Last Tuesday, my son was out of school for the day (I know, Kate already vented about the lack of 5-day school weeks!) so we dropped little sister off at Kids Day Out and headed to one of our favorite places– Crown Center.
I wrote a post about Fairy Tale Village, but wanted to check it out for myself. We ended up having a great time and experiencing something really cool along the way!
We entered the Crown Center Shops on Level 2, right by Crayola Cafe. We headed down the hallway toward the escalators, and my son, a card-carrying chocoholic, says, “Mom! I smell brownies!” In fact, what he smelled was Chip’s Chocolate Factory. We couldn’t have timed it any better– Cliff, the resident master chocolatier, was just beginning a demonstration. Of course, we had to stay and watch– along with 5 or 6 other kids. It was so cool!
Cliff couldn’t have been a nicer guy and he was so good with the kids. We were lucky last Tuesday; apparently he typically isn’t in on Tuesdays. He was making a batch of pecan fudge and talking the kids through every step. They were totally fascinated. He was full of information and chocolate history– but the best part, by far, was when he took a cookie sheet and filled it with all sorts of goodies. You name it, it went on the cookie sheet. Pretzel rods, Oreos, cotton candy pieces, even marshmallows on sticks. Cliff then covered everything in melted chocolate. And M&Ms. And nuts. And sprinkles. Whatever the kids wanted, he went along with. They had a blast! Our half-hour diversion to Chip’s Chocolate Factory turned out to be the highlight of the day.
Next stop: Fairy Tale Village– one floor down in the Crown Center Showplace. It was very well done and we spent probably 30 minutes there, too. Fairy Tale scenes were brought to life in kid-sized houses. We went inside a house belonging to one of the Three Little Pigs. In another house, we saw a stocking-cap clad wolf in a bed…(”Grandmother, what big teeth you have!”) At the end of the exhibit, there was a large table filled with books where kids could hang out and read. Fun!
We capped off our day at…you guessed it…Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant. We probably eat at Fritz’s once a year and my son still thinks it’s a thrill to see an overhead electric train deliver a cheeseburger and fries directly to our table! And that’s only after he places our order on the telephone, of course.
A day at Crown Center never disappoints, and we even made it out of there having spent only $16. $9 on lunch and $7 on chocolate.
