I was visiting my folks in my hometown of Lewisburg, West Virginia, when–serendipity!–I discovered they were holding the Seventh Annual Chocolate Festival.  Since I am an unrepentant chocoholic, I insisted my husband accompany me to check it out.

There was no Chocolate Festival when I was growing up in Lewisburg, so this was a new experience for me.  They closed down two blocks of Washington Street to make way for the festival-goers.  Last year, 7,000 people attended!  I think that’s twice the population of the town.

Events included a chocolate bake-off, a 10K Chocolate Chase (to burn off some of the calories everyone consumed), a chocolate history tour, showings of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, and more.

The star of the day was the chocolate though.  There were no fewer than 34 tasting stops with chocolate of all shapes, colors, and consistencies.

Classic bon bons:

Chocolate bread pudding (one of my personal favorites!):

Chocolate clothing and accessories (just for looking, not eating):

Green chocolate!

Street served chocolate:

Alcoholic chocolate:

A combination of my two addictions: chocolate and shoes!

The Red Hat Ladies were there:

And there was live music by The Wild Rumpus, playing what they call Appalachian Stompgrass.  It sure made my toe tap!

We finished off our tour with delicious chocolate strawberry smoothies, served up by this lovely young lady:

As an old Lewisburg friend of mine always says, “And a good time was had by all!”