Sunny Saturday On The Lake

Hitting The Stockton Hotel Bar With Our Friends and Neighbors, Barb and Jim

6:41

7:14

It's 7:31 and the sun is blazing, its reflection on the lake darting towards our front windows, making it difficult to sit in the front room.  It's 56º and little traffic litters the lake this morning, no bass boats, no kayaks yet.  It looks like another perfect day for late summer.  I am listening to a Bill Simmons podcast with Beto O'Roarke as he discusses what it is like to be on the debate stage, to run for President.  Sorry but I still really like him and wish he had a chance.  It's 9:30 and I had a long paddle, over an hour, listening to the Beatles Blue Album.  How innocent and sweet, even tame they sound compared to the misogynistic, sexually explicit rap music of the 1990s.

Kayak Morning In Blue

Duck Huddle

Kingfisher

Yesterday morning was a loss for me other than an early morning paddle.  I skipped yoga because we were meeting with Nan, our financial advisor who drove to our house from Cleveland.  She arrived bearing two baskets of vegetables which she picked up at a stand in Findley Lake.  It looks like we should be fine financially for the next couple of years until Drumpt does something crazy, always a possibility. She left about 11:30 and was going to stop at Presque Isle for a bike ride, mixing work with pleasure.  Evie had made scones in the morning, so my lunch was an omelet with scones, topped with jam.  They were easy to make and delicious and we were wondering why she had not made them more often.  She froze the leftovers so we can pull them out any morning for a snack.

The afternoon could not have been nicer nor the day.  We feel very fortunate to live on Chautauqua Lake.  After the scones, Evie spent most of the afternoon just enjoying the sun, in the side yard and on the dock, finally jumping in the lake to cool off, a surprisingly warm lake at this time of the year.  I joined her briefly but soon became bored and restless, guilty because I did not feel like going for a bike ride.  So I napped and read and walked around the neighborhood with a hangdog look.

It changed, however, when we talked with our neighbors, Barb and Jim and decided to go out for dinner with them.  We picked them up at 5:00 and drove to The Big Inlet beer for a taste of the beer made with the hops we picked three weeks ago. 

Enjoying Microbrews At The Big Inlet With Jack, The Hop Man

It was, unfortunately, not my kind of beer,  so I ordered something less hoppy and we enjoyed talking with Jack, the hop guy, and his family.  We left after an hour and drove east to the Stockton Hotel for dinner.  It was crowded but we were lucky to find four seats at the bar and all four of us love sitting at a bar so we were happy.  We quickly ordered drafts, looked at the menu and then all of us ordered the Friday Night Fish Fry with fries and coleslaw.  The fish was nicely battered and fried, the fries up to Evie's standards but not the slaw, a bit tasteless. 

We drove home in the dark on backroads still somewhat busy with traffic.  I guess the weekenders are back.  We had enough time when we returned home to watch the penultimate episode of the Netflix series Unbelievable and saved the last episode for either tonight or tomorrow.