the castle & the dragon

Yonder Castle... note Charlie lagging the herd.

 

 

It was a good idea Gramps had.  After all, what kid wouldn't like to visit a 'real' castle with a 'real' dragon?  Apparently, that kid would be Charlie.  We arrive at the boy's camp on Lake Morey and up the hill they have a large wooden castle with nooks and crannies and staircases and, all in all, it's pretty darn cool.  Finn, Reis, and Schuyler charged up the hill and quickly occupied the fort.  Charlie was a bit more tentative but still eager.  Then we pointed out the dragon in the field.  Just down the hill, there is a wooden dragon kind of modelled after the Loch Ness Monster so it had little humps sticking out of the grass as if it is swimming through the rushes.  Well, the artisans who designed this dragon should be pretty proud of themselves because it convinced Charlie fully and he darn near had to change his pull up!  He spent the remainder of the time at the castle crying for his mama (I'll remind you of this on your 21st birthday, Charlie).  Then we had to rush back in the boat because Mama and Papa had a flight to freedom to catch.  So then Charlie was torn from his Mama just as soon as he'd been reunited and he cried again.  But it's amazing the present tense of the childhood mind - once he was at a playground, he forgot all about his parental abandonment and joined in the sliding and climbing of the other kids at the public beach at the Lake.