Lauren's day downtown

Lauren and the world's largest candy bar!
Funneling for some chocolate!
Lauren's girlscout troop at Eli's- she's back there in the left hand corner!

February 15, 2008

Lauren spent a very busy, very exciting day downtown earning her "Discover Chicago" badge for girlscouts. Our troop started out at the Hershey Chicago company learning all about chocolate! Lauren then spun the big wheel while the girls cheered her on. A loud rumbling roared through the store to reveal a downspout of Hershey's chocolate miniatures followed of course by the thunderous explosion of little girls screaming and clapping (and rushing like mad to collect the chocolate that had fallen on the floor!) When the excitement was through we made our way to the Eli's Cheesecake Factory- not the restaurant- the factory, where we learned they make between 12,000 and 25,000 cheesecakes a day! The girls learned all about Eli Schulman and what exactly goes into one of the world's best cheesecakes! (except for mine, I do make a rather delicious cheesecake :0) They then got to go into the back to see the machines and decorate their own piece of cheesecake with chocolate, sprinkles, what have you. As if this weren't enough, they then got to taste test 5 different cheesecake samples- strawberry, rasberry swirl, chocolate, caramel and chocolate chip. Lauren and I agree that the strawberry was the best! The factory sells many cheesecakes at a discount-they're called "sweet imperfections"- they may be too heavy or too light, or just otherwise not up to Eli's standards to serve at a restaurant. Sadly Eli has passed away but his legacy lives on through his cheesecake, his restaurants and many charities. If you're a big cheesecake fan you can learn everything we did by visiting:
http://www.elicheesecake.com/ravereviews.aspx



Thanks to mom and Aunt Bernice who babysat Gavin so I could attend this special trip with my special girl :0)