"Mini Winery Tour......"

On Thursday morning of our vacation, I drove Don into town to Henderson's Imports Ltd (http://www.hendersongroupltd.com/) to shop for some "Scottish attire".  It isn't like walking into a big box store, trying something on, and walking out with it.  No, he had to be measured and an order placed for his kilt and jacket.  He had 2 choices for his families tartan, the older plaid or the newer one, plus in those 2 choices were a few others as well.  The weight of the cloth, which color in the tartan to have prominent in the pleats, the length of the kilt, and probably more that I can't remember.  After finalizing the decisions for the kilt, then a jacket needed to be chosen......yep, more choices to make. Formal versus casual, then type of cut/style, etc.  ;)  Accessories needed to be considered, too, so ties, socks, shoes, belt and buckle, hat, and a sporran chosen.  Whew!  Quite the experience!  Quite an enjoyable experience really.  He won't have his kilt for a number of months yet (the cloth isn't even woven), but when everything arrives, I'll make sure we have a fashion show and I take numerous photos to share.  See what interesting things you have to look forward to?  ;)

Back to the present.  Don and I arrived back at the house on Mickey Lake and Claire was ready to go exploring.  She'd had a relaxing morning and was up for anything we suggested, which was a mini wine tour.  The Traverse City area is home to many, many wineries on both Leelaunau Peninsula and Old Mission Peninsula.  May is considered "pre-tourist season", so hours of operation are shorter, especially on a weekday.  We decided to drive up Old Mission Peninsula, stopping at Black Star Farms Winery (http://www.blackstarfarms.com/winery/....they are located on both peninsulas) first.

The tasting room was very nice and we, along with 2 other people, were the only "tasters" on the premises.  "If" I remember correctly, $5 bought us "tastes" of 5 wines of our choice. EVERY wine they bottle is available to taste and the list is VERY extensive!  The sheet I am holding shows side 1 filled with choices and side 2 is full as well.  Decisions, decisions........we managed somehow and narrowed our "likes" list down to a few which we purchased.

We were quite surprised when we were ready to leave, to find our glasses bagged and leaving with us!  A nice touch to the wine tasting experience, don't you think?  They came in quite handy at last Friday's Happy Hour.   ;)

Our next stop was at the Peninsula Cellars tasting room, seen here behind us, located in an old school house further up Old Mission Peninsula.

Yes, we managed to find wines we liked here, too, and bought a couple to bring back to WI with us.

We called it a day after that and headed back to Mickey Lake for the evening, stopping along the way to pick up a few snacks to munch on later.  I'd forgotten to mention we'd had a late lunch prior to the winery tour and didn't feel we wanted (OR NEEDED!) to eat a "real dinner".  :)

Back home, we brought out the box of old photos from Sean to the deck and proceeded to look through them.  We had a wonderful time filled with "Look at this one", "Oh....my......goodness", or "When was this taken?".

Tomorrow.......our last day of vacation with kids.