Wait......we're Going WHERE?

ICELAND Baby.

Wha?

Yep.


Let me back up.
Several months back Kev said,
We are going on a trip for your birthday this year.

Sweet!

I am giving you plenty of notice so that there are no excuses.
We have plenty of time to get kid sitters, etc., etc.
We are going.

Twist my arm Hon.
I got this.
Do I get to know where??
Nope.
It's a surprise?!
.....ooooooooooo.....
even better.

Fast forward to May 21st, 2014....the day before my Birthday.
My parents arrive, and we are getting ready to head out.

Over the past few months I have been scavenging for clues on where
we would be headed....
if for no other reason so I would know how to pack.

When I point blank asked K what to bring he said,
quote:
"You will need a few swimsuits,
a fancy outfit,
and a few normal outfits."

ok.

I said, are we going someplace warm....
of course!

He also let slip out that we would have a private balcony!

Aha!!
I knew it.

We are going on a cruise!
Yeah!
Yippie.....TOTAL RandR.
Bronzing time GALORE.
Feast Fest!!

Jana had the idea that we may be going to Aruba.....she had some hot tips
on some killer excursions.
I had her hook K up just in case.

Christi has been a true friend and has tirelessly been helping me
build up my base tan.
(Don't know what I'd have done without cha bud!)

I pulled together a pile of my cutest workout outfits to run the Lido Deck,
(per Kevin's suggestion),
Plus I was excited to try a bunch of the cruise ships different fitness classes.
I have always wanted to do that in the past, but didn't want to take time
away from the family.

HERE'S my chance!!
I packed a few flowy skirts, several light weight layering sweaters,
(you know how cold it gets in the restaurants)
I had my running shoes, several flip flops, and my heels.
One fancier outfit like K said,
and lots of reading material.

Easy.

Kev had had me expedite my pass port a few weeks back,
at the time I said, OH, so we are flying out of the country??
No, not necessarily, but you still may need it.
Again,
a re-confirmation of the cruise in my mind.

I pick up my parents the night before.....
(they had a five hour delay, we didn't get back to the house
until almost midnight....not a huge issue, since we were leaving 
the house at 10:00 in the morning.  We could still have a casual send off,  
get my mom and dad squared away, and finish packing in the a.m.,
after a nice cup of Choffy and a warm bath.....)

.........and this is when the trip starts going offline in my opinion.
Red flags begin popping up.

Suddenly we are leaving at 6:00am.
We are now flying out.
??
Ok, so I need to get a flying outfit laid out STAT.
I will need a airplane bag packed pronto.

Hon?
I begin to question my entire suitcase?
What cruise would we be going on that we fly to??

Kev says, it will be fine.
I rush through the week with my parents,
do not tell the kids good bye,
(already in bed....had planed on hugs and kisses before school the next day).
We need to head out extra, extra early to drop our truck off at a
fix it shop at 5:30am.....blah, blah.

On our way out the door K casually says,
"You May Want to Grab Your Coat". 

?
Wait. 
Which one?
Why?
for What?

I began to get a sinking feeling.
I pull out my cowboy boots and stuff them in 
Kev's bag as a precautionary action.

On the way to airport I am nervous...
I am also scared.

At the desk....
the worker asks,
Where are you headed?
I look inquisitively at Kev.....
Iceland.

Swallow.
Shallow laughter.
Visions of my packed items flash before my eyes.

Fleeting thoughts of crying are squelched.

Here we go!!!
Lets DO THIS THING!!
ICE LAND here we come!!

We board our plane to JFK.
As we are waiting to take off Kev gets a text or maybe an email....
The briefest of notes to let us know that there has been a change
to our Icelandic Flight.

Huh?

Wait.

Stop.

I actually saw this as a ray of hope.
Honey.....it is not too late to call it off.
Really sweetie,
we can just make it a three day cruise....screw those other two days.
We don't need em.
I bet we can salvage this, lets get off the plane.
Please lets stand up and walk off.

no.

The plane takes off to JFK.
When we land, K checks his phone....we are both quite curious.

Icelandic Air sincerely apologizes,
but our flight to Iceland had been canceled due to pilot strike.

oh boy.

Now we are in JFK.....the hud hole of the world,
(Sorry but that is IMO)
Our Romantic Getaway has officially begun.

I gracefully excuse myself to a corner with chairs to read,
and allow K work out the details of this mini derailment.
Hours begin to crawl by,
we end up taking a taxi to 42nd street.....
Central Park and beyond.

Let the Photo opts BEGIN!!

We had time to kill in New York,
(as well as a desire to).

So, we went for some super awesome authentic Dirty Dogs!

Some crunchy- yummy- sweet roasted road nuts!

We saw freaks Galore.

We walked the park, 

the streets, 

saw lots of famous places, 

we spotted these two towers that aren't the twin towers.

This was my favorite part of NY....

the rickshaw ride.....most expensive 17minutes of our lives,

but priceless in that it saved me several blocks of walking in my heels. 

I was in painful cringe mode with walking long before this 

stage in the game.

After taking the train back to the airport, 

we were able to hop a plane to IceLand at 10:00pm,

we got in at 6:00am, so we really just missed a day.

There are 4 time zone changes between FL and Iceland....

very crazy, plus it never got dark.  

weird huh?

We lost our hotel due to our first night no show,

the company then tried placing us in a Hostel....

um, 

no thanks buddies.

We were able to finally get a room in our original hotel,

with our very own bathroom, 

just not a room with a private balcony like K had originally booked.

HOWEVER, we did have a special component....

in our bathroom, you were able to actually 

shower, right in with the toilet!

Who'd a thunk it?

(my new phone case from Christi.....love it!!)

Ok, we are in Iceland!

brrrrrr.

Lucky for me I wore a pair of pants,

I did spill my cup of cranberry apple juice right in the crotch 30 minutes 

after take off, 

but that dried up beautifully.

I was able to sport these guys for the majority of the trip....

(thank you Tina for the hand me overs....great pants!)

Here is some of what you would see if you ever go to 

Iceland.

Very rugged and beautiful.

You may be wondering why K chose this particular place for our 

first trip alone in ages.

He actually loves Iceland, he has had several business trips that 

have stopped over there for a few days at a time.

He has talked about vacationing there together numerous times,

....so it was not a complete blind side

.....really.

One of the places he has always raved about is the 

Blue Lagoon Geothermal Spa.

Very cool.

Hot steamy water that replenishes itself every 40 minutes.

This was a very good time.

The water is milky blue and you cannot see below the 

surface....just sayin....interesting.

In the one pic we are sporting our Silica mud masks....

they have pots of this mud all over for guests.

It is a bizarre, and fairly creepy sight 

to look around and see numerous 

other freaks such as your selves sipping on Green Spinach power

smoothies and wearing their mud masks.

Kev went all out and purchased us the 

Romantic couples package.

We were wined and dined.

We had a private relaxing area with our own pool,

fire place, and FOOD!

That was when my eyes lit up, special teas, chocolates, fresh fruit,

infused water, and dipped strawberries.

Delight.

We each received a floating water massage.

If you look close you can see Kev relaxing away on his yoga mat,

coved in his warm wet towel.

I don't know how to describe this for you....

just picture it the best you can.

I believe this is touted as the only spa in the world that does 

water massage.....

so if you want one you'll need to head to Iceland.

Good luck!

We ate lots of scrumdidleyumptious food.

Very excellent part of our trip.

Below was the meal from our spa retreat.

Holy smokes!

Take a look at that crazy spit looking stuff....!

Who thinks this fan-dangled stuff up??

It was truly mag-nifique to the taste buds.

I want to describe all of it,

.....but we both know you would loose interest....

just know that the bottom sun dried tomato butter was served on 

a round Lava Rock!

Face!!

and that desert does not look like much

(I accidentally dove in before I remembered to snap a photo)

but that is homemade ice cream with tiny tart currant berries that simply

POP! 

in your mouth.

Combine that with all the rest and it is beyond goodness.

Just trust me....

you've got to go there and get some!!

Kudos to Kev for making me to take a run with him....

I say "make" because I didn't want to run in the cold.

I was not anxious to freeze my tail off.

I am a Florida girl now, 

and a wimp when it comes to coldness.

He said, we did not fly all the way to IceLand not to get a run in.

Ok,

makes sense.

I doubled up on my sports bras, tanks, and toped my ensemble with the 

one t-shirt I brought

I was a little nervous to wear that.....

I might actually sweat and would then have to 

take it out of my layering rotation.

In the end,

I was really happy K forced the issue.....the run was beautiful.

Brisk, yes, 

but we ran along the water and it was a refreshing, lovely way to start 

our last day on our trip.

What else did we do....

We drove, and drove, and drove.

We looked and saw many a water fall....of all varieties,

tons of Volcanos,

rolling hills,

lava rock.....

We shared numerous bags of m&ms.

I read and enjoyed being with my man.

He drove and enjoyed the windy, rainy, foggy, weather,

that is totally different from where we live.

PS - Icelanders pay next to nothing for their electricity,

but gas is over seven dollars per gallon!!

sheesh.

More of our favorite sites.

On the last night....

Kev planned the ultimate climax to our getaway.

The opera!

Bryn Terfel was performing, 

he is the number three tenor in the WORLD....

yep, I said it.....THE WORLD.

We got dressed up.

Ate another five star meal, 

and headed to the Harpa theatre.

(That is our hotel behind me in the picture.)

The stage is below.

When Mr. Terfel sang, it was just himself, his accompanist, and the 

page turner.

He sang three songs,

very, very goooooood songs,

then left the stage with his crew,

came back and began his fourth song,

at which point his voice broke a bit and then he stopped 

singing.

We, the audience, waited.....

He drank some water,

and then apologized to us all.

He would not be able to continue.

Cross my Heart.

I am not lying.

If you are familiar with the past t.v. series

LOST,

then you will know what I am talking about when I say

I felt like the big guy Hurley.

I sorta saw this coming,

almost felt like K and I owed the rest of the audience an 

apology for showing up.

Anywho.....we, the audience, slowly began to filter out

and wrap our minds around the reality of the night.

We had a chance to ponder the absurdity while we waited 

in line to see about a refund.

And there you have it.

In a nut shell.

You may think it sounds like a total bust,

but I am here to say,

NOT SO.

I absolutely LOVE that Kev had the guts and drive to attempt 

such a crazy, random surprise for me.

Who cares if everything does not turn out perfect,

as planned on paper, 

and in our mind?

That's called Life Folks....

and I for one am dang glad to be living it.

At one point, I to asked K, 

Why IceLand?

He said because Everyone goes on cruises,

You yourself have been on several.

We practically live in the Bahamas,

We are drenched in heat, and sun just about every day of our lives.

I wanted to take you to IceLand....

because nobody goes there.

I wasn't sure if that would fly as a selling point to most....

but I accepted it, and was satisfied and happy.

Not everybody gets to see views such as these.....

For the Record:

The precedence has been set.

Now that the kids are older,

every year, 

the week of my birthday we will take a trip to a spa 

somewhere, anywhere, for up to five days.

We will ALTERNATE years on who gets to pick and plan the surprise!!!

That was my idea : )

We have invited my parents back in one years time.....

I have begun planning....

Pay Backs Babe.

I am gonna 

ROCK YOUR WORLD KIND SIR.

** I am accepting any and all ideas for my trip

for the two of us.