Ate All the Choklat

When Tom turned the ripe old age of 31 in January, I bought us two tickets to Choklat Snobbery 101, at Choklat. Choklat is one of the few shops in the world that actually roasts their own beans and makes their own chocolate. As their website says, they have been voted the #1 Artisan Chocolate maker in Canada.

Tom is a bit of a chocolate addict. There is almost always a bar of dark chocolate in our fridge. It has to be in the fridge (apparently he thinks it's better cold?), and it has to be 80% or darker.

We started our evening with a mug of warm hot chocolate. I admit, I could have done without the bright blue whopped cream-- but the blue matched the colours on their logo. Apparently the blue colouring is all natural (I wasn't listening to well at this point).

The hot chocolate WAS delicious. Maybe a touch too sweet for my taste, but still, a delicious treat.

 

 

Next we moved into the shop to learn more about cacao beans. We saw the good, the bad and the ugly. Essentially all of the cacao beans are grown in third world countries. The Ivory Coast produces the most, at about 1.6 million metric tons per year, followed by Indonesia, with about 0.9 million metric tons per year. The beans themselves look a bit like almonds, but in their raw form, they have a bit of a vinegary smell to them.

 

The beans are processed and roasted in the shop, then mixed with cocoa butter for the base of the chocolate. The chocolate needs to be tempered (that is, heated up gradually), and is done so in a series of tempering machines.

 

Eventually it comes to being pressed and molded for consumption. There were dozens of giant baking sheet filled with squares of various types of chocolate.

 

We sampled somewhere between 7-8 types of chocolate from different regions in places such as Brazil and Venezuela. It was interesting-- each of the chocolates had a different flavour. Some were earthy, some were fruity-- and it all comes from the type of bean, and how it was fermented. For the most part, the chocolates were all 70% dark chocolate, but we did get to try an 80% chocolate at the end. We also did some wine and chocolate pairings and samplings.

Tom's favourite part of the night was that he was the only man on a tour with nine other women.

I feel like I now know so much more about chocolate than I ever thought possible.

I wish our house smelled as delicious at the Choklat shop did, all the time. Visit Choklat down in Inglewood-- I highly recommend it!

Tom and I are heading to Chicago on Thursday, so stay tuned for more travel-related posts.

2014 Race Itinerary

Normally at this time of year I would be well into half-marathon training. The last two years I have run the Calgary half marathon which normally occurs the last week of May-- or in this case, the first weekend of June. After last year, two half marathons, eight months straight of training, shin splits and bruised heels, I decided I would take it easier this year, and only run one major race.

As it has turned out, it is probably for the best. I keep catching colds that have put me out of commission, and it has been so cold this winter, I have barely had a chance to run.

However, I have two races on my itinerary this year.

COLOR ME RAD - June 28

Photo Credit

After having to opt out of Color Me Rad last year because of flooding, I deferred my race registration to this year. This is a 5km race novelty race-- I don't even think they record your time.  Basically, you run 5km with a pack of your friends while people throw corn starch colour-bombs at you. It is going to be AWESOME.

LAS VEGAS ROCK 'N ROLL HALF MARATHON - November 16

Photo Credit

 

The Las Vegas Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon happens late in the fall. 13.1 miles (or 21.1km) down the Las Vegas strip-- starting at dusk.  The best part of this race is that it starts in the evening! I have never been much of a morning runner, so the idea of running later in the day is very appealing to me.

 

I had no idea this race was so huge. Past races have had around 45000 participating runners! I'm a little concerned about some of the race accounts I've read from previous racers-- some people say the race is not very well managed. Start corals are congested, not enough aid stations... But I hope that with years of experience of running an event this large, it will have improved over the years!

 

My full training won't start until early August, but I hope to get back to a more regular running schedule as the weather starts to warm up.

 

Ashley and Andrew will be joining us in Vegas for this race-- and hopefully Jasmine and Joel as well.

 

Looking forward to these races in 2014!

2009 Throwback: Caving

Looking back on old photos, it occurred to me that it has been FIVE YEARS since I went caving in the Rat's Nest Cave near Canmore.

This was a really interesting experience that still stands out in my mind. Tours run in the caves year-round, because the cave maintains a constant temperature of around 5 degrees Celsius. We met our tour guide in Canmore and followed him to a small parking lot near the caves. We had to hike for about 20 minutes up to the cave entrance, where we geared up with coveralls, helmets and headlamps.

Jeff gearing up to go in the cave.

Cave entrance.

Once we were in the cave, we immediately clipped into a cable system of ropes that added some extra security when we were descending down some of the slippery rocks. 

There were some pretty tight squeezes inside the cave. For some reason, I thought this particular formation (featured below) was called the "Birth Canal" (or something equally awful). But when I looked it up on the website for confirmation, it seems to be called the more innocuous "Laundry Chute."

Steve at the bottom of the Laundry Chute.

Steve hamming it up for the camera.

 There was a section of the cave where we had to repel 18m, and there was plenty of crawling and and winding through mud. One of the final rooms we entered was called the Grotto, and was full of stalactites and stalagmites, as well as a crystal clear pool.

There was one optional tight squeeze that end that I opted out of. But Steve and Jeff made their way in, sliding on their backs as they went.

Steve (or Jeff?) wiggling out of a tight squeeze.

When we finally emerged from the cave, we were all filthy. There was mud all over our coveralls, and it some cases, our coveralls had ripped and the mud had gotten inside.

Really filthy.

I can't say I have any desire to become a full-time cave enthusiast, but it was a fun for a one-time experience!

Piilani Highway

On our second last day, Ashley, Tom and I packed ourselves into the car and drove the scenic southern portion of the Piilani Highway. We had very good weather for this trip, so we saw a lot of blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

Cinder cones.

The weather was lovely, but it WAS a bit windy...

Wiiiiindy!

This particular highway runs along the southeastern side of the volcano, and had some sweeping views of volcanic rock canyons.

Not to mention, some columnar basalt! Columns form in basalt depending on the rate that it cools at. The columns form because as the basalt cools it can shrink in the vertical direction without fracturing, but will fracture in the horizontal direction. If the lava cools rapidly, it will form very small columns. If it cools relatively slowly, larger, longer columns will form.

There was also a goat farm on one of the hills, with a particularly large goat tromping about.

We saw some Hawaiian-style Inukshuks along the coast. Both Tom and Ashley went to work building their own rock towers. It was quite windy along this portion of the coast, so you could test the solidarity of your structure by watching it wave in the wind.

We are home now, and I am getting ready to go back to work tomorrow. I don't want to go! Why can't we live in the tropics all-year round?

*Whine*

Paia and the West Highway

The torrential rain on our first full day in Maui did not leave us with a ton of activities, so we piled into the car and headed to the small down of Paia. Paia is a tourist town with plenty of shopping, local artists and white sand beaches. We wandered shop to shop... And even identified a few giant spiders-- which Ashley literally poked. It would not be a holiday without Ashley harassing wildlife.

Ashley pointing at a giant spider.

 

On the recommendation of a coworker, we started our next morning at the Kihei Caffe. Banana macadamia nut pancakes and french toast... A half papaya filled with yogurt and granola... And even pork fried rice with an egg on top. Food this good deserves to be Instagrammed.

 

Banana Macadamia Nut pancakes.

 

Our second day was grey and overcast as well, so we piled into the car again, and drove the west highway on the island from Wailuku to Kapalau. This highway is much like the famous Road to Hana-- winding and twisting with many blind corners and single-vehicle bridges. Julie and I loaded up on ginger pills to keep the motion-sickness at bay. We encountered this burnt-out, abandoned car on one of the turnouts. The colours are so strange, it doesn't even look like a real photo (but I assure you, it is!).

 

Burnt out car on west highway.

 

At this point, we had been on the island for two days, and hadn't actually been to the beach, so we took a walk down to the beach to watch the sun set. And what a sun set it was! Complete with whales breaching in the distance.

Sunset in Kihei.

Tom and I on the beach.

Pretty!

 

We finished off our night with poke fish tacos, and bulldog margaritas. And Jeff turned our coconut into a narwhal. A narwhal in looooove.

 

A bulldog-fueled artist at work.

Looking forward to more snorkeling! Cross your fingers that the water isn't too choppy.

Aloha 3.0

According to the clock, it's 6:46am in Maui, Hawaii. Of course, it's 9:46am back home, and I am wide awake. It is raining torrentially outside, but I'm sure that will clear  up just as soon as the sun rises. Is there anything better than a Hawaii vacation? The answer is simple. No!

This is our third time in Maui. We are once again staying at Ashley's parent's place in Kihei.

I'm not worried. The forecast is for clear skies and sunshine for the rest of our stay.

Little M Turns Big 3

 

On February 8th, my little niece, Madelynn turned THREE years old! She really liked blowing out candles, so she blew them out, and had them re-lit, three times. And then we re-lit them one more time so Dylan could blow them out too.

Forget the toys, clothes or craft supplies-- the best birthday present of the year was a Dora the Explorer umbrella. Madelynn was tickled pink by her umbrella. I'm sure it won't make it until the spring before it is horribly, horribly broken.

Madelynn made sure to protect grandpa from the rain-- repeatedly. It rained a lot in the house.

In fact, it rains so much that Auntie Lisa had to break out Dylan's Spiderman umbrella in order to keep dry as well.

Happy Birthday, Madelynn!