Life with a little one is so busy! It seems like most everything else takes a back seat. Felix is doing great though, and he’s growing so fast. He’s four years old now, and he’s correcting his grandmother’s English as well as my rarely-spoken Vietnamese. He seems to enjoy preschool, though he is usually quiet and reserved, definitely more so than your average four-year-old.
Despite our busy pace, Nhu and I were able to take a week off for a trip to Iceland and New York City. Grandma Thu stayed home and watched Felix, so it was just the two of us. Icelandair wanted a pretty hefty sum for the nonstop flight from Denver, so we flew on United through Newark instead. We rented a car when we got to Iceland and travelled the entire south half of the island. Although this year has been the country’s least sunny summer since 1984, we were incredibly lucky: we only had one day of rain and a half day of gray, with the sun showing up the rest of the time we were there. It never really got dark, and we took advantage of the beautiful weather, hitting up all the Iceland scenery we could. We stayed at a nice little bed and breakfast, though if we had it to do again, we’d probably stay at a few different places to cut down on the driving. I definitely want to go back again to see the north side of the island, as well as some of the mountains on the eastern coast.
On our way back to Denver, since we were stopping in Newark anyway, we spent a few days in New York City. Nhu had never been, and I hadn’t been since my one trip right after college. We did most of the things that I didn’t get to the last time I was there, such as riding the Staten Island Ferry and walk along the High Line. We also visited the new One World Trade Center, as well as the nearby memorial, which was sobering; the last time I was in the city there was nothing there but holes in the ground.
Photos from both Iceland and New York City are now posted; I just got around to finishing them up today.