I'm glad we set the alarm clock.  The lack of sleep on the flight over and then the long day yesterday completely wiped us all out.  The morning took a couple of cycles of hitting the snooze button before we actually woke up.  And then it took another thirty minutes of phone calls to Kelley and Victoria's room to get them going.  After we finally stumbled downstairs and grabbed a bite to eat, we went to Ribeauvillé's open-air market that was literally right outside our hotel.  While Kathie and I were just enjoying the smells of fresh produce, meats, and cheeses and Kelley was pursuing some "uniquely" French fashions (pushing my French linguistic skills to the limit!), Victoria was busy meeting some animal characters that were wandering around the market, playing with children.  Between the fox, the rabbit (see the picture below), the bear, and the chicken, Victoria received a handful of tickets to go play on the moon bounces while Kathie and Kelley went through several of the town's clothing shops.

After giving Kelley a moment to change into some of her new French styles, we hit the road for the town of Obernai.  Our drive there was hardly uneventful.  About halfway there, Victoria declared that she needed to go potty, so we stopped off amid the vineyards.  It was a beautiful location, so we all got out with Victoria for a "Kodak moment."  Unfortunately, when we went got back into the car, it just beeped at us and wouldn't start, while flashing a message to me in German.  It took about 20 minutes before I was finally able to flag down a motorist in a Mercedes similar to ours to help us.  After a couple of minutes, the driver was able to ascertain that the problem was that I should have put on the emergency break and the car's technology was so advanced that it knew what I didn't!  We got back on the road, only to stop again after the next village when we came upon a girl who had taken the corner way too fast and ended up wiping out two rows of vines and destroying her car in the process.  We stayed with her and helped clean the blood off while we waited for her mother, who reacted just like any American mother would have - checked to make sure the girl was okay, and then let her have it with both barrels for driving too fast!

We finally made it to the town of Obernai in time for lunch (had to get my fill of Alsatian sausages!).  Obernai is definitely one of the prettiest towns in Alsace (like Ribeauvillé, its location makes it a great base of operations for touring Alsace).  We wondered around for a couple of hours, doing some shopping and taking in the sites before Victoria stumbled on a carousel that she HAD to go on two or three times, trying out every horse, carriage, and trolley on the ride!