On our last night on Mackinac Island, we misjudged traveling time (walking) and got to the Island House Hotel early.   I guess it is better to be early than late.  The restaurant was still in the midst of final preparations, but the bar was open, so we decided to have a drink, you know those things happen.  As we were looking over the wine list, I get a text from Ms. Yoga wishing me a Happy Birthday, even though it was early and asking where we were on the island.  I texted her back and that got me remembering a business affair that the three of us attended maybe twenty years earlier at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa in Acme (just think of Traverse City).  I was there as a spouse, imagine that, and I was issued a folder with my name on it, that included voucher tickets for the assorted meals that I would be attending, while all of the attendees received drink vouchers as well, spouses did not.  Well I was kind of brash that evening and I walked up to one of the main hosts and just mentioned that my folder did not have any drink vouchers, and lo and behold, he gave me a stream of drink tickets as if I had one a major award at Chuck E. Cheese.  I guess there were a lot of unallocated tickets and I became a lucky recipient.  As we were wandering around there was a station that was only making Hummers.  Now, you may not know what a Hummer is, but it has been a mainstay, off and on, for almost fifty years, since it was created at the Bayview Yacht Club in the Detroit area.  The Hummer is made of Kahlua, Rum and Vanilla Ice Cream; an adult milk shake.  Tradition is that the first drinkers of this new cocktail ended up humming the rest of the night.  I had so many tickets that it felt like I was buying the house a round.  The drinks can be lethal, and it was for Ms. Yoga, but not for the reason that you think, it turns out that she had a reaction to the ice cream and has stayed away from dairy drinks, since that evening.  The things I remember. 

Well any ways, while I was texting a return message, my Bride jumped ahead of me at the bar and ordered a cocktail, a Negroni, she has been on a Negroni roll lately and she really feels chic about it.  Well I was in the midst of cooling down from our walk over from our hotel and I was a bit over heated as I had a sport coat on, I still like to dress as if we were back in the days of resort wear.  I remembered that on one of our walks in Carmel-by-the-Sea we had walked down from the city to see Clint Eastwood’s ranch on the ocean and by the time we had walked back, I was hot, over heated and thirsty and we stopped in a bistro bar once we got back to civilization and the bartender there suggested an Italian Moscato.  I looked at the wine carte and they had Voga Moscato NV by the glass.  Voga Moscato is from the Pavia region in Northern Italy and carries a Moscato IGP designation.  As typical of all Voga wines the bottle is more of a cylinder instead of the classic wine bottle shape and the wine was rather delicate and not super sweet and what the Italians call frizzante, slight effervescent.  My Bride looked at me, as if I had created a mortal sin, but I told her that I wanted to try the wine, in case we can find something nice for the family that wants a sweeter wine and I have no objections to this wine, as I found it to be rather refreshing. 

After our dinner, they brought over a platter showcasing the desserts of the evening and they told us that Ms. Yoga had paid for our desserts.  We tried to cancel that order, but it was too late.  We were rather full after the dinner, but we were staring dessert dead in the eye and then my eye had a little twinkle and we ordered a Hummer as a fitting tribute to the long friendship between my Bride and Ms. Yoga, and I kind of fit in somewhere in the middle.  “Here’s looking at you kid.”