Ruination.

So, today was perty awesome.  My awesome friends Talitha and Melinda invited me to come explore some ruins of a castle, and of course that sounded like a good time, so me and the fam met up with them early in the morn.

We walked down a shady little trail.

 

So, if you look closely at this picture, on the left is the castle as it was in 1500, and on the right is what is left of it.  It kindof covered the whole top of a hill, with steep drop-offs on most sides.

This was the first part we came to.

 

And the inside of it. 

Ethne wouldn’t climb the ladders by herself and would get a couple rungs up and then yell till someone came and got her.  :)

 

There was this little teeny slit where you could get in and see a narrow room that was perty neat, but hard to take a picture of.  I don’t know what it was for.  There’s a picture of Talmage and Talitha from the inside of it, and a picture of me coming out of it.  It was quite the squeeze to get in and out.

And this is kindof the front of the other part of ruins.  It’s much bigger than it seems from the picture.

See, it’s quite big- there’s Jethro in the window thing.

 

Talitha, Melinda and I had lagged behind a bit, and when we came around to the inside, we were attacked.

 

So this is the inside – it was very big.

See, there’s Brett and Ethne at the bottom to give you a size reference.

 

On the other side of these windows is mostly rock that they just used as the walls on that side.

 

There’s Melinda having a teaching moment with Jethro.  She pointed out some markings on some of the stones that could be the mason’s mark who made that brick. 

 

The whole thing was really cool and made me want to read a Norah Lofts book about an old castle and all the people in it.  Oh wait—coincidentally there should be one on the way to me by means of my parents, along with a few other books I may have ordered.  :)  (My Dad called the other day and said he needed to give me his and mom’s clothing sizes so that I could buy them some clothes since their suitcases will be full of other things that they’re bringing to us.  hee hee)

So then, Melinda and Talitha and I snuck away from Brett and the kids and made our way past the high-security fences to get up to the top of the ruins.  They said that their grandma (they’re cousins) took them this way, and I figured if their grandma did it, it was okay.  :)  And I told them they have a cool grandma, and they agreed.

First you ducked under one fence, then you had to wiggle your way up between this fence (which had barbed wire) and the side of the hill.   It was tight, but obviously no match for our skills.

 

Anyhoo, then we climbed up.

     

It was a spectacular view.  And the trees are so gorgeous right now with the new leaves against the pines. 

So, this totally doesn’t look as precarious as it was, because I didn’t take a picture looking over the edge, but it was a LONG, and I mean LONG drop-off on the right.  And the left side’s drop-off was intense too.  Good thing I like heights.

Melinda and me.  :)

Tali.

 

Just sitting on top of the world.  (I’m quite annoyed now that I didn’t take a picture straight down, to show how high it was.)  Although Melinda had Brett take some pictures of us up there with her camera, so I’ll have to post those when I get them.

 

Melinda and Talitha-

 

Now a little closer up.

 

Me and Talitha.

A little closer up.

Just playing a little leap frog atop a dangerous precipice.  Cheap thrills.  ;)

 

Jethro was mad he didn’t get to come up.

Then we walked down a steep trail (probably the castle’s escape route).

 

So, you can’t really tell, but this was taken on the trail exactly below the ruin that we were climbing on, and it’s very sheer. 

 

Then we played in the creek for a while.  It was such a beautiful, perfect day- just so nice out.

 

Baldy.

 

Talmage threw rocks into the water for a VERY long time.  He and Talitha were standing there, he would pick up a rock, give one to Talitha, then say “Eee, ooooh, eeee!” which obviously means ‘one, two, three!’ and they would throw their rocks in together.  He loved it.  Luckily Talitha is nice and obliged him for a long time.

 

Talitha told him to go under this, and he’s like, “What?”

You can just see the corner of the castle up above on the hill.

 

As is traditional near water, shoes eventually came off and pants were rolled up.

 

I love my baby!

Ethne’s piggy-tails were cute.

Very fun. 

The end.