Our week started out pretty sweet with a tour of the Theo Chocolate Factory, a fair-trade chocolatier headquartered in Fremont. A day just for the girls (and the baby) we donned lovely hairnets and enjoyed a walk through their production facility and a sampling of chocolate.

Though I have never heard of this brand, their chocolate is sold in all 50 states and includes selections ranging from Fig and Fennel to Salted Almond. Needless to say, we all left with purchases reflecting our personal favorites!

While in this quirky neighborhood known by the locals as “The Center of the Universe”, we also took in a little shopping, a little lunch, and a little walk to see the troll under the bridge. Wait! What? A troll under the bridge? Sounds like a fairy tale, right? Well, evidently, back in 1990 in an effort to clean up a blighted area, the local art council set up a competition for artists to enter their suggestions for improvement. The troll’s four sculptors won and within the year, the Fremont Troll was born. Much bigger than I anticipated, you will notice a full size VW bug being crushed in his left hand.

The day two tour took us to Chateau Ste. Michelle, a winery that most of you are probably familiar. This lovely estate is located about 15 minutes from our campground in the small town of Woodinville.

They offer a free tour and sampling so, of course, we took advantage of that! As we wandered through their bottling area and vats of wine the guide regaled us with the history of the winery and the reasons why Washington is the best state for growing grapes (I’m guessing he may be a little bit biased).

With the tour you are given 3 samplings of their wines and on this day that included a chardonnay, a merlot and a dessert wine.

Since my wine of choice when I do have a glass is Riesling, I paid for an additional flight of their Riesling varieties.

Ranging from dry to sweet, I made my selections and went home with a glass and two bottles!

I’d call it a tasty start to the week!