Love and Chocolate in St.Augustine

 John, who very diligently reads all the travel books before touring a city, found some small reference to a "love tree" located in St.Augustine. While walking around the town Friday we came upon the"Love Tree Cafe". The small juice bar has a beautiful garden, but we saw no marker noting a love tree in the area. We were just about ready to give up and walk away when John found The Tree.

 You may wonder, as I did, what was so unusual about the live oak. John pointed out to me the palm tree growing out of the live oak. What a testament to true love!  Those trees look like they are not just tolerating each others existence, but are thriving with one's roots sunk deep within the other. Since then I have found out that if a couple kisses under it, their love will last forever. John and I missed that opportunity, but I believe that our love will last anyway, without the help of that tree! Yesterday, Saturday, we returned to St. Augustine to tour Dow Museum, as we had arrived there Friday at closing time. I have said it before, there are some days for us which turn out totally different than planned. Saturday we passed  Kilwins Chocolate shop and remembered that they give tours and samples for a small fee. We stopped, found out that a tour was happening soon, and that took care of the rest of the day for us. We got a crash course on everything there is to know about chocolate, from the bean in the pod on a small farm (only small farmers grow the plant) in the tropics, to the finished product in a chocolate shop. In the factory we saw chocolate covered cashews being made. The worker below is placing the nuts in a chocolate mold.

In the picture below another worker is pouring the chocolate into the mold, after which the mold is set aside to harden. And yes, that is chocolate pouring down into container below it. Looks yummy, right?

 We were still in the factory when the chocolate cashews got popped out of their mold. One was a dud, it was not completely covered with chocolate, so I volunteered to get rid of it!  What is there not to love about chocolates, except maybe their calories.