My Bride promised her mother to keep the family together, her mother was the last of eleven siblings, and I and a few others felt that it meant the immediate family, but she likes to push the envelope, I guess. She contacted all of her first cousins, and got about ninety responses, so she created a party.  Most of her relatives live on the east side of Detroit, so she and a sister that lives in a far north-eastern suburb got up one morning and stood in line at a municipal city hall to put a deposit, on an enclosed hall, plus a nearby pavilion that had a large barbecue grill adjacent.  The grounds were perfect, clean, and offered a water park, and children’s park, a small walkway out onto Lake Saint Claire and plenty of parking with a guardhouse.  She went and had t-shirts, visors, and signs printed for the event. 

That morning, we were up at six in the morning to pack up the car, I was thinking that we should have rented a truck, but the car and the springs held up.  We took a portable refrigerator, a big chest, chaffing plates, a roaster, kitchen stuff, first aid kit, outside armchairs, two hams, and Armenian pilaf.  The park was about an hour away for us and she wanted to be there at nine, when they opened to make sure that she had both buildings and we also covered all the picnic tables in the morning as we set up signs.  She even bought a collapsable wagon to make it easier to carry stuff from the parking lot to the building. Here other big endeavor was that she made a video to explain to the younger first cousins and all the children, how everyone was related by family and then the ensuing families with names.  She bought a brand new “smart television monitor” that would accept a thumb drive with the video that played continuously on a loop.  Another sister brought a family tree and a cousin brought copies of census reports.  She also coordinated with everyone else regarding food, so that no one was hungry.  Unfortunately, with all of the coming and goings there was no group photo taken, and she had brought her fancy camera with panoramic potentials, and I think everyone was photographed, but her.

The park would not allow glass bottles, at first, we thought that they did not allow adult beverages, but it was only the glass that was not allowed.  So, we rinsed out two 2litre plastic Pepsi bottles and filled them with wine. We filled one with two bottles of Broadway Vineyards Keanu Chardonnay Los Carneros Sonoma 2019. In 2002 a prime property was found just 2 miles south from the Historic Square in downtown Sonoma and purchased by Jim and Marilyn Hybiske. Six of their wine loving friends joined forces to develop a small vineyard and produce exceptional Sonoma County wines exclusively for their family and friends. Work was begun on the vineyard in the spring of 2004 and in 2006 the first harvest produced very promising fruit and Broadway Vineyards began to thrive. The wine is pure Chardonnay, using Dijon clones.  A nice soft gold color wine that offers notes of white fruit, hay, pine, jasmine, and lilies.  On the palate tones of pear, apricot, pineapple, and vanilla with good acidity and a nice finish of pear and banana.  The second bottle was filled with Famille Quiot Domaine Houchart Cotes de Provence Rosé 2023.  Famille Quiot is a wine producer with numerous estates in southern France.  They have been making wine since 1748, starting in Vaucluse in Chateauneuf-du-Pape at Domaine du Vieux Lazaret. In 1890, they acquired the sixty-hectare estate of Domaine Houchart near Aix-en-Provence.  The family estate has its roots and was farmed during the Roman era, and is located in the plain between Sainte Victoire and Aurelien mountains, and has its own climate.  The land is clay and limestone soils, from the decomposition of the scree from the surrounding mountains.  The wine is a blend of Cinsault, Grenache Noir, Syrah, and Tibouren; with the average age of the vines being thirty-five-years.  The fruit is harvested in September, with direct pressing for most of the varieties, with vatting for almost two weeks in I surmise Stainless-Steel to maintain freshness; the wines are bottled in December.  This salmon-pink colored wine offers notes of citrus and strawberries.  On the palate the wine offers tones of red currants, watermelon, with great acidity and ending with a nice medium count finish of fruit and terroir.  Of course, my Bride wanted a photo of me, totally casual and drinking from a plastic cup, but I decided against it, as it has been done before.