Our last day in Iceland was reserved for the Blue Lagoon visit. It's a tourist trap for sure, but beautiful, unusual, and worth it. The air is cold, but the water is hot. We frolic, losing and finding one another through the steam that pours off the lagoon.
Mom and Scott decide to go to the restaurant for lunch as Leona and I continue lounging. We swim to the restaurant where they have a window seat to make body language conversation through the glass. Then we notice something: a camera crew on the roof of the building. Big camera, not tourist guy camera.
So Leona and I swim out to the middle of the lagoon to a place we feel we'd be sure to recognize ourselves should we ever find this video somewhere on the internet. Then we make casual, yet exaggerated moves that could be used to solidify our self-recognition. Eventually satisfied, the camera crew packs it up and we swim along to leave.
While we are in the locker room a woman says to us, "Al Gore is here." My mom finds us changing and confirms that Al Gore was part of the camera crew on the roof top. I urge Leona to throw some shit on quick so we can go check it out. We race out to the lobby and follow the signs to the rooftop viewing area. There was no security as we come to the door that opens to an outside walkway leading to the rooftop. This door can only be opened from inside the building so Leona leaves it ajar so we can get back down. At the end of the walkway I turn the building corner and find the "in" door, so I give Leona the go ahead to close it.
We are standing up there and I say to Leona, "can you believe it? We are in the same place Al Gore was just standing." We agree that it'll be a cool story then hurry our butts off the roof because its cold, and we are wet and half-naked.
As we open the "in" door, I hear an unmistakable man's voice. "OMG Leona! That's Al Gore." We back out of the meeting room we had entered and start searching for alternative exits. Of course, there are none. I scold Leona to "not do anything stupid. Just quickly walk normally through and don't make a scene."
We step back inside and stand behind a narrow wall dividing us from the rest of the meeting room where people are seated eating lunch and listening to Al Gore's presentation on alternative energy. We can see our exit, but must pass the meeting to get to it.
Leona looks straight at the wall to her left (they are to the right) and speed walks to the other side. I, on the other hand, can't remember what normal walking looks like. Instead, I do this exaggerated tip toe thing like you'd see in a cartoon, with a huge grimace on my face, while doing an apologetic wave to everyone. Leona tells me I'm an idiot.
We race down the stairs and find mom and Scott who relay that they'd been unable to find Al Gore's entourage so they must have left. "No, no. They are still here. We just left their meeting."
We'd been told Icelanders are rarely impressed by American celebrity and as a result get quite a few celebrity visitors because they enjoy so much privacy. Security issues are really rare there (there's a baby stroller story that evidences this). I did read on the internet days later that Al had spoke at an event for the general public earlier that day. So maybe we aren't that special, but for the rest of my life I'll be able to say we were at Al Gore's energy meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland. Anyone, anyone, anyone else? Didn't think so.
