A Grand Day Out!

What a fun day this was! First I met up with Big Sis for breakfast, where I had chicken fried steak with hashed browns, eggs and toast (my favorite breakfast-type breakfast). Then off to Encinitas for the chocolate festival. The chocolates we sampled were very good. My two favorites were the chocolate-cherry concoction at the O'gilvies booth, and the candied pansies. Didn't get the name of that booth, duh!

Afterwards we strolled around the botanical gardens. Saw some very interesting plants including cork trees; a western tanager (didn't get a picture of that, darn it!) and some phoebes; and lots of lizards. Here are a few pictures from the day:

First, a plateful of the candied pansies. They were first crystalized in sugar, and then dipped in dark chocolate with a wee bit of strawberry extract. Absolutely delicious!

Now, I thought this one was pretty amazing. It looks like a coral reef, doesn't it? But it's a desert garden! Cacti, succulents, lava rock and sand. I was quite impressed.

This is where you get cork--the bark of the cork oak. The bark can be removed without harming the tree, so it's a renewable resource. And the trees are really cool-looking too.

One of the many lizards running around the botanical garden. They were amazingly fast for such pudgy little guys.

Damselflies at one of the ponds. I had to use the zoom lens, and I'm actually a little surprised at how well it came out.