Paw-a-Palooza at Lake George, Hobart

Today was supposed to be a family-friendly, dog-centric festival at Lake George in Hobart, the Paw-a-Palooza.  I got to town early to get good parking (even discovered an Old Settler's Cemetery along the way with graves from as far back as 1813) and walked over with Zeke to the Lakefront Gazebo, but there was no sign of any festival.  There was ample parking, too.  Had it been canceled because of rain, and the Facebook page never updated?  I was so looking forward to watching police dogs show off their training.  A local dog-training facility would have gotten all proceeds from today. 

I walked around the lakewalk, over the dam, while waiting for Erin and the boys to arrive.  At least I got a mile in today.  When she and Nick arrived and I told her the news, we stayed a bit at a playground by the gazebo to let the boys play.  A cop on an ATV came by, parked, and watched us.  That made me nervous, thinking that dogs were not allowed on the playground.  I kept Zeke tied to the bench so that he wouldn't touch the sand.  He said we were doing nothing wrong.  Perhaps the cop was watching someone else and was making the young man he was really interested unaware of the surveillance.

We had lunch at the Hobart Dairy Queen and then drove to Nick's parents house in Westville where I spend the day until early evening, watching the boys dive in the pool (too cold for me today!) I don't like coming uninvited, but Erin said I'm always welcome here.  Zeke got to meet Nick's aging Great Dane, Doctor, who at 12 is already beyond the average age for a Great Dane.  He moves slowly and sits on his pillow most of the time, and drools from the side of the mouth.  He's mostly ignored now by Nick.  Doctor is living at Nick's parents' house until he passes on.   

I left at 7pm to get back to Carol's before dark.  The rain that was forecasted for earlier today finally arrived on my drive back to Crown Point, bursting the sky open as I was on US30.  At one point it looked very serious.  I pulled over to wait out the rain and resumed my drive when it calmed down some. I love watching storm clouds, but prefer to be safely in a house during a storm and not in a car on a highway.

While I enjoyed the time with the kids in Westville, today's highlight was an interesting visit at the Cognito Brewery off Louisiana Place.  It's the only brewery on the South Shore Brewery trail that is black-business owned.  It's located in an industrial park west of the big Mall. I got to meet the owner and brewer Dwayne Williams, who is a degreed city planner.  I got to the brewery at 8pm with the intent of trying some beer and ended up staying for over 90 minutes just chatting with him about non-beer stuff.  What an interesting man!  He clearly loves brewing Belgian beers and is proud of the aroma.  He's the only brewer I've met who focuses on the beer's aroma, giving me samples by first waving his hand over the snifter to bring out any scent.  I had two beers to make his time worthwhile.

Belgian beers are known to be strong, but I did like his blueberry-tainted ale.  I sat at the counter with Zeke by my side.  I was the only customer by 9pm and Dwayne started talking about relationships.  He asked me a few questions about my marriage, asking me why Kevin wasn't with me and I answered honestly.  Kevin can't take off work like I can.  By the time I left his place, it was after 9pm and he turned off the lights as soon as I left the building.