EAST MADISON, N.H. -- When we arrived for a couple of days of rest and relaxation in mid-July, the big news around Purity Lake was that the loons had just hatched.
We were barely settled into lounge chairs on the grassy shore when a couple of guests filled us in and offered advice on the best spots and times of day to search out the proud parents and their chicks.
Though we had no trouble booking a room, we soon realized that the loons weren't the only repeat visitors at Purity Spring. Families return year after year, booking the same room for the same week. Parents bond with other parents as they watch their children grow from toddlers wearing water wings to adolescents flirting with their summer pals.
The family orientation seems only natural for a property that has been in the same hands for four generations. In the late 19th century, Edward Hoyt built a country inn, sawmill, and bottling facility on 150-acre Purity Lake, one of the slender, finger-like glacial lakes just east of the White Mountains.
''A summer vacation is not a luxury," Hoyt wrote. ''It is an insurance against a breakdown next winter or in the near future."
The Mill is now a fitness center with pool and hot tub, and the spring house is a cozy massage parlor, but Hoyt's descendants carry on his vision of a low-key vacation at the lake that all family members can enjoy.
Lodgings are spread among several buildings along the shore, across the street, and climbing into low hills toward King Pine Ski Area, the family's winter operation. Our room was on the top floor of Millbrook Lodge, the early-1800s family home that now serves as the office with guest rooms upstairs.
We entered into a long narrow room with a queen bed and small couch that opened into a single bed, along with a low dresser, small desk, and wall-mounted TV. A doorway led into a smaller room with bunk beds and a compact cooking area with sink, refrigerator, and microwave. The small back deck looked out over the tennis courts. Windows opposite the bed offered a view of the lake across the street.
The schedule of activities (some at extra charge) includes guided hikes, kayak excursions, and mountain bike tours, along with archery, water-skiing, and softball. There are karaoke nights, arts and crafts projects for children, and ''tie-dye your own T-shirt," which is popular with children and adults. (Day care for children up to age 6 is offered for a few hours on most days.)
There's plenty to do, but it's also perfectly acceptable to do almost nothing. We hiked through the piney woods and checked out three of the resort's four beaches. We took out kayaks to explore the shallow coves dense with waterlilies. Late one evening, we circled one lobe of the lake in a rowboat, serenaded by croaking bullfrogs. Early one morning, we spotted the male loon diving for fish on the lake, but we never spied the mother and chicks.
Mostly, we followed the example of one of the resort regulars.
''I keep track of the day by what beach I'm on and which meal is next," he told us.
During the summer, most guests are on the ''American plan" of three meals a day, served at assigned tables in the dining room. Condo units with kitchens do not include meals. In foliage season, dining switches to ''modified American plan" (no lunch).
Tables are often pushed together to accommodate multigenerational gatherings. Our closest dining companions included a family of four from England and a spry older woman who has been coming here for more than 40 years.
The fare tends toward simple, hearty food, with enough choices to satisfy all members of the family: eggs, French toast, and Belgian waffles for breakfast; hamburgers, club sandwiches, clam rolls, and a vegetarian hummus wrap for lunch. Dinner choices range from baked stuffed jumbo shrimp or roast turkey with gravy to marinated steak tips or pasta with meatballs.
Guests seem to eagerly anticipate the desserts, which might include peanut butter chocolate chip cheesecake, banana cream pie, German chocolate cake, or lemon meringue pie. (There was red Jell-O on the menu, but we never saw anyone order it.)
''You won't be hungry by the next meal," one woman told us. ''But we all eat again anyway."
Patricia Harris and David Lyon are freelance writers in Cambridge. 
