We woke up at Guesthouse Gerdi with a beautiful view of the ocean.

We slightly backtracked to visit the Diamond Beach and Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. Jökulsárlón is a large glacial lake at the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier (a tongue of the massive Vatnajökull glacier). It has steadily developed into a lake over the last few decades as the glacier has receded from the edge of the Ocean. It is actually the deepest lake in Iceland, and has quadrupled in area since the 1970s! 

Jokulsarlon Lagoon

The lake is one of the most strange and beautiful sights in Iceland (and has served as scenery for multiple Hollywood movies). The lake communicates with the sea, and as the glacier calves into the lake, icebergs slowly melt as they wash out to sea. Small fragments of icebergs wash up on to the black sand beaches, hence "Diamond Beach".

Diamond Beach, Jolkulsarlon, South Iceland Unfortunately I had a little camera malfunction here after being caught by a sneaker wave. That left me with an iphone and drone. Still, the kids had no trouble enjoying the ice on Diamond Beach in the morning.

A few kilometers away, there is another glacial tongue called Fjallsjokull, which calves into the Fjallsarlon lagoon. You can get closer to this glacier head by land so we went to check it out.

A few from the air: DCIM\100MEDIA\DJI_0111.JPG
DCIM\100MEDIA\DJI_0107.JPG

Fjallsarlon Lagoon
Then we headed back to the Jokulsarlon Lagoon for a boat tour of the lake. We suited up and boarded a zodiac, cruising around and learning about the lagoon, the local geology, glaciers, icebergs, and animal life. 

 Amazing how massive some of these icebergs were.

We were lucky enough to watch this iceberg flip--so blue on its underbelly.

And a few Harbor seals

And we got a closer look at the glacier wall.

After the boat ride, we spent some more time at Diamond Beach.

Some arial shots of the lagoon and Diamond Beach:

DCIM\100MEDIA\DJI_0050.JPG
DCIM\100MEDIA\DJI_0065.JPG

DCIM\100MEDIA\DJI_0084.JPG

DCIM\100MEDIA\DJI_0089.JPG

DCIM\100MEDIA\DJI_0095.JPG
And one last look at the lagoon:

 We then made the drive out to remote East Iceland, with some scenery along the way:

South Iceland

We stayed in the remote, tiny town of Breiðdalsvík (population 139) on the East fjords.