water skiing

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Another Week at the Lake

We said sad farewells to mom, dad, Steve & Sue at 9 this morning. Their first visit to New Hampshire was filled with exploration, good food, laughter and family time. Now, the tide turns to the second week for visits by more friends and family.

After a ride into Meredith this morning for some errands, I returned for lunch with Doug, Andrew and Adam. Cousins Sean and Shelley were a short ride away spending today through Tuesday morning with us. Adam and Andrew went out with Doug for a boat driving lesson. Sean and Shelley arrived. It was so nice to welcome THEM for a change. We are always welcomed by them to their condo in Brigantine – now it’s our turn. After they unpacked, Doug too all but Shelley out on the boat to treat Andrew to some tubing. Sean loved snapping shots of Andrew skipping with speed across the lake in the tube. His face was frozen in a perfect smile loving the thrill of the ride. I drove the boat while Doug water-skied a little.

Happy hour brought the snacks and drinks out. Doug and Sean took a ride to find Cousin Barry & Joan’s house and welcome them to NH. Dinner comes soon. Lobster dinner was outstanding. the $5.79 per pound lobster was cooked up by Doug. The lobster was accompanied by sweet NH corn on the cob and salad. Adam and Shelley enjoyed fresh salmon on the grill.

Dessert at Greg & Theresa’s house was a great time to visit with the young Breskins. Everyone was a bit tired so we called it a night early after playing some games with the kids and enjoying some sweets and wine.

Monday brings rain, rain – and wait for it – more rain. We have NEVER been in New England when an entire day was a wash out. Today was that day – and here at 8:30 p.m. – the rain continues. It’s likely we’ll have more rain into Tuesday – but we have high hopes for clearing skies.

As with any vacation, you make lemonade. I headed to the gym to stretch my knee a little. Donna arrived later morning and then headed off to explore the Center Harbor/Moultonborough area on her own. Because of the rain, we cancelled plans for the family dinner at the Town Docks and arranged plan B making a reservation for 18 at Canoe – a terrific restaurant in Center Harbor. Doug and I ate at Canoe last week.

Before dinner, we loaded up everyone in the cars and went to Moultonborough Store. I picked up a few games for the kids to enjoy at the restaurant. By 4:30 we were back in the cars and headed to Canoe.

Family dinners can be disasters or they can be glorious. We enjoyed the latter at a table for 18 at Canoe. Our wait staff Shen (short for Shenandoah) and Steven were wonderful. From lobster mac and cheese to scallops and burgers, we enjoyed wonderful food while dabbling in conversation with family we just don’t see so often. Watching everyone enjoy each others’ company and talk, laugh and eat good food is just something to be so completely happy about.

Enjoying the children, event the grownups and just being together is what this vacation is all about. Tomorrow, Sean and Shelley travel on to Ogunquit, Maine; Donna will come to our house to stay for two nights and hopefully – the rain will stop.

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Monday, Monday

Monday “rush” hour in Moultonborough, New Hampshire means six cars on Moultonborough Neck Road toward Route 25 – instead of two cars. It’s just about seven miles from the vacation house to the main road and the views are such that you have to remember you are driving and need to watch the hills and the double yellow line. I always love the lupin growing wild on the side of the road. They look like long, purple paint brushes growing in clumps – wild and free. The sides of roads often look like a Monet painting with bursts of yellow, purple and pink wildflowers.

Once I got out to the main road this morning, I went into gym-rat mode. Because I have really accepted that I need to be a gym rat and work out three times a week for about 90-minutes, I knew I could NOT go without visiting a gym – even during vacation. When we came up to NH a few weeks ago to visit Adam at camp, I paid a fee to visit the gym that is closest to our vacation house – about 15 minutes by car. I swiped myself in and immediately went into my routine. about 90 minutes later, refreshed and ready to go for the day, I went “in to town” – such as Centre Harbor is. One traffic light – one grocery store – the liquor store, a couple of cafes, a good restaurant (Coe House) an a beautiful waterfront. I included a photo yesterday of the three boys on the dock – that’s Centre Harbor. I went into Winnepesaukee Bayguls (cute) and snapped up a delicious Green Mountain coffee and a half-dozen bagels made fresh at the shop. Next door, a cafe and bakery was the source of a corn muffin for Doug.

Doug had already been out on the boat when I got back from my morning jaunt. He scouted out the vacation houses where his brother and his cousin will be staying next week and filled the boat with $130 worth of gas. OUCH! We decided to take a trip to Wolfeboro – by boat. That’s a MUCH better way to get to Wolfeboro than by car. It would have taken at least 50 minutes. Speeding through the nearly flat water, we got to the dock in less than 30 minutes.

Doug had packed a delicious lunch that we ate after we tied up at the dock. The weather was quite warm, but the skies started threatening. We stopped in a couple of shops. I bought a birthday card for a friend and walked across the street to the Wolfeboro post office. I think I saw Norman Rockwell there. This place was probably nearly as it was 75 years ago. The postal worker even hand-stamped the birthday card envelope with a Wolfeboro stamp. Quite cute.

We decided to head back and then the skies decide to open up. We were leaving the dock and ducked down below the windshield just peeking enough over the dash to see where we were going. Then, we beat the showers. We were past the rain clouds and back in the sunshine. Amazing how the clouds break up over the lake and dissipate. We cruised around an area of the lake we had never seen before. The homes were actually more like compounds. Huge houses with three-boat garages on the lake. Impeccable landscaping and gorgeous, sandy beaches were part of the homes by the lake. The prices had to be $5 million and up. Dream on.

Doug and I swam in the lake after returning from our little trip. Before we knew it, it was time to start helping with dinner. My parents, Steve & Sue spent the day on a trip to Mount Washington. They got back around 4:30. Dinner by my brother was terrific – pulled pork, delicious local corn-on-the-cob,

After water skiing near the house

salad, baked beans and macaroni salad.

The best was yet to come. Doug had a need for speed – on water skis. That meant we headed out in the boat again. We were able to ski about 500 yards off the house as the sun was starting to set. I was the boat driver – which is very stressful. I don’t want to screw up. Thankfully, I didn’t. Doug enjoyed skiing; I did a good job driving the boat. And nobody got hurt!