BOSTON - On Monday, the traditional start of the general election campaign, President Obama rallied a crowd of thousands in Toledo, Ohio. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. drummed up support in Detroit. And Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, spoke to an overflow audience in North Carolina, the state where the Democrats were set to open their national convention this week.
But Mitt Romney lay low at his summer vacation home.
Mr. Romney, who spent the two days after his party's convention last week campaigning in front of large and enthusiastic crowds in Florida and Ohio, hit the waters of New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee with his wife, Ann, on Monday. He cap tained a boat; she rode a Sea-Doo water scooter.
The only sighting of Mr. Romney on Monday was when he stopped by a marina in Wolfeboro, N.H., to pick up a Sea-Doo that had been serviced.
It was his second day in a row off the campaign trail. On Sunday, he attended church services in Wolfeboro but made no other public appearances.
Mr. Romney was surely working while at home, and his campaign said he would attend debate preparation sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday in Vermont, where he and senior campaign advisers planned to gather at the home of Kerry Healey, a former Massachusetts lieutenant governor.
It seems unlikely that Mr. Romney will cede the entire week of the Democratic National Convention to Mr. Obama. His advisers have indicated that they are planning some campaign activity this week, though they have declined to provide specifics.
At times over the summer, Mr. Romney's schedule has been rather light, making time for a weeklong family vacation and plenty of closed-door meetings with senior advisers.
According to a pool report provided to other news organizations on Monday, Mr. Romney, wearing a white polo shirt, checkered swim trunks and no shoes, stopped to chat with an NBC News reporter who was renting a boat. “You won't catch me,†Mr. Romney said playfully.
And with that, Mr. Romney drove off in his boat. And Mrs. Romney drove off on the Sea-Doo.
