately, they only caught one cod.

They motored on out to the eider duck colony on the island that belongs to Óspakseyri and found two nests. The family had already been out collecting eider down from the island twice earlier in the summer when there were over one hundred nests. One of the nests had a duckling that Joslyn got to pet while they collected a little of the down.

Gaui lets Joslyn take a turn steering the boat.

Ágústa, Joslyn, and the trampoline.

   Shortly after they returned to shore, more family friends showed up.  This family lives on the farm of Brekka, which is the farm that is just to the north of Grábrók.  Their oldest daughter, Erna, was in Alex‘s class at Varmaland and their son, Arnar, was a little younger than Joslyn, so the kids knew each other and began playing on the trampoline.  Not long after that, we arrived at the farm as well.  We left Sally’s folks at the apartment, where they watched a movie on the BBC station that we get.
   Spencer and Alex joined the kids, while the adults sat inside and drank coffee and talked.  After a while, Magga pulled out their raclette set and we all sat down for supper.  They introduced us to some interesting variants that we will try to do when we use our raclette again in the States, such as cooking an egg in the pans and melting a mixture of shredded cheese and cream cheese.  They also cooked minke whale on top of the raclette, which tasted great, but will be unavailable (and illegal) for us try to replicate in the U.S.  The kids had their turn at the raclette and then went outside to jump on the trampoline, while we adults sat around drinking coffee and talking.

Magga, Gaui, Sally, Ágústa, Alex, Joslyn,
and Spencer saying good-bye.

   The family from Brekka headed north to camp in their pop-up camper at the farm of friends in the next fjord to the north around 10 pm and we finally left for home about half hour later.  Since this was certainly the last time we would see Magga, Gaui, and Ágústa this summer, this departure was particularly sad, but we are certain that we will see each other again at some point either back here in Iceland or in Colorado.  They are a warm and welcoming family and we feel very fortunate to have met and befriended them during our stay here.