Kezar Lake Weekend

I spent much of this weekend, sitting in a red Adirondack chair, book in hand, looking at this view. The book is the excellent On Kingdom Mountain by Howard Frank Mosher, a whopping good story, with a whoppingly wonderful heroine, Miss Jane Kinneson, or the Duchess, as she's known by some. It was a perfect beach book and a better choice for a beach with a view of the White Mountains.

When not enjoying this view, we ventured up into the White Mountain National Forest via Rt. 113. Fortunately for us, the road had washed out a few weeks ago during a thunderstorm. The Ranger turned us around, but he was kind enough to point us to Deer Hill Road and told us about a wildlife viewing station on the road. He said if we were lucky, we might spot a moose. At first, it was just this little guy at left, busily moving grasses into his dam. Just as we were about to leave, we spotted momma moose and her baby heading into the bog from the tree line. We watched them graze for about 45 minutes.
Afterwards, we drove back toward Bethel and Sweden and discovered Sally's diner, where we had an excellent corn chowder for lunch.

Dessert was blueberry pie. When we asked if the blueberries were fresh, we were told "the kids picked 'em yesterday in the clearing right across the road." We took the last two pieces to go and then shared them with the golfers when they returned to the camp. It was excellent.

On Saturday morning, I spent the better part of an hour on the screened in porch, looking at Kezar (rhymes with geezer) Lake, listening to the loons and watching hummingbirds, not more than two feet away, fight for a perch at the feeder. They were completely unafraid of me. They were also very loud and quite cantankerous, knocking each other off the feeder, giving each other the whatfor and chasing the interlopers into the brambles.

On Saturday night, we went to Ebenezer Kezer's Pub--a restaurant whose beer list I'd put up against any in all of Maine. I had a terrific Reuben sandwich and fries (watching my weight again) and found the best beer that I've ever tasted, Delirium Tremens. It's a light Belgian beer and as good as anything you'll find in any German beer hall (sorry, oma, but it really is).

Sitting next to us was a family of five. The oldest daughter never spoke during dinner, nor did she put her book down. She was half way through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and when asked admitted that she intended to finish it before she slept.

When we arrived home on Sunday afternoon, my copy of Harry Potter, compliments of Amazon.com was waiting. After I'd finished the entire Sunday NYTimes and a perfectly mixed bloody mary on the back deck, it was a perfect finish to a wonderful weekend.