Benziger babes

We were fortunate to have planned our Macalester soccer reunion trip to Iceland for early August because the week before we arrived a large earthquake shook the area just south of Reykjavik. Turns out, it was an earthquake caused by the pressure of magma. A week later, molten lava started spurting out of a new fissure that opened up. The freshest new rocks on earth were being formed and it was happening near where my friends live in Grindavik, Iceland. Given that the lava is in a dry valley and not flowing into the ocean or by any water, there weren't any ash disrupting air travel. Our trip was a go and we were going to see an erupting volcano! We were staying with our former Macalester soccer teammates, Olof and Erla, two sisters who are from Grindavik. Grindavik is a small fishing village of only 3,000 people near the Blue Lagoon, just south of Reykjavik. At night we could see the red glow from the volcano over the hills. During the day, dark smoke and a gray cloud of gases strea

Hallo  (Hello) from the land of fire and ice!    Iceland is truly an amazing place (but with terrible weather). Why didn't anyone warn me about the weather? As an outdoor enthusiast who lives in Duluth, MN, a place many like to call, "The Bold North," I consider myself somewhat of an expert on the topic of "bad weather." I like to say, "There's no such thing as bad weather but inappropriate clothing." We live by a giant lake, Lake Superior, which acts like a giant outdoor air conditioner in the summer as it slowly warms up. Temps remain a cozy 60 or 70 degrees and finally warm up just in time for the kids to go back-to-school in early September.  Iceland, on the other hand, has an immense Atlantic Ocean and given that it's at 66 degree north latitude, also has the Arctic Ocean to keep it cool. Therefore, it turns out, Iceland has arguably the worst summer weather on the planet! Wet, cold (40-50 degrees F), windy, foggy, and cloudy with temps ba