What I Learned on My Summer Vacation

I just got back from a great week at Lake George with my family (parents, siblings, everyone's kids).  Blogging suffered a bit, and I didn't get a chance to post regularly about how sad I felt for Pakistan as it was grappling with accusations it is playing a double game in Afghanistan.  So, what did I learn, instead?

• Steering a powerboat around a big lake is pretty easy, except for two things: pushing various buttons upset the settings; and docking is really hard, especially when the wind comes up.  
• People have different styles of dragging kids behind their boat on tubes--I tried not to blast the kids off of the raft, but others seemed to have that as their objective.
• As always, getting 12-15 Saidemans to a restaurant is like herding cats.  I find myself trying to present faits accompli and perhaps even promoting some separatism (taking the teens to the roller coaster at the amusement park, leaving my parents and the youngest kid in the dust).
• Frangelico with Bailey's, I knew, is a great drink, but with coffee is terrific as well.
• The best service ended up being on main strip in town at the cheap but very good pizza place, and not at the more expensive places.
• My instinct to always order the sampler of beers at a brew pub was proven to be the right one.  
• When the hotel answers the question "which place has the best pizza in town?" with "we do!", the next question should be: "who has the second best pizza?"
• When you find an incredible breakfast place with terrific fresh-baked doughnuts, go back again and again.  We only went once.  
• Missing the right place to turn is no big deal when the scenery is so good.  
• Lee Child writes some very good thrillers, and gets in the way of reading chapters from my grad students.
• Really enjoyed teaching the next generation of Saidemans how to throw a forehand so that they can some day become ultimate players.  The youngest picked it up the fastest.