Early Morning Sun

7:10

7:11

8:03

Another Indian Summer day on the way, starting with a mostly clear sky, a bright, shiny sunrise.  It's 60º already and when I got up at 6:10, I opened up the front door to let some fresh air in.  Right now, it's 7:30 and the lake is smooth and calm, perfect for a paddle.  It' 8:00, everybody is up, drinking coffee, on their devices and talking, so I better finish up this blog.

Much of yesterday was spent getting the house and meals ready for our good friends, Vickie and Ron who were coming to spend a few days with us.  They used to teach with me at Reserve but now live on Lake Thompson, in Oxford, ME.  We have been friends with them since 1977, so we go way back. Anyways, much of the morning, for Evie, was spent making dessert for last night's dinner, Raspberry-Lemon Cream Mille-feuilles or Napoleons.  It's a time consuming dessert, using phyllo dough to layer the Napoleon. While she worked at that, I washed windows, vacuumed, and took a quick trip to Wegman's to pick up a few things as well as get more gas for my boat.  We plan on lots of cruises.  When I got home, Evie was finished with the Napoleons and they looked amazing.  And that was about it for prepping because she had put together the mushroom lasagne the day before.

We were able to relax the rest of the morning and afternoon, enjoy the dock.  I had a leftover Cuban for lunch and was able to get in my usual nap.  After lunch and a nap, we spent the rest of the afternoon waiting. Finally, Vickie and Ron arrived about 4:00 so the fun could begin.  We quickly fell back into our old ways, even though we have not seen each other for a year.  They had probably a good 11-hour drive from Maine but made it more manageable by staying Binghamton, NY Monday night and stopping in Olean for lunch before coming to the lake.

Boating

 Evie had made Vickie's favorite appetizer, Asian shrimp with mayo and lemon juice, so we packed it up, got a few beers, and went for a long cruise on the lake, just like when they used to visit us weekends during the summers in the 1980's, before they headed East to teach.  We then sat on the porch, talking and talking about the good old days, always better in retrospect.  Dinner was easy, just pop the lasagne in the oven and make a salad.  We didn't sit down to eat until it was dark.

Dinner With Ron And Vickie

Dinner was great and we sat over a bottle or two of wine, never running out of things to talk about.  We faced time with our son Tommy, who also had his birthday yesterday which was fun.  Dessert, the Napoleons, was as good as it looked.  And worth making again and again.  We stayed up until 11:00 when all of us were tired enough to go up to bed.

Napoleon Dessert

It looks like we have a great day ahead of us, a boat ride to the Chautauqua Institution late morning for a walk, another cruise over to Bemus tonight for chicken wings at the Village Casino, Vickie's one request.