“He’s a Music Man” and that was the premise that brought half of the family up to Crystal Mountain for a get-away.  The Louisville clan’s twin children were both accepted to Interlochen Center for the Arts summer theatrical camp and the play that they were performing in for the 91’st Season was Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man.  I am sure that some of the students may have been disappointed with the selection of the play, as they have been brought up to appreciate funereal dirges that are the vogue for most Broadway productions, and yes that is my commentary.  I feel that the Fifties and the Sixties may have been the last Broadway musical productions that showed a wide range of music genres and had the ability to have the audience leaving the theater pumped up and singing show tunes.

It was a change of pace for my Bride and I to be in a group setting like we were.  I also felt like we were the Well’s Fargo man when we delivered tons of food up to the vacation home.  I felt sorry for my Bride, in one sense, because she took on the role of Mother Hen for her sister’s and family, making sure that everyone ate, as properly as we could enforce that concept.  My Bride and her one sister were the cooks for the week and her one sister can be very fancy in her approach to the culinary arts.  It did seem odd not to be choosing venues for dinner every night, but I have just always felt that my Bride is on vacation as well, and to me, that means away from the kitchen, but all in all it did work out well.

The third family did contribute to the food and beverage selection for the week, and it would be wrong of me to imply anything else.  It is just that the wine especially was a wine fest between the two brothers-in-law and trying to find some interesting wines for the week.  We were joking that even with me taking back a case of empty wine bottles, because I wanted to save the labels, there were still by the time the week was over, a couple of cases of empty bottles to throw out in the trash.  The good thing was that Crystal Mountain is known as a ski resort, so I am sure that the refuse collectors have seen their share of empty bottles, and at least our festivities were on the quieter side.  The last wine that I will discuss was a new one for the Louisville clan and a relatively new one for us, as we had bought this wine, with the intention of having it with them.  The Korbin Kameron Rosé Moon Mountain 2017 made by Moonridge Vineyards was a delightful wine.  Here was a Rosé wine that was made from Merlot grapes and from what I could gather the wine was made, because they were not sure about the grapes that had survived the major fire of that year.  Moon Mountain AVA was just granted in 2013 and it is a relatively new designation for Sonoma County.  The area is known for the iron rich volcanic soil and an elevation that is above the Sonoma Fog, so it has a warmer and a longer growing period compared to the areas lower down the slope; I also feel that this designation will see more play in the years to come.   A beautiful hued glass of wine with a freshness of fruit to the nose and taste of pomegranates to me, and this wine totally belied that it was Merlot, and I am a major Merlot fan, but then I have always been loyal to my old friends.  I will venture to go out on an easy limb and claim that this wine had a short aging period in Stainless Steel and there were one-hundred-fifteen cases of wine produced.  I think that they were surprised about this wine, but it was fun as we tried to find some special wines.  As for Professor Harold Hill, I am just glad that there is no “think method” for wine production.,