Without intending to, I have started for myself a tradition. A couple of Saturdays ago I attended Olde Town Arvada's annual "A Chocolate Affair" which is a chocolate tasting festival and fund raiser I discovered only last year but which is now a decade old. So, I jumped on the bandwagon late. Still, I came, I ate, I conquered. Or something like that. The deal is you buy tickets at a buck a piece (bargain hunters take note: 6 tickets for $5) and use those tickets to purchase samples of chocolaty goodness from local, regional, and national vendors -- bonbons, cake, cookies, chocolate milk, donuts, ice cream, etc. The money goes to a local charity that provides counseling and treatment for abused children. There were carriage rides and storytelling (which I hadn't known about until after the fact, so I missed it, sadly so, as I love a good story.) And there was a treasure hunt with clues given at many local merchants in Olde Town Arvada.
A word about Olde Town Arvada. If you don't live in the metro Denver area, put some gas in the car and go. If you do live in the metro area, and you've never wandered about Olde Town Arvada... well, you're missing out. It's a small oasis inside of a rather large suburb, a bit of a refuge from hectic urban life. Pick a day. Mark it on your calendar. Use a pen. Come. No, I am not on the city council, nor do I work at the visitor's bureau. But I know whence I speak. Olde Town has a Mayberry-like charm, although it does have a bit more traffic.
Rheinlander's Bakery, which I've written about in a previous post, was one of the vendors at the Affair; they're the people who can make chocolate taste good even without sugar or gluten. How cool is that? There's Cheesecake Therapy, which is pretty much self explanatory, methinks. Do you like French fries? Do you think McDonald's or Wendy's has the best fries? Sorry, the best fries are served by Griff's, and their onion rings and cheeseburgers are pretty dang good, too. DiCicco's has lasagna that would make Garfield a very happy cat. There's a book store - a real bookstore, not a chain, and the public library is two stories high, with a nice quiet room that on a sunny day is a nice place to quietly read and catch forty winks. (Um, so I've heard -- I've never actually dozed off there...) There's a paint-your-own pottery store, and a candle store with a really cool double staircase which brought out my Inner Hardy Boy, although not enough so that I was brave enough to ask the proprietor if I could go exploring.
Insert note here about the many historical buildings in Olde Town - buildings that had character, before architecture became a cut-and-paste industry. The Arvada Historical Society resides in the Olde Town part of Arvada, as well, and the volunteers there are happy to tell you anything you want to know about any of the buildings or Arvada itself, which started with Colorado's very own Gold Rush.
There's an Army-Navy Surplus store there -- who doesn't love those? There's a candy store selling old fashioned candies (remember Rocky Road, Idaho Spud, Cherry Mash, Big Hunk, Zotz, candy cigarettes?) and old fashioned sodas and root beers (Cherwine, Duffy's, Stewart's) . Etta's Place is a tiny grocery store housed in a quaint (egads, did I just use the word quaint?) Victorian house -- among the groceries the sell are tasty Wisconsin cheeses and homemade jams; but what I really liked here was the memory it evoked of the little mom-and-pop grocery 4-1/2 blocks down the street from my grandmother's house, which I am my siblings oft haunted during most our visits in our childhood.
I frequent the conglomerates, the big chains, because of their convenience, because of their pricing. But sometimes I want to slow down and enjoy life at a more leisurely pace. This particular day started out sunny and not exactly warm, but seasonal. After getting an emissions test done on my car, I headed over to Mayberry -- I mean, Olde Town Arvada -- and somewhere along the way as I wandered in and out of shops, looking for clues and sampling chocolate, it started to snow. A few flakes at first, growing suddenly blustery, and for just a moment I considered heading home before the streets got icy. But I decided I wasn't yet finished. That might not seem significant unless you know me, and how much I dislike snow, especially if I have to drive in it. Give me a good torrential rainstorm over a moderate snowfall.
No, my tummy full of chocolate (it might be true what they say about chocolate containing endorphins) , my too-small hat not quite keeping the snow out of my ears, I found myself relishing even the snow. It was part of the experience. I was happy to be there. I felt more relaxed than I had all week. The snow temporarily abated. A friend came to join me, the snow kicked up again, we ate more chocolate and collected more clues for the treasure hunt (missing the deadline), and we visited Penzy's Spices while the snow continued its bipolar behavior between random flakes and mini-blizzard.
As I drove home, I found the traffic heavy in volume but the roads easy enough to navigate thanks to a Christmas present to myself of new tires. One segment of that journey treated me to a breathtaking vision of snow covered tree skeletons on both sides of the road which made me glad I hadn't wimped out and left early. Surprising to know I can enjoy snow at times other than sitting inside staring out the window with a good book in hand (although that's still my favorite way -- not even chocolate has the power to change my mind on that.)
