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edenfallingToday Dad and I took Ardis out for breakfast at Perkins, which was so filling that we didn't start looking for lunch until roughly 3:00pm. Then we drove up from the Twin Cities to Cass Lake -- or, more accurately, Dad drove and I continued to catch up on lost sleep. (I can never sleep worth a damn the night before a trip.)
We met Vicky at the marina at 1:15pm, and instead of going straight out to the island, we drove off to Forestedge Winery, a very cool local place that makes wines out of fruits and vegetables that can survive Minnesota winters. (This automatically rules out grapes.) We were pleasantly surprised. Their wines are very dry, in contrast to many fruit wines, and their red wine equivalents lack the tannin bite that I dislike about most grape wine reds. Also, their rhubarb wine would stack up excellently against a spicy semi-dry Riesling.
I did not like their raspberry or strawberry wines, nor the raspberry-rhubarb or strawberry-rhubarb blends, but I think that's just a matter of personal taste. Something about the lack of sugar makes the fruit flavors 'feel' very wrong in my mouth. (Also, I just don't like raspberry juice in general, and making it alcoholic doesn't help matters.)
I ended up buying two bottles of rhubarb wine for myself; Vicky bought two bottles of chokecherry wine for herself; Dad bought an apple wine, a blueberry wine, and a rhubarb wine; and we bought a black currant wine and a cranberry wine for general use over the rest of the week. We may go back to that area this weekend, since there will be a big arts and crafts festival.
Once we got to the island, Vicky decided that today was the day to learn to sail. So we all got into swimsuits and began the complicated process of getting my aunt's sailboat ready for use. We were unable to raise the mainsail all the way -- the sheet was sticking -- and we decided not to bother with the jib for a first lesson -- but we sailed out a bit, tacked a few times, and then came back in on account of irregular wind. Unfortunately, when we tried to take everything back down, the sheet really got stuck, so if we want to sail again, we'll probably have to dismast the blasted boat and go at the top of the mast with some WD-40 or an equivalent thereof. :-(
Finally, we went out for dinner at the Canal House Restaurant over at Stony Point -- good, solid food, albeit nothing particularly inspiring. We nearly got stuck coming back out of the canal, and made the unpleasant discovery that someone had taken the emergency oar out of the boat, but we recovered and made it safely home.
And now I am off to have dessert. :-)
We met Vicky at the marina at 1:15pm, and instead of going straight out to the island, we drove off to Forestedge Winery, a very cool local place that makes wines out of fruits and vegetables that can survive Minnesota winters. (This automatically rules out grapes.) We were pleasantly surprised. Their wines are very dry, in contrast to many fruit wines, and their red wine equivalents lack the tannin bite that I dislike about most grape wine reds. Also, their rhubarb wine would stack up excellently against a spicy semi-dry Riesling.
I did not like their raspberry or strawberry wines, nor the raspberry-rhubarb or strawberry-rhubarb blends, but I think that's just a matter of personal taste. Something about the lack of sugar makes the fruit flavors 'feel' very wrong in my mouth. (Also, I just don't like raspberry juice in general, and making it alcoholic doesn't help matters.)
I ended up buying two bottles of rhubarb wine for myself; Vicky bought two bottles of chokecherry wine for herself; Dad bought an apple wine, a blueberry wine, and a rhubarb wine; and we bought a black currant wine and a cranberry wine for general use over the rest of the week. We may go back to that area this weekend, since there will be a big arts and crafts festival.
Once we got to the island, Vicky decided that today was the day to learn to sail. So we all got into swimsuits and began the complicated process of getting my aunt's sailboat ready for use. We were unable to raise the mainsail all the way -- the sheet was sticking -- and we decided not to bother with the jib for a first lesson -- but we sailed out a bit, tacked a few times, and then came back in on account of irregular wind. Unfortunately, when we tried to take everything back down, the sheet really got stuck, so if we want to sail again, we'll probably have to dismast the blasted boat and go at the top of the mast with some WD-40 or an equivalent thereof. :-(
Finally, we went out for dinner at the Canal House Restaurant over at Stony Point -- good, solid food, albeit nothing particularly inspiring. We nearly got stuck coming back out of the canal, and made the unpleasant discovery that someone had taken the emergency oar out of the boat, but we recovered and made it safely home.
And now I am off to have dessert. :-)
