Linus and the Chocolate Factory

Yesterday was a bad day.  It was baaaaaaaad.  There was so much screaming, fighting, and back talking I thought I was going to lose my mind (I did lose my voice).  I could bore you with the details, but just know that my family is far from idyllic.  All I know is that I ate way too much ice cream to compensate last night.

Luckily, that was yesterday.  Today was a new day.  I was determined for it to be a better one.  There was no fighting on the way to swim team in the morning.  We came home, played in the driveway, finished a puzzle (it only took a week), painted pictures, and ran around the backyard.  We ate an early lunch to enable an early nap for Robin because we had big plans for the afternoon.

We picked up Grandma and headed down to Fremont to visit the Theo Chocolate Factory.  We got there a little early and so we went to watch boats along the ship canal.  It's a little known fact that Theo Chocolate offers both adult tours and a child chocolate storybook time.  We went with visions of Wonka in our head.

After the storytime/chocolate sampling, Robin refused to wear a hair net so he and I had to stay behind while the big kids and Grandma went on the factory tour.  Robin was not happy.  He eventually calmed down when we went to eat lots of free samples in the retail room while we waited. I let Linus take my phone with him so he could snap some pictures.  He actually got a couple of good shots.

It's hard to see, but the sign says Chocolate Pipeline.  I'm pretty sure Augustus Gloop would not fit through that pipe no matter how strong the suction.  I glad to see that today's candy makers have learned through Augustus' misfortune.

Milk Chocolate toffee.  Linus could not stop raving about it.

It was interesting to see the factory from Linus' perspective.  I thought I would end up with 100 blurry and boring shots, but he surprised me.

From the storytime alone I learned quite a bit about where chocolate comes from and have a new appreciation for sustainable production and the price that goes with it.

Despite having sampled a lot of chocolate, we were all in need of some cool relief.  I decided to use it as an excuse to hit up the Molly Moon's in Wallingford.  With any luck, this summer we will hit all the good ice cream places.  There is a sweet little park-let out front.  It was the perfect way to cap off the afternoon.

I kind of love Eileen's chocolate goatee action.

Sometimes you have to follow a very bad day with a good day.