Monday 12th September 2011

[09:10]

It's our 19th Anniversary today. To celebrate we ordered breakfast in our room. Quite a nice spread and it tasted very nice.

I had enough time to check back at work to see how the live release had gone. Good going guys!

We're planning to drive a few miles down the road to a nearby port where there is a boat that does trips around the lake. It should be nice as the temperature is expected to be in the high 70's (26'C). In fact, tomorrow is being reported as 'record highs' for the area.

[21:23]

Well, the predicted temperatures were accurate. It was another glorious day with constant blue sky right into the evening. Right now, the moon is out in another clear night.

We spent the main part of the day out on Lake Winnipesaukee sailing around on one of the tour boats that leaves from a nearby port. The trip lasted a couple of hours. The views were amazing.

Our captain was a local who has sailed these lakes for many years - he had all the stories of the area. The ship is also used as the local post ship - during the summer, they stop off at each island on the lake and deliver the post. We caught sight of one of the post offices he has to deliver to.

Whilst we were listening to the commentary, the captain mentioned a place to visit, a 'castle in the clouds'. This got me interested, so once we made it back to port, we looked it up on the sat nav and it was only 30 minutes away. So we headed over there, slowly climbing into the hills surrounding the lake.

We arrived at the 'castle', it's more like a stately home that was built in the early 1900s by a wealthy man.

He had lots of additions made to the house, including modern showers, an intercom system, built in refrigerator even a secret room! The place is pretty large, but most of all, it sits high up on the side of an extinct volcano. To say it has an incredible view would be an understatement! I've added a panoramic at a larger size to try and show you what this guy saw every day...

Absolutely breathtaking. And what's more, most of what this guy could see, he owned, including a couple of miles of lake front properties. Ironically, the owner, Thomas Gustave Plant, died penniless after losing most of his cash in the Stock market crash and, oddly, the Russian revolution of all things. The place is now in trust and slowly being restored to its original glory.

Imagine seeing this out of your bedroom window every morning!

This evening we went out to a local restaurant for an anniversary steak meal.