My Year With The Mouse

Once upon a time, in Pacific Wharf at California Adventure, you could go see how tortillas were made. I mean, like, mass-made. They had these giant machines and you kind of followed these metal pipes with your eyes and at the end, a nice steaming tortilla popped out.  It was kind of like something out of Willy Wonka, except it was tortillas. You could get a free tortilla, and I even heard that on your birthday, you could get a whole package of free tortillas.

Well, I like tortillas as much as the next guy, but let’s face it, they’re kind of plain all by themselves.

And then the tortilla factory closed. Gone are the pipes and tanks. Gone are the pictures giving the history of tortilla-making. Gone are the displays of the different tortilla ingredients (if I’m remembering correctly, they left out the lard part). And in its place, we get…

Chocolate.

I’d call that an improvement.

It’s right here on the corner

I wasn’t necessarily going to stop in that day, but then there was the cast member outside and she was like “Hey, have a piece of free chocolate” and I was like “oh let me think about that okay give me one” so I felt a little obligated to go inside and check it out.

FREE FREE FREE!!!

She also handed me a menu and it was one of those awkward situations where I really did feel like I might hurt her feelings if I walked away, which was ridiculous because it’s Disneyland and it’s not like they’re working for tips or anything.

But I figured I needed to blog it anyway, so in I went.

The back wall is one big serving area.

This is a terrible picture. Sorry.

Okay, there we go.

You start at the registers and then move to a window to collect your delicious chocolatey treat.

Like window 2

This actually works quite well for crowd control. Especially in an area where some orders take longer to fill than others.

Behind the counter area, they have beautiful murals

And cast members in cute white hats

This mural depicts how chocolate is made. I think.

This is the original Ghirardelli factory in San Francisco

And on a side note, please don’t ever call San Francisco “San Fran.” The only people who call it that are people who don’t live there. Same with “Frisco.” Tourists seem to use these phrases as if they believe they are very cleverly using an insider nickname. Locals never use either of these two phrases. It’s like wearing a neon pink shirt that shouts “TOURIST” right above your fanny pack and athletic socks pulled all the way up to your knees. It kind of makes my head explode. Just call it San Francisco, or as locals call it, The City.

Anyway.

There are pictures on the walls.

I assume the dude in the beard is like Mr. Ghirardelli or something

Chocolate is wonderful. Even Theo likes it. Last Halloween he got some Hershey’s miniatures, and unwrapped one to see “HERSHEY” stamped on the chocolate. He said:

“Look Mommy! It has letters! It says…I…Love…Chocolate!”

I love chocolate too.