Training For "The Chocolate Mile"

After our incredibly entertaining meal, we wanted to take the other main cable car line back to the hotel. Well, lo and behold, that just so happened to take us right on over to Ghirardelli. We have been training so hard for our race, but we realized at that moment that we had neglected one part of our training.
They tell us to be sure and use the nutrients in training that you are going to race with. So if you go with Cliff brand or Gu, you should train with that. Nike even let us know well in advance what flavor of Gatorade they would be using so that we could train with it.
But what about that famous "chocolate mile" that is such a big favorite in the Nike Marathon? You know how they have feed stops along the way in marathons with Gatorades and water. And then there are even those that have Luna Bars or bananas, or in California, oranges. Well, only in San Francisco do they include a Ghirardelli chocolate feed station during their marathon. Oh no! We've not prepared for it.
We decided that better late than never. We should prepare our bellies for this nutrient (I'm using that term VERY loosely).
So we stopped in. First we went into the little shop. I picked out a couple of things for the kids, and some candy to serve at our Halloween party (those of you that are coming, please don't get too excited, unfortunately I've eaten some of it already... sorry).
Then we were off to the cafe. We ordered sundaes. I have to say that was the best darn sundae I've ever had! I had mint chocolate and Karen had espresso.

It was about as intimidating to walk up to as Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory would be. There was an eerie magical vibe to it that I can't really explain. But I guarantee if you visit it, you'll feel it too (or maybe my imagination is too vivid and scarred by that book about what fantasy world could be going on behind those walls.

Yeah, that must be it, because I imagine little oompa loompas running on wheels under this set up to keep these rollers running.....

.... and turning cranks to keep the belts moving.

But whatever the magic is, this was the best sundae I've ever had!