adventures with Tadhg

Yesterday, Tadhg and I had an adventure. I was able to go with him and the 6th grade classes on a field trip to Hearst Castle. I opted to drive, as opposed to riding the bus with 90 eleven and twelve year olds. Hmmm... hard choice. Tadhg decided to come with me and it was really nice. We stopped half way and got McDonald's breakfast. We had a nice drive. I got several "I love you"s and at one point he even reached over and patted my shoulder and played with my hair. He hasn't done that since he was a baby! Everything is really green right now and the mountains were spectacular. We say Morro Rock in the distance and the minute we came to the ocean both of us opened the windows as if on cue. Tahdg said, "You know what I love about the beach? The smell. I also like to play in the sand." That's my boy!
The tour of the castle was fun. It was a different tour than I had taken, oh 13 years ago, with Curtis and Gran on a CA visit during college. I took tons of pictures. Now I'll have to devise a page, or two. Tadhg was taking notes on what he saw that he wanted to duplicate at our house. Funny boy. I loved the pools and the grounds. I was surprised that he was so into the tour. He said we needed to come back with the whole family to take the other tours. Cool.
After the tour and the other kids were getting on the bus, Tadhg and I took off across the highway to W. R. Hearst state beach. You can't drive all that way and not play in the sand! The water was so clear and blue, not usual for California coast. It made me really excited for my beach vacation next week. Tadhg found all sorts of rocks on the beach that he said we just like the ones they were trying to sell at the gift shop. "They must come over here and get them, then shine them up." he said. He also found a ginormous piece of seaweed that had washed up. It was comical to watch him trying to drag it. With help he was able to budge it and then decided to set it free and tried to get it back out into the surf. The best part..."I'm really glad you chaparoned." Yeah!