Sharon's Week 19: A Hundred Bottles of Wine on the Wall

I have occasionally used song lyrics in my titles - not as prolifically as Pam has, but now and again a song has presented itself to me.  This week, because of Mother's Day (and I suppose the reason I put "motherhood" on the list), I can't get the Bohemian Rhapsody lyric, "Mama, just killed a man" out of my head.  I really didn't want that as a title so I went with a little ditty we all know and hate (which we may or may not have sung a bit on the wine tour bus), with a bit of a twist.

My photos are all from last Sunday (with the exception of one from my drive home Monday) while the thirteen El Grande 50ish were enjoying our second day of the Sip and Savor Festival in Traverse City.  We had a great driver and she worked with Cheryl, who has done this wine tour several times in the past, to plan our days to hit the most and nicest wineries on the tour.  We ended up visiting 18 of the 24 possibilities.  A few were just storefronts for the wineries but most were at the vineyards and the scenery was stunning.  There were several places that I would have been happy to sneak off the bus and into the home to see if I could be adopted.  One place however, was manned by a creepy dude and we hightailed it out of there as quickly as we could to avoid becoming pig feed.  Both days were beautifully sunny but Sunday was extremely cold and windy.  That didn't dampen our spirits; it only limited our ability to enjoy our wines outside on the beautiful properties.  We didn't make definitive plans about our next get-together but I suspect another wine tour might be in our future.

wild card

I am starting with my wild cards today just to show you how gorgeous the area was.  

I realize that I do not know the names of any of the wineries we visited.  I did keep the tasting cards when they were available but I could not for the life of me put one name to one place.  Sadly, I do not recall where this photo was taken.

Ditto this one.  I do know that this was the place that served the most amazing dessert:  some sort of chocolate, cherry, caramel creamy decadent brownie thing.  

Lastly, we have this awesome weeping willow on the shore of Lake Michigan.  I had been eyeing these gorgeous trees in bud on my drive but there was never a spot to pull over for a photo.  This winery was so scenic and I thought that the little hotel next door might be a place to visit in the future.  These three photos were taken at the three most beautiful vineyards that we visited and that's all I know.

a circle

On my way home, I stopped at the rest area just this side of the Mackinac Bridge.  In the parking lot was this trailer full of logs.  It had no truck with it and I wondered if it was confiscated due to the "no transporting firewood into the Upper Peninsula" rule.

a pop of colour

There were a few rhododendrons in bloom in the area.

starts with H

A house.  This is one of the houses where I would be happy to settle (if it was in Canada and I had enough money to live independently and it came with a maintenance man and someone took care of the vineyard for me...).

motherhood

I got lazy this week.  Heather pointed out this nest to me and it was sitting in such a cute little spot.  When I got home and looked at my photos, I decided that if I didn't come up with another idea, I would use this.  I didn't come up with another idea.  The nest was empty.  I have a few years before that happens to me.

multicoloured

Driving around, I noticed so many different colours:  all the different trees in bud, the lake (which was deep blue and teal), the green grass, the beginning of the dandelions, a few trillium on the roadsides, and on and on.  I tried to capture that with my camera but the photos didn't really show what I was trying to portray.  This photo does the best job of showing the variety of colour that I was admiring.

green

I couldn't decide between these two photos so I am including both.

That's it for this week.  Wishing my mom a very happy mother's day and I am so grateful that we will spend some time together tomorrow when you get home.