Mid-week brought rain to this piece of heaven. You always have plan “B” when you have a house by the lake. The gray rain clouds hugged Lake Winnepesaukee for most of the morning. Now that I’ve been away for a few days, it certainly is tougher to get out of bed. I could have easily slept much later – especially during a rainy morning, but why waste a day?After getting a batch of work done for some clients, I headed to the gym. Getting my sweat on is always helpful in clearing the cobwebs. more than an hour later, I picked up my coffee – a special treat – at Winnepesaukee Baygull and the Laconia Citizen (newspaper) and headed back to the house.

Enjoying breakfast and the paper is always part of my day – but it’s made more special when you get to read headlines like: “Muskrats Drop Opener in Keene,” “Local Sailors Win Regatta,” capped off by reading the fire and police logs; such is life in a small town. Doug and I moseyed into Centre Harbor where I went to stores we had never visited before. “Yikes” is a great artisan shop with terrific artwork, jewelry, furniture and clothing. When I checked out at the register with my purchases, I struck up a conversation with the woman whose been working there and at other craft stores for some time. When I told her we were from the Philadelphia area, she told us that Happy Fernandez, the retiring president of Moore College of Art, lives in Sandwich – about 20 minutes from Centre Harbor. Ms. Fernandez served as a city councilwoman and also ran for mayor. It’d be funny to see her up here – so far away from how I knew her in Philly.

The afternoon brought clearing skies – but not enough to do any boating. There was more work to do anyway, so I took care of business and got “happy hour” ready for my family for when they returned from a trip to Freeport, Maine and the L.L. Bean factory store. We made plans to have dinner at Canoe in Centra Harbor. We’d heard good things about the restaurant, so this would mark our final night this summer without Adam.

What a great choice we made. The restaurant has a lovely cabin-type atmosphere with dark woods and comfortable chairs and tables. The wait staff was very attentive. We noticed the portions were huge – so I opted for the smaller portions offered in the appetizer/salad section. Emma was our server and she timed everything perfectly. After cocktails, our dinners came – I decided on the chopped salad with seafood cake (sort of New Hampshire’s version of a crab cake) and a side dish of mac & cheese. Doug enjoyed the seafood stew. While we ate another round of showers passed through along with some impressive lightning and thunder.

We returned home to say good night to the lake – and right on cue – the loon called into the night.