LIKE SOME CHEESE WITH THAT WHINE??

It's official. We have been led astray by the the velvet voiced Karen from Australia and Jill from the good old U S of A. All over the "little" peninsulas due north of Traverse City. Did you know they make WINE up there? Right, we didn't either : ). But Karen our traveling vixen knew and led us to one improbable bucolic setting after another, where we discovered, much to our amazement, that Michigan grows grapes!!! And, and, and, we make nectar from these grapes!!!!

Ooh Ooh just one little taste. I promise I won't buy anymore unless it's something very extraordinary and different. Wrong. Bought from every one. And I am happy. No wait, did not buy at Shady Lane Cellars located in the "spectacular, refurbished cobblestone chicken coop". No doubt the ordure overwhelmed the odor. Did buy a totally appropriate tee shirt proclaiming WINE GODDESS for myself. Slightly less pretentious than the WINE SNOB shirt I contemplated but it just did not fit the boy.

BEL LAGO, BLACK STAR, CHATEAU de LEELANAU, CHATEAU FONTAINE,LEELANAU CELLARS and Gill's Pier & Delicatessen. Don't the names just roll off the tongue? And trust me a little taste (or six or seven) at each delectable stop did not dull this sharp tongued connoisseur (or common sewer) of the grape. I shrewdly swirled, tasted, rolled, spat (swallowed often) and chose with discrimination and class. Price was no object or at least was not objectionable. My designated driver gave up midway through the adventure forcing me to offer him tiny tastes of some wines that were "just too exciting to not try just a little". Or just taking his tastes for him. I am not high, just very happy and charming and possibly more witty than I remember.

As for Jill or Karen or Eleanor, she travels with both Burt or myself as a constant reminder of roads less traveled or newly traveled. Of the sheer lunacy of trying to read a map upside down or sideways and still getting it wrong. She gently, yet insistently reminds us of the next turn and, when we run astray, calmly proclaims "Reconfiguring" sending us in a subtle but gentle loop and putting us back on track. No recriminations, just a clear-eyed guide to the proper path. Rather an analogy for life I think. Thank goodness for the military putting all those little "spies in the sky" to help us locate ourselves.