There were no "sea days" on this itinerary, and the ship mostly cruised from 6 PM to 8AM. We woke up to a real "OMG" view out the windows August 5. We were in the "ice fjord" (Isafjordur) at the port of the same name. The mountains were right there and they were beautiful. I took a 30 minute boat ride to Vigur Island, owned by a couple. Felicity Aston, part-owner and full time island guide, was the first woman to cross Antarctica alone. The island teams with birds in the summer, and they feel safe there. It took effort, including giving up a chance to eat yummy island cake, but I finally had my first close up puffin sighting. In the afternoon I took the included excursion to Bolungarvik, a tiny fjord town with a small outdoor maritime museum. One surprise was that the guide on the bus was an Icelandic citizen, but formerly from the Washington DC area like me. That's one reason why she spoke flawless English, which was good, because the museum guide didn't speak any at all! For dinner we ate at the Chef's Table, with the California Cuisine menu. At the next table over was a younger couple from Nashville. The man was an orchestra conductor with eclectic taste. We had great conversations about music while eating halibut and crabcake. (The crabcake, however, tasted a bit bland to us Marylanders. Where's the Chesapeake blue crab? Where's the Old Bay Seasoning?) Oh well.

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