Running Through Vineyards in Bordeaux & Stuck Behind a Herd of Cows in Normandie!!!

Heaven!! Running in Bordeaux was absolutely fantastic! And being stuck behind a herd of cows in Normandie was hilarious. Their butts were eye-level. I was amazed, I'd never been that close to the hind end of a cow before. It was an "eye-opening" experience (ha! I feel clever!) This post will be dedicated to my favorite runs so far..... (but for now I need to go to bed, so I will leave you anxiously awaiting details!!)

In a Nutshell!!! (a very long, loooooooooong nutshell).

Phew! So much to experience, so much fun, and so little time for computers, here's what's happened the last month, in a nutshell =) A picture-less account, sorry!

NOTE: For news on WWOOF-ing, see near the bottom of this novella! And for the upcoming itinerary, see about midway through.  

June 11th - June 19th: Stayed at an aunt's house in Le Mesnil St Denis, the town we used to live in when we lived in France for 3 years. It was so fun to see the apartment we used to live in and the school I used to go to. Saw my former best friend's mom and learned that she's in her 10th year of medical school - holy shlamola! This is where I met up with my parents and sister.  

June 16th: The four of us, along with most of my extended French family, went to one of my favorite cousin's weddings. SO FUN! Started at 4:30 pm for the church service (in an incredibly quaint, small, stone church) and ended with a crazy fun dance party until 4:30 am. Dinner started at 10 pm, dessert was served at 12 am, but this is also when the dancing started, so I took my dessert break at 1 am. Ha!! So French. If I ever get married, that is the way I want my wedding to go! "Incroyable!!"  

June 19th - June 22nd: Visit an uncle in Aubière; a small town in the Auvergne region which is gorgeous with volcanoes extending as far as you can see. Magnificent! I went on a couple of great runs with phenomenal views of volcanoes, one morning with fog clinging to the bases and it was breath-taking.  

June 22nd - June 28th: Visit a cousin near Bordeaux. Got to run through vineyards on three different days and felt absolutely surreal! We spent a day visiting St Emilion and took tours of the underground church and some wine caves. We also spent a day at the beach near the Bassin D'Arcachon and played in the waves. Some of the waves beat the crap out of me, but it was tons of fun!! One of the days was dedicated to Bordeaux proper, and it still remains one of my top 3 favorite French cities (Bordeaux, Montpelier and Rennes top my list) =)

I got to celebrate my birthday on multiple days! Woohoo! =) We celebrated early on W 6/27 with some decadent ice cream (this was also the day at the beach, which I consider an absolutely fabulous way to celebrate my birthday). The actual day of, we spent driving from Bordeaux back to Aubière, and we stopped in this AMAZING little village called Turenne. It was magical! Built on a hillside, a fotified castle atop it all, and quaint houses with slate roofs and narrow streets. It was very fun to explore, although insanely hot! We ate lunch at a restaurant outside in the shade, and just sitting there, I had sweat rolling down my back. Eeeesh, not the most pleasant way to enjoy a meal. Afterwards though, it was hilarious as we did all we could to cool off, including soaking our paper napkins with water from our cups to dab the neck and face, and getting our hats wet in the bathroom. I think we were quite a specatcle. =)

 That night we celebrated my birthday again with a delicious chocolate cake. YUM!! So extravagant and so fun!  

June 29th - July 5th: Met my friend Aaron in Cannes, in the south of France on the Cote D'Azur! So much fun to hang out with him and explore a brand new place! I've never been to the Cote D'Azur before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Every day we spent at least a few hours at the beach, swimming in the Mediterranean and lounging on the sand. One day was spent exporing Isle St Marguerite, which has a fort and prison (one of the four prisons where the "Iron Mask" was kept, if anybody saw the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio). We took a guided tour of the fort and prison and learned all kinds of cool stuff, which I leave Aaron to remember most of, as my retention rate is so appalling. Another day was spent at Isle St Honorat, which has a fortified monastery - INCREDIBLE!! This was my favorite day. The ancient monastery is absolutely phenomenal. Once I put pictures up, I will definitely show you. I stopped dead in my tracks and gawked once inside.

Our last day there we went to St Raphael, but after a short exploration of the town, ended up on the beach as well! The best part of St Raphael was this awesome German Shepard named Venus who learned quickly that we would do as she asked, so Aaron spent a good 30 minutes throwing a pine cone for her. It was so fun! We'd stopped to watch a game of Pétanc (lawn bowling, I believe we call it) but were more entertained by their dog. =)

I think my two favorite parts of Cannes were:

1. The market we went to every day (except Monday as it's closed) to buy fresh fruits, veggies, and other delicious treats for picnic lunches.

2. Walking on the beach barefoot. LOVE IT!! (oh yes, and having gelato while walking helped too - one scoop of coffee, and one scoop of hazelnut) =) It's very refreshing, their 1 scoops here are actually the size of 1 scoop versus our scoops, which I feel have grown to gargantuan portions of 2-3 scoops but try to still go by 'single scoop' labels.

Oh yes, and I got to go on two amazing runs while I was there. One was right along the Mediterranean, and I ended up in a different town. I love running past city limits! Can't explain why it gives me so much joy, but it does! The other run had some serious hills and one SPECTACULAR view of the sea and coast from the top. Talk about a serious reward for hard work. That is what I love about climbing hills. The views are absolutely priceless. The biggest bummer is that I keep forgetting to bring my camera on runs, so I have yet to capture any of the gorgeous things I see on my runs. They're just burned into my memory; but I wish I could share them with you!  

July 5th - July 11th: Normandie!! Met back up with my parents (my sister unfortunately had to go back to work - I MISS YOU CHANTAL!!) for my uncle's 50th wedding anniversary! HOLY SHLAMOLA! Getting to experience someone's 50th wedding annivesary was incredible and very thought and emotion provoking. It is truly unbelievable the things that they have lived through and all of the lives they have affected.

The celebration was on Saturday, July 7th and started at 3:30 pm at the mayor's house. At 4:30 pm we all went to the church (another very cute, quaint, small stone church) for the service and at 5:30 pm the celebrations began at the "Salle des Fetes." We didnt't start eating until 10 pm again, but this dinner was much more drawn out and had more courses (7 to be exact) with singing scattered here and there (they were very organized and even provided handouts with lyrics!!) We started eating the salad at 1:15 in the morning. It was crazy! But very French! I was out of steam by 2 am for this party though, so called it a night at 2:30 am.

The rest of the days were spent with family, either helping to set-up or clean up from the festivities. We spent one day going to St Lo with my parents so I could show them the town I lived in for 9 months during my teaching assistantship. I took them to my favorite path to run on which is right by the river and has a spectacular mansion / castle along the way. It was so wonderful to be back!

 I went on two absolutely fabulous runs in Normandie and realized how dearly I miss living there! On my first run, I actually got stuck behind a herd of cows for 5 minutes as the farmers transferred them from one field to another. =) Only in Normandie! Running and biking through the Normandie country-side is absolutely one of my favorite things to do. It actually beats running by the Mediterranean, if anyone can believe that. I don't know what it is, but I'm terribly drawn to rainy, lush green places (check: Normandie and Seattle!!)

Today, W 7/11 I took the train back to Paris to meet up with my aunt and uncle back in Le Mesnil. Tomorrow morning we leave for L'Isle de Noirmoutier. =)

And now, projected plans for the month, as who knows how long it will be before I get back on to blog again:

 July 12th - July 15th = Noirmoutier with aunt and uncle to start, then my cousin and his new wife will join for a short weekend. Return with my cousin on Sunday night to be in Paris on Monday morning.

 July 16 - July 20th = meet my wonderful friend Rose in Lille, France. Another totally new place to explore! I haven't seen Rose in far too long as well, so I'm extremely excited about the whole thing!

July 20th - July 24th = going on my first solo adventure to Brussels! WOOHOO!! I can hardly wait! Never been to Belgium and am super psyched to explore it!

July 24th - July 29th = Back to France, in the NE to a little town called Luttanges to visit another favorite cousin. Will be meeting back up with my parents at this point until August 3rd.

July 29th - August 3rd = Quick trip to a nearby town called Sarrebourg to visit an aunt and uncle.

August 3rd - August 20th = Return to Normandie. Can never spend too much time here! OH!! And talk about "meant to be"!!! I think I may end up WWOOF-ing there in March. My parents and I stayed at a 'gite' in Normandie at this incredibly cute farm and it turns out they're looking for help next year and are going to list themselves on the WWOOF website. WHAT??!!! You don't say! How incredibly cool! They're extremely nice people and I simply love the idea of working with them - we are very like-minded and they have bikes and badminton, and a gorgeous flower garden and tea garden....the list goes on and on. We exchanged emails and plan to keep in touch. I see myself there, but I guess we shall see how it all works out.

In other WWOOF-ing news!! I have two farms set up in Ireland and two in Scotland. All are set for stints of 3 weeks. I'm so excited about it I can hardly stand it! My first farm host has also just started an at home bakery so I get to help bake bread the first two days I am there! I start on September 7th on a farm near Dublin.

Until that point, I've got: August 20th - 27th back at Bordeaux with another favorite cousin and together we'll go to an old family house that's been passed down the generation in an area called La Creuse. Should be there from August 27th - September 2nd. This house used to be so rustic that we took showers outside when I was little. Great memories! They have since added a shower inside. It's such a fun place and so full of memories, I'm really excited to go back.

September 3rd: Depart for Ireland! I just got my plane ticket today and am also SUPER EXCITED (do you see a trend??) =)

But, all of that being said, and having purchased travel arrangements and hostels, etc.... I have spent about 6 hours at the computer today, so I am going to call it quits now. We'll see if I feel motivated enough for morning of TRX before we leave tomorrow. It's so much easier for me to get out of bed to run than TRX, but we shall see, it's sleepy-time!

Parisian Outing & Rural Ramblings

Thursday, June 7th, I spent a solo day in Paris except for lunch with a cousin.   It was splendid.  The whole day!  From taking the RER (train) like a big girl (only asked 2 people to make sure the train I was on would actually stop at the station I wanted) to the downpour I got stuck in while crossing the Place de Concorde, it was all excellent!

I must say, I already have a favorite new 'cultural moment.'  More of a lack of finesse on my part with the language, but a fun story to share =)  One of my cousins dropped me off that day at the train station and was going to come in and help me buy the train ticket.  I was trying to say that I'd be fine on my own using the automated machines to buy a ticket.  There are multiple words that can be used for these machines: 'billeterie,' 'guichet,' 'borne' but, one should be very clear that the word one might pronounce as 'bjorn' is definitely not a valid term.  In fact, if one employs such a term, one should know that it's another word for balls (aka testicles).  Ooops!!  Totally not what I was looking for.

I was very thankful that my cousin corrected me right away, rather than letting me go into the train station asking for the testicles.  Can you imagine?  "Pardon me, where might I find your testicles??"  Ha!!  Would have been funny to see the look on someone's face.  Maybe I should have done it nonetheless.  Or if the machine isn't working ...... "Excuse me, sir, your testicles aren't working."  Bah ha!  So much fun to be had.   That's my funny story of the day.

Below are pictures from my outing:

The Louvre.  Where I met my cousin before our lunch.  He took me to his favorite French Japanese restaurant.  It was quite fun, and not what I expected.  Really odd to see him again after 4 years as it doesn't feel like that much time has lapsed, at all.  I have this very bizarre feeling since being back in France that the life I started here in 2008 has just been on pause and I'm just picking up again right where I left off.  It's another really weird time warp experience!! 

After lunch, he headed back to work and I headed to the Petit Palais.  My first experience ever there.  Very cool.   Phenomenally gorgeous building.  As you can see a tiny bit from the picture.  It was breath-taking.  It was on my way here that I got stuck in a bit of a downpour and realized that my 'raincoat' is total crap and did me no good.  Took the two hours I spent in the museum to dry off.  But got to see some really cool art!

The pieces of art in the Petit Palais cover a huge range of styles.  I was impressed by the variety (and by the fact that all permanent displays are free!!  Woohoo!!). They display sculptures, oil paintings of various schools, and ancient artifacts.  My favorite part was the really ancient stuff.  There was pottery and sculpture from 700 B.C.  That is so incredible to me!  They had an iron pot handle sculpted in the shape of a lion.  What?!  I still couldn't create something that looked that good with all the tools we have today.  I remain impressed.

After the Petit Palais, the weather totally cleared up!  It was fantastic!  I had planned to metro it back, but since I had amazing blue skies, I walked instead and got to see some of these beautiful sights.

I'm almost positive this is a sculpture on the Pont Neuf, but wasn't paying close enough attention to the names of the bridges.  I was, instead, in awe at the spectacular sculptures.  And I started getting my bridges confused after I passed about a dozen.

Hooray for Nutella crepes!!  My all time favorite French dessert  (although there are many very close seconds!!  =)  My first Nutella crepe since being back in France.  Heartily enjoyed on one of the many bridges I confuse.  This truly completed my Paris outing.  I was ecstatic.

The next day, Friday, June 8th, I spent the day closer to home base.  I'm now at an aunt and uncle's house in the country-side of a very very extended Parisian suburb.  You absolutely feel submerged in rural country, even though you're only a 45 minute train ride away from the center of Paris.  It's a pretty sweet deal!!

On my way to pick up bread from the boulangerie on Friday morning, I found a sign that described a castle.  It appeared quite close on the map, and when I asked my aunt she confirmed the fact - within 2 km.  SCORE!  A French castle less than 2 miles away.  Too good to be true!  I was thrilled.  Knew where I was going that day!  So I took a rambling walk to the castle and beyond. 

I ended up strolling for about 2 hours and was overjoyed by the simplicity of where I was.  There are few things in the world that make me happier than walking on a narrow country road with fields of wheat on either side.  The air smelled clean, the wind was fresh (as opposed to my Parisian outing the day before.  I do love Paris, but I do simultaneously severely dislike how crowded and polluted it is.  Walking along the Quais, I was just getting mouthfuls of car emissions and it was not the favorite part of my day.  As much as I love Paris, I will take a walk in the country or the mountains any day over the city).

Long tangent.  Anyways, the moral of the story is that I had an awesome walk in the country. 

Here is the castle that I found.  =)  It's privately owned, closed to the public, and being restored.  Oof, can you IMAGINE the cost of restoring a castle?  See the work ladders on the right side of the castle?  The rest of the façade is new and lovely, but they've been restoring this castle for at least 21 years and they have a loooooooooooong way to go.  As much as I love finding castles, drooling over them, and strolling around them if I can, I could never imagine owning one.  Or wanting to own one.  I will remain satisfied by drooling. 

When I left the house there were some really threatening clouds overhead so I brought this really awesome poncho that my aunt let me borrow.  It was PERFECT!!  I ended up in a downpour again, but was hoping this one would last a while because it was GREAT!!  Another favorite past-time: walking in the rain, when I know I can dry off when I'm ready to.  That caveat is important!  Unfortunately the downpour ceased after about 10 minutes and then there was only a light rain.  This at least allowed me to take this picture (running like a fool to make it in time) with Chantal's grandiose gorilla gift! 

Saturday, June 9th, I went to a low key little French fashion show with my aunt, her best friend, and my cousin.  It ended up being very good fun!  (I had a doubt or two at the start as I am not at all fashionable) but the whole thing was among friends. A lady who owns a clothes store in Paris organized it and had some of her friends play runway models.  After these 'models' do their thing to show the clothes, everyone can try things on and buy the clothes at a better price than is available in the stores.   Kind of a fun idea.  I wasn't planning on buying anything, BUT........

I thought this dress was too fun to pass up!!  My aunt told me after the show, that she thought of me right away when she saw this dress, as I am obsessed with colors.  I showed them my pictures of Iceland, and I've taken a bunch more pictures of cute French houses with crazy colorful shutters and doors and I LOVE it!  I cannot describe how much I love bright colors!  So I bought this fantastically 80's dress AND the red leggings to go with it.  Watch out 80's night.  I am so ready.

Outing in Paris by MOTORCYCLE!!!

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I had my first ride on a motorcycle today and it was incredible!!  I was really quite petrified at first, but it was awesome and I'm alive and had no run-ins with anyone or anything.  Props to Jeanot.  =)

Imagine: me sitting on a motorcycle with a white helmet.  =)  Hopefully I'll be able to get pictures to load soon.

 HOOOORRRRAAAAYY!!  I feel like a tech pro!  I figured out my camera!  =)  Here's the picture, as promised:

 

Plus a bonus picture of one of the pieces of art in the Modern Art Museum (this was one that made me laugh because I think it's pretty ridiculous to frame this and call it art, but it was still pretty cool).  The title is Dishrags and Napkins:

 

 

Today, Tuesday, June 5th started off with a decadent bit of sleeping in.  Once up, I started the day with a run (whopping 4 x 8 minutes) and have been really excited about the way my ankle has been feeling the last couple of days.  Then I found a different park for TRX (I feel a little dubious about the woods now) but this park was perfect in an island between small neighborhood streets.  After getting ready and eating breakfast at 12 pm (the downside to sleeping in) we headed into Paris.

Jeanot proposed taking the motorcycle as driving in Paris is 'la galère!!' (roughly translates to 'pain in the ass').  He was specifically referring to trying to park a car in Paris.  I totally agreed and was intrigued about the idea of riding on a motorcycle, while simultaneously feeling a wee bit terrified.  Should I voice my fears??  I decided that he knows what he's doing when it comes to driving motorcycles in Paris as he's done it for years, and he's been super protective about me since the day I arrived, so I figured he'd be conservative.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwww!!   I'm sure he was super conservative, but considering that even going 50 km/hour (which we reached in the neighborhood)  felt exhilarating for me, the rest of the ride was indescribable. Tons of fun and overall relatively worry-free as I had no control anyways.  

At first I worried about leaning into the turn (as I've heard you're supposed to do), but it did come completely naturally.  I was a little apprehensive every time we went through crossroads that some driver would run us over, but this was where I just had to let it go and trust the driver.  A good trust exercise indeed.

We found a parking spot ridiculously easily by the Trocadero and took more classic pictures of the Tour Eiffel (I do believe I have pictures of the Tour Eiffel from every trip I've taken to France.  Does this incredible monument change every few years??  Nope.  Yet I still feel the need to capture it on my camera whenever I'm here). After the photo shoot, we strolled to the Musé d'Art Moderne and spent a good bit of time admiring, commenting, and ridiculing the art.  How some things become art is beyond me.

On the way home, we took the Champs Elysées (definitely a unique experience by motorcycle).  This of course spit us into the Place de L'Etoile and all the insanity that runs rampant in the traffic circle around the Arche de Triomphe.  Holy Shlamola.  I've been in a car there before, several times actually, as my dad thinks it's incredibly good fun to drive in circles around the Arche, but this was my first time feeling so exposed.  Oh my goodness, I thought we would die or get run into about 15 times in the 2 minutes or less that we spent there.  But there were no problems.  He is indeed, an experienced Parisian driver.  On the way back, we passed through the Bois de Boulogne which rightfully has the reputation for being able to easily find hookers, and in simply driving through for about 10 minutes, I counted 4.  Kind of a bizarre experience. 

The last exciting moment of the day to share: I got my debit card for my French bank account.  We barely (unknowingly) made it as today was their first day closing at 6 pm instead of 6:45 pm.  So glad they post these things on their website.  I had no idea until I saw the sign on their door.  I got there at 6:02 pm but the lady was super nice and got me my card so I am good to go!  Onward to further adventures!

First Full Day in France

I got to France on Saturday, June 2nd at 6 am, was able to find the shuttle bus really easily and met up with my first host (an old family friend) at 8:30  am.  We went to a boulangerie to pick up a couple of baguettes and croissants and I had my first classically French breakfast again since 2008.  It was wonderful.  The rest of the day was really low key with the highlight of the day before lunch: I got to pick cherries from their cherry tree.  So fun and so delicious!!  

 

That evening we went to run a couple of errands and I got some hygiene essentials that I hadn't packed (including sunscreen, which I realized I was missing in Iceland and ended up getting a little sunburned.  Sounds bizarre, but true story).  Delicious French dinner on the grill followed up by delicious French cheese - oh how I've missed the cheese!!  I cannot describe the contentment I felt, sitting in the backyard, eating stinky French brie on a baguette with red wine.  Exquisite!!  I actually made it until 11:30 that night and was thoroughly entertained by a French TV show (my 2 hour nap that afternoon helped immensely).  

Sunday June 3 started off at 9:30 am, but only because I got a wake up call.  I'm curious how late I could have slept on my own =).  Today so far, the highlight has been going for a walk with Jeanot in these little woods and visiting a market, my first market since 2008.  Oh it's so wonderful being back at a French market!!! I took a few pictures I wanted to post, but something is going wonky with the computer (is it the fact that I'm international??  I don't know.  If you have suggestions, please let me know!  It doesn't recognize my camera or my USB key.  Could be interesting and quite problematic).
And again, my edited version here, as I ever so skillfully figured out how to put pictures onto my blog.  If you could see me right now, you'd see a very proud Elodie.  =)  Here are the promised market pictures:

I do believe all technology problems have been solved!

If I'm able to problem solve, you can expect to see pictures here of a super colorful stand chock full of fruits and veggies, a stand with a gorgeous variety of whole fish, and of course, a cheese stand.  =)

Also!!  Something else I could use help with from my technology saavy friends: My blog won't let me access the .com address.  It automatically takes me to .fr.  When I tried to type it in manually, it said that my site no longer existed.  Any ideas??  Just roll with it?  The new challenge of this site is that it won't let me see the top part of the page.  It's completely inaccessible.  I can see the very bottom of the box for Title, and the buttons for Save, Publish, Close, and Preview but I can't see what they say.  At least I know the Publish is the orange button.  =)  The others I'm almost positive about.  Anyone have any ideas about THAT little conundrum??

Arrival!!!

I made it to France!!!!!  It's finally starting to set in (as I struggle with the AZERTY keyboard - eesh I miss knowing where the keys are!!)  Anyhoo, Iceland was AMAZING!!!!  I had 15 hours to explore and I hit up the Blue Lagoon and gave myself a walking tour of Reykjavik.  Phenomenal weather, had sunny blue skies the whole time; no problems with any of the flights or trains or buses.  Overall the trip went really well, minus the fact that I couldn't sleep at all on the way from Reykjavik to Paris (from 1-6 am .... with a 2 hour time difference ....  you would think that it would be the ideal time to sleep, but my mind would not stop).

Going to keep it brief right now as the keyboard is already driving me mad; but just a quick update that all is well and I'm finally starting my actual European Adventures!!!

And an updated version with pictures!  =)

At the Harrisburg Amtrak station, just before my departure for the international leg of my trip!

Sunrise above Iceland around 2 am.

Icelandic Coastline!!!  GORGEOUS!

Blue Lagoon!!

View of the Reykjavik.  I absolutely LOVED all the colors of the roofs and the houses.  They were so brilliantly vibrant, I was in heaven!  And the fabulously blue sky you see is the weather I was lucky enough to have for all 19 hours of my trip.  Magnificent!  I can't wait to do a more in depth trip in Iceland.

Hiking in PA

On Monday, 5/28, my sister, her friend, Julie, and I went hiking to a place called Peter's Mountain to Clark's Ferry.  Part of the hike was on the Appalachian Trail which I thought was fantastically cool!!  I can now say I've been on the AT!! 

Awesome views of the river (which unfortunately never really runs blue, but rather remains brown . . . still a pretty site to see).

Gorgeous green foliage (felt a bit like WA!). 

Observed ample poison ivy plants, but believed we all managed to get through the hike unscathed. 

Even with a hiking book and three intelligent, independent women working together, we still managed to find our way off the trail, remain perplexed for a significant amount of time (even tried cheating with a smart phone, to no great avail) but serendipitously came across someone on the actual trail as we were re-tracing our footsteps. Perfect timing.  Hooray! 

Biggest downside of the day: absurdly humid and hot.  Without really getting my heart rate elevated, I has dripping sweat.  Like a leaky faucet.  Oh my.  It was not a pretty site.  Bye bye sunscreen. 

Biggest perk of the day: WATERMELON for lunch!  =)

"Hiking" Gettysburg!

The next day, Tuesday 5/29, Julie and I went to Gettysburg for a 7 mile loop "hike" around the battlefield.  I must say, we use the term "hike" loosely (the book that details the hike also includes 1 mile walks and utterly flat River Front Park as part of its "hikes" if that gives you any idea).  The most significant chunk of elevation we gained at once in Gettysburg was (gasp) 200 feet.  Ha!  So I would call this more of a walk than a hike, but it was still a really cool experience.

It was hotter, but less humid, so actually more pleasant, in my book.  I would say it qualified as roasting, but the hike was a pretty fantastic at providing tree cover every time we thought we would melt on the exposed trail.  =)  Lots of cars and tourists doing the loop drive, but we were the only people on the walking trail.   Very peaceful and serene.

We started the hike near Longstreet Tower and of course had to climb up for the view.

The barn you see was actually near the end of the loop trail.  We walked between that gorgeous red barn building and the white farmhouse (that you can't see).  The whole things was very quaint and apparently the barn houses hundreds of barn swallows.  They were everywhere!

The little dirt path you see was part of the walking trail.  Do you see the grueling elevation gain?  It was a beast!  =)

Along the way we saw a multitude of memorials,

 a real life turtle on the trail!

Relics of stone walls

And an itty bitty snake in this stream while we were cooling our feet.  I think I would have freaked out more (snakes are one of my phobias!) but Julie's reaction was so reassuring that she helped keep me calm.  She was so entertained at all of the real wild life we were seeing, I would have felt a bit moronic running and screaming for my life.  So I stayed calm (the fact that it was itty bitty helped also) but still proceeded to exit the stream rapidly. 

That stream (perhaps one of my favorite parts of the day) was actually during part of our day that we realized we were off trail.  Yep, we somehow managed to go off trail here too.  Although we do blame a trail detour and closures for that.  And the fact that the path we were on was a well marked horse path, which we had been sharing earlier.  As it turned out, we were off the actual trail for a good amount of time, but my favorite part of our little detour was this gorgeous stone house with a movie-setting rural rocking chair:

Biggest downside of the day:  I got a heat rash in my "elbow pits" but didn't know what it was at first and was a bit disconcerted.

 Slight panic when I discovered my arms were covered with these red bumps.  We were wondering if it was a delayed reaction to the poison ivy we'd seen yesterday and I was super sensitive and super delayed in responding, but it ended up clearing up after a shower and removing the clamminess from my skin.

We decided you couldn't really see the nastiness that was my arms from our first picture, so here's the zoom in.  Thank goodness that cleared up before my flight . . . they might not have let me on the plane if I looked like that:  "Ummmmm, what is that?!"  "I swear it's not contagious!!"  Also very thankful for showers and AC.

Biggest perks of the day:  Seeing all of the wild life AND hearing about Julie's Around the World trip.  Very cool and inspiring person to be talking to before I leave.  Hooray for awesome people!