There we were up at Crystal Mountain this beautiful all-season resort.  I was up there as a guest while my Bride had the luxury of working.  We started the day off with a big breakfast, where there was not only a buffet of choices, but a custom omelet station as well.  While she was working in the morning I got a chance to try to catch up on Social Media and I also got a chance to walk some of the grounds and enjoy the idyllic setting.  We met up for lunch for another buffet style arrangement and originally, we thought we would take a couple hours and visit some wineries and maybe do some shopping.  With the advent of “smart phones” and computers, our plans did not make it passed the planning stages, as she had to take care of business, even in this setting, but the suite was more than adequate to get the job done.  Though while we were there we did take advantage of going up one of the ski lifts that was operating to get to the top of grounds, which was much better than attempting to try to hike up.  In the photo I took with my phone, one can see part of the main lodge and parts of some of the other facilities, but it is only a small part of what is there, especially for the families that came.  At the top of the grounds there was a musician who was giving a concert while we were there, but I am sure that plenty of the audience had no idea who Harry Chapin was, or if they even really listened to the words of that troubadour.

Everyone met up again for dinner, some were fortunate to do some sight-seeing and I think some even played some golf, while my Bride was busy on the computer and the phone.  The dinner was set up in another even larger pavilion style tent in another location on the grounds, and I noticed that there were a couple of other groups that had tents for their enjoyment as well.  That night for dinner there was another table of appetizers with a large spread of choices.  They had also set up two duplicate tables of dining choices in a buffet style, to keep the lines down to a minimum.  The tables were offering salads, vegetables and assorted starches (as my Bride calls them) and then there was some chaffing dishes filled with salmon, chicken and strip steaks.  There was also another large sweet table full of tempting desserts.  One thing is for certain at these retreats, no one leaves hungry.

We started of with the same white wines that we enjoyed the night before at the Cocktail Reception, which did help with the heat of the day.   The weather was even cooperating, because everyone’s phone and all of the bureaus were calling for rain and or thunderstorms.  I must say that the big man for the event, graciously accepted praise for his controls on the weather as he was telling everyone with a twinkle in his eye.  With the emphasis on the meat, we switched over and had red wine with our dinner.  We were drinking Tom Gore Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 with a California AVA.  While Tom Gore is a second-generation Sonoma winemaker, the fruit for this wine came from the Central Coast and the North Coast vineyards.  The wine was actually ninety percent Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance was a blend of Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Petite Sirah.  The wine was also not your typical California Cabernet as it had aged for sixteen months in a mix of French and American Oak, so it was not a wine that was made quickly and expeditiously.  It was a very nice wine to have with dinner and afterwards, just to relax.  While I went back to the suite to make my notes, my Bride finally had a chance to have a little fun, as she with some others, always make it a point to play Euchre after the dinner, and I might add that she may have been the one that initially instigated this time-honored tradition.