Happy Halloween!

Jerry and Ben hosted the annual Halloween Costume and Pumpkin Carving Contest of 2019! My costume for this year is...

a sushi platter!

I love sushi so much that I decided to dress up as sushi.

A sushi meal would not be complete without some soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger.

And how will you eat sushi? With chopsticks of course!

Yeah, that's some nice looking salmon and shrimp sashimi!

Thanks beary much for hosting this fun contest, Jerry and Ben! What did you dress up as for Halloween?

Icelandic króna

I forgot to show you some Icelandic króna (ISK) that I had leftover from my trip to Iceland! In Scandinavian countries, "krona" means "crown" and because these countries had kings, the currency had their crown on them. (1 USD is equal to approximately 124 ISK)

On the 500 ISK bill is Jón Sigurðsson (1811-1879). Iceland’s leading politician during the country’s fight for independence, Jón is commonly referred to as “president” Jón, even if he lived and died before Iceland ever had a president.

Ok, now are you ready to see some coins?

These are really cool coins, I promise you!

Do you notice anything interesting about these coins? They have fish on them! In Iceland, for the longest time, fish was the foundation of Iceland's economy. Here I have a 10 ISK, 50 ISK, and 100 ISK coin. The 10 ISK coin has the capelin fish on it, the 50 ISK coin has a crab on it, and the 100K ISK has a lumpfish on it. I also did some research and found that the 5 ISK coin has dolphins on it.

I wonder if there is any currency out there with bears on it...

Iceland, part 2

Here I am at Þingvellir National Park. This area is located in a rift valley created by the drifting apart of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. These plates are moving apart at a rate of 0.8 inches annually.

Now I'm at Skógafoss - a beautiful waterfall! According to legend, the first Viking settler buried a treasure chest in a cave behind this waterfall. Supposedly some locals were able to find this treasure chest, but only for a moment and were only able to grasp a ring attached to the side of the chest before it vanished again! The ring is now in a museum.So...  was there actually a treasure chest? Hmm... sounds like a case for Sherlock Sandy.

Now our tour guide is taking us to Sólheimajökull, a glacier very close several volcanoes in Iceland, the most notable called Katla. I hope it doesn't erupt while we are visiting!

Phew, this is a long hike for a stuffie. I'm going to take a break.

We're almost there - can you see it in the background?

There it is! I saw some tourists with crampons and other glacier hiking gear, but we just opted for the main trail. It's a bit chilly as we get closer to the glacier - I'm glad I have my coat with me!

And after that long hike, it's time for a snack! I enjoyed checking out the Icelandic supermarket.

They have a lot of snacks I recognize here - Iceland gets good reviews for snacks!

Okay, I hope you enjoyed the trip to Iceland! Hopefully some postcards I sent have arrived by now!

Iceland, part 1

Last month, I traveled to ICELAND! It was a bit chilly so here I am wearing my warm coat. We were there for several days.

Our first stop was at a tomato greenhouse in Friðheimar. Geothermal energy in Iceland heats up a lot of buildings in the country, and greenhouses are no exception. Look at all these aisles of tomatoes!

They were growing sunflowers and other plants as well.

I also learned that they import bees from the Netherlands. There are 60 bees in a box plus one queen bee and it costs about $60 USD. Bees... mmm... honey...

After my mom pried me away from the box of bees, we continued to our next stop on the tour which was the Geysir Hot Spring area for some bubbling geysers.

This is Little Geysir, appropriately named because it is so small.

And now I'm standing in front of the Strokkur geyser waiting for it to...

"HEY!" called out a familiar voice.

"Huh..."

"DROOPY!" I exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I happen to be on the same tour you are," he said.

Wow, what a coincidence! I seem to run into Droopy a lot during my international travels (last year at Chichen Itza)

WHOOSHHH!!!

Suddenly, the Strokkur geyser erupted high into the air.

Wow, look at that!

If you're wondering how hot the water is, just take a look at this sign! That's pretty hot alright.

After we saw the geysers, we stopped at Gullfoss, which means "golden falls." On sunny days, you can often see a rainbow above the falls, but that day was a bit cloudy.

That's a huge waterfall, isn't it? I am going to be beary careful and not get too close to it.

Here's a different view of Gullfoss. Can you see how small the people are in this photo?

That was it from our first day in Iceland. Stay tuned for the rest of the trip!