Back to the Basket Factory

I love the basket factory so when my mom mentioned that maybe we could go there during their visit, I was more than happy to play chauffeur.  The plan for our day was basket factory, hike into France, and climbing around on castle ruins.  We got the first two done and had to put off castle climbing for another day.

I don't know what this was supposed to be, but it would make an excellent time out spot for Natalie, our little mischief maker
Samantha found this lovely top hat shaped basket
And John almost bought this amazing mask
It didn't take long for everyone but Mom and I to have had their fill of baskets and masks, so we bought a few treasures and then headed out for our hike into France.   We found the trail head and set off, all the while hoping that we were going the right way.  The trail was pretty well marked, but there was some spots that were confusing.  At one fork in the road we did take the wrong path and we'd gone about ten minutes before we decided to turn around and find the right way. 


There was enough to see along the way that the kids didn't get too bored or tired.  Abigail scrambled right up to the top of this hunting stand
Samantha found this patch of flowers when we stopped for lunch
It was fun to look inside the old iron mines that were along the trail.  It would have been even more fun if we could have gone inside, but they were all locked up tight. 
These funny tree stumps were neat to see out in the middle of  the woods
After our wrong turn and some lunch we started the big uphill part of the hike.  I felt as if we would never make it to the top of the hill (mountain, ridge?) we were climbing but of course we eventually did.  The views on the way up and at the top were spectacular.  All along the hill/mountain/ridge opposite us there were castle ruins and the sky was perfectly blue with big fluffy clouds.  


 I was so proud of these guys!  They kept going and didn't complain too much.  If you look closely, you can just see the candy necklace around Emily's neck.  Everybody got one - they were my little post-lunch keep hiking incentive.
I promise that Jared and I didn't strike the same pose on purpose.  We are just that perfect for each other!
It didn't even feel like we were on the trail for part of the way on the walk down because we spent a lot of time going through fields.  Jared went ahead of me with a big stick and used it like a machete to cut down the ridiculously tall stinging nettles that were growing everywhere.

Besides the stinging nettles, we saw lots of these flowers.  I think my mom and dad were calling them fox gloves?

Almost to the end of our seven kilometer hike
As we got even closer to the end we walked through the beautiful village where the trail began.  Abigail loves ivy covered houses and just had to take a picture of this one.
After our hike no one was really interested in finding a castle to explore.  What we really wanted was some ice cream so we stopped and had a cold treat - the perfect ending to a great day!

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