Blazing a Chocolate Trail

Today was the BEST day! If you are wondering what the two pictures above have in common I will tell you. Tessa turned twelve on Sunday, Janice had her birthday the next day, and today, to celebrate, we had lunch and cake with their family and then Tessa, Janice and I headed out to the Stratford Chocolate Trail. It was awesome! There are twenty stops on the trail and each stop offers a little chocolate treat. You can choose eight of the twenty to get a treat at. We stopped at about fifteen places and had so much fun.

Stratford, a small town about half an hour from where we live, is home to Justin Bieber! Ha ha ha!!! So Janice and I decided that our first picture together should be by his signed guitar :) Then Tessa, who is actually a tween and might actually CARE about The Biebs, also had her picture taken by the guitar.

Our first stop was Coffee Culture for the Rockslide Brownie -- basically brownie, more brownie, caramel and pecans -- and tea. And to decide where all we wanted to go. I ate 1/4 of my brownie and brought the rest home for my family to eat for dessert after supper.

We hit a few other places (obviously not exciting picture taking moments) and then ended up at Rheo Thompson Candies. Almost everywhere we went was decorated for Easter and it was so pretty. The chocolate bunny on the left weighs around 20 pounds and costs between $250-$300. Craziness. And I thought the bunny bursting out of the egg on the right was really cute.

I got my free chocolates with cream and caramel centres and then I saw the picture below.

Of course I had to buy one for Rachel for Easter (you all know the name of her stuffed rabbit, right?!?!) and then I bought Sam a #4 chocolate. We hit Bradshaws where I drooled over teapots, their Portmerion dishes and a few other things. And I took advantage of their chocolate trail offer of a shatterproof wineglass (just for you Dad!!!) filled with chocolates. And on our way to Small-Mart General Mercantile, we saw this row of chairs and just had to relax.

And I thought they looked so cool in all their different colours lined up that I had to take another picture.

And then I had to choose two retro-chocolate bars from the selection below. I ended up with a Milky Way and a Sky Bar.

Then we hit P'lovers for lavender chocolate soap and then wandered into Watson's, not because they were a part of the chocolate trail but because their window display offered something else to entice me in. Can you see it???

If you will look a little closer you can see...

...an entire window display of Fiestaware! It's my newest obsession and I think I will get myself some for my birthday. I hope! Then we stopped at the Scottish shop were I passed on the Chocolate Trail Shortbread with Chocolate Chunks but bought myself a gift for tomorrow -- St Patrick's Day, of course. Check back to see what my present was :)

Our next stop was Chocolate Barr's Candies Inc. where we each got two truffles. Since I had already decided to share a bunch of stuff with Dave I got myself a Vanilla Bean Dark Chocolate Truffle and I got Dave a Milk Chocolate Chili Pepper Truffle. While writing this post I ate half of mine and then had a small, teeny tiny taste of Dave's. Let's just say my tongue, mouth and throat are still burning. And sadly I couldn't really taste the rest of my truffle. Dave said he was glad to experience it but he's also glad I didn't bring him back six! If I hadn't gotten Dave a truffle I would have been sorely tempted by the Lavender Truffles below or the Balsamic Vinegar one. Next time, I guess...

Then we headed back to Rheo Thompson Candies so that Tessa and Janice could get more chocolates from there. And we asked the saleswoman to take a picture of all three of us.
Then it was off to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory where we each got a chocolate pair of theatre masks. I decided that the kids could split mine :)

Next it was off to Family and Company which is a very neat toy store. Tessa tried on a rubber chicken head, I used the rubber chicken debit card machine, and I bought Dave a gift, which they wrapped with a pair of silly glasses as decoration.

So after a brief stop at Subway for dinner we headed home. And I gave Dave his gift of a double-sided Pi-Pie puzzle. One side has Pi to 400 places and the other side has a pie with Pi in the middle. And Sam, Rachel and Dave all modeled the glasses!

If you ever have a chance to experience the Stratford Chocolate Trail I would highly recommend it. I enjoyed window shopping in the cute shops of Stratford as much as I enjoyed collecting all my chocolate treats. And we discovered that Stratford has a Bacon and Ale Trail so we are trying to figure out a double date where Dave and Tim can enjoy Bacon and Ale and Janice and I can continue to browse in all the shops! Sounds like a win-win situation to me. And now I'm off to eat more chocolate -- should I go for the Cream Centre Dark Chocolate or a Smooth Dark Brix Bite? Decisions, decisions...!