Iceland Day 9
This day was packed full of activities, as most days were.  We started the day with an early morning snorkeling dip in the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Rift at Þingvellir National Park.  It was absolutely freezing, and among everyone in the entire group (about 10 people total), Amy and I were the only snorkelers whose suites leaked. The water was 1° Celsius!  The water between the tectonic plates was crystal clear, allowing visibility dozens of meters down.  We jumped off a 20 foot cliff into the rift at the end of the snorkeling adventure just for fun.  

We then made our way to the other main parts of the Golden Circle, starting with the Haukadalur valley area, which includes Geysir (the original geyser from which the term "geyser" was coined) and the more active Strokkur geyser.  In the below photos, Strokkur is the active geyser that erupted.  There were just loads and loads of tourists, which was a stark contrast from the relatively desolate natural wonders of the rest of Iceland.  We followed that up with a trip to Gullfoss, which despite the touristy environment, is one of the most beautiful and powerful waterfalls in the country (especially with the rainbow!).

The rest of the day was a rather hectic decision-making process to figure out how late we could drop off the 4x4 at the rental facility in Reykjavík, and still get to the Blue Lagoon.  We made it to the Blue Lagoon to try to relax a bit at the end of our long journey over the past 9 days.  The Blue Lagoon was also very touristy, and the weather was suboptimal and freezing when we went, but it was interesting.  The water was also disappointingly tepid; nowhere near as hot as we would have liked.  In the future, our plans would be to find another free hot spring area that is not as commercialized as the Blue Lagoon (there were a couple right outside of Húsavík, for instance).

We dropped the car off, and this was a rather sad experience.  A sad moment to leave our trusty 4x4 behind. We lived in that vehicle and it never failed to get us anywhere we wanted to go in this rugged country. What a great trip this was.

Snorkeling the Mid-Atlantic Rift, Geysir, Strokkur, Gullfoss, and Blue Lagoon 
The End
I am speaking for myself (Scott), when I say that I have never had a better vacation in my life and I have never fallen in love with a country more than Iceland.  It is a place of natural wonder and beauty and has so much breadth of beauty and intrigue to offer anyone whoever takes the effort to get there.  I won't soon forget anything about this trip and plan to come back multiple times in the future.  Amy would probably agree.