Did Someone Say Chocolate?

Alpaca suggested that, while we were in town for husband's college roommate's wedding, we stop in Berkeley for a tour of the Scharffen Berger factory (http://www.scharffenberger.com/). This consisted of a woman telling us the history of Scharffen Berger chocolate, taking us through the factory so we could see (and hear) the machines and feeding us samples. Guess which part we liked best.

After the tour, we had lunch at Cafe Cacao (http://www.cafecacao.biz/), which is owned and operated by (and is attached to) the Scharffen Berger factory. We enjoyed a delicious tomato and basil bisque, a cheesy veggie quiche, a side of sweet potato fries and a mediocre BBQ Chicken. Oddly, we didn't save room for dessert. Alpaca scolded us for our silliness. The Alpaca's got a point.

Traveling Alpaca Channels the Channel Islands

Traveling Alpaca is just as active as the next guy... so naturally he was very excited to take a full-day kayaking trip to the Channel Islands, off the coast of Ventura. We booked this trip through Channel Islands Kayak Center (http://www.cikayak.com/), which provided the 11 of us with two guides and arranged for a private guided kayak trip for us. Hooray!

The water was a bit choppy, but everyone hung in there as long as they could. We kayaked into and out of a few caves and fought back the darned kelp that kept getting tangled in our oars. The water was very clear, especially near the caves. We even saw an enormous orange starfish a few feet below the surface.

Afterward, we went to The Hungry Hunter (http://www.paragonsteak.com/) for some delicious surf and turf. A perfect day.