Drive Back to Reykjavík and The Hraunfossar and Barnafass Waterfalls

continued… At the base camp, the tour group got back into the regular bus for the return trip to Reykjavík. They passed an aluminum factory. While Iceland did not have aluminum ore deposits, it did have abundant and inexpensive electricity. And a lot of electricity is what was needed to process aluminum. So they bulk shipped in the ore, processed it, and exported it. Apparently, aluminum refining generated a significant amount of revenue for the country.

They stopped at the Hraunfossar and Barnafass waterfalls. Apparently, the smaller falls were Hraunfossar and the bigger ones above them were Barnafass. Here were some smaller falls (Hraunfossa) by the river leading the bigger falls.

Hraunfossar

The main waterfall area (Barnafass) was beautiful.

Barnafass
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Welcome to Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Wednesday, May 6 — We arrived to entrance of the St. John’s River as the sun was coming up, so we had good visibility for entering (marked by purple dot).

A big tanker also arrived at the same time we did, so we changed course to be behind him. The ride along the river was nice — it was wide and calm. There wasn’t much traffic. We passed another tanker and a couple of tugs on their way out.

The river meandered east and then turned south, where it widened out even more. We passed a small commercial port.

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Seeing Tiki Tour in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA

Wednesday, April 13 — Johnny and Joanne had recommended a breakfast/brunch restaurant in the same shopping center as Jeremiah’s called Berry Fresh Cafe. They had some unique menu items, both in terms of foods and beverages, that piqued our interest. The portions were huge and the food was fantastic. Keith ordered the Chorizo Crunch Wrap, which was a grilled tortilla stuffed with scrambled eggs, bacon, chorizo sausage, bacon, regular sausage, ham, cheddar and chipotle cream sauce. It was served with salsa on the side. Eric ordered the Nashville Chicken Biscuit, which had pimiento cheese, pickle slices, chicken tenders, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce served on a biscuit.

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Lunch and Groceries in New Providence Island (Nassau), The Bahamas

Sunrise on Thursday, March 26

This morning, the anchorage was rolly and uncomfortable. We did our morning routine of school and chores, but Christi and Keith had to stop school work early because they were both getting nauseated from trying to read with all the motion (as an FYI, we generally did not do school work when Kosmos was in transit because of the propensity to get seasick). 

We decided that we needed to escape the rocking and spend the day onshore. Other than the public park, there was nothing open to the public that was within walking distance. Since we were low on “passage foods,” we wanted to go to the grocery store. We also wanted to eat out for lunch. Eric looked up prices and found that it would cost $35 – $40 each way to take a taxi to the closest grocery store. We knew it would cost the same or less to rent a car for the day. The first two rental agencies that we called had no cars available, but the third place did. They said it would cost $60 for the car for the day, plus a $30 fee to pick us up and drop us back off. We agreed to the terms. We arranged to be picked up at noon at the public beach.

At the beach, there were pylons that looked like they were the remains of what was once a dock. A couple of dinghies were tied to the pylons, but we decided that, with the tide swing while we were gone, it would be safer to beach the dinghy. This was looking northwest from the beach.

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Removing the Retainer from the Toilet on New Year’s Day, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

Sunrise on Thursday, January 1, 2026

It was a chiily morning – only 66 degrees Farenheit! But it was 45-degrees in Florida and snowing in Baltimore, so it much warmer here in the Exumas than the rest of the US East Coast.

Eric celebrated the New Year by making a French toast breakfast with the coconut bread that we’d bought from Lorraine’s mom. This coconut bread was different than the one we’d gotten in Cat Island. In Cat Island, it was basically white bread with a hint of sweetness and a hint of coconut. Looking at it, you’d never realize it wasn’t plain white bread. Lorraine’s mom’s bread was basically white bread with a swirl of coconut jam in the middle — like a jellyroll cake but with bread instead of cake. The jam was made from tiny pieces of real coconut. Eric and Christi loved it and thought it made phenomenal French toast. Keith wasn’t a coconut fan and said he preferred French toast with regular bread.

After breakfast, Eric did a little gaming to help psych himself up for tackling the toilet. The first step was to clear out the closet. Then he had to disconnect the water pipes from the toilet. The water in the outgoing pipe spilled, which was stinky.

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