* Free Chocolate & My +1!

Last night I was able to get my shift covered at Millers and make plans with Hammer for a little belated birthday night out! She wasn't able to come up to the cabin for birthday weekend so this was what we had planned instead.
[following the signs to chocolate...]
[original photo by Carolyn]
We started the night with FREE chocolate! If I've never said it before, let me say it now. Everyone should enjoy FREE dessert before dinner every once in a while! The MNBloggers were invited to the grand opening of the Southdale Mall See's Candies new store! Not only were we invited but they CLOSED the store for our own private event.

We were able to bring along a guest, I invited one of my favorite sweets loving friends, Melissa. Our group was welcomed with open arms at 7pm and were instantly handed free chocolate truffles to enjoy. We then realized that you could order up anything in the display case to try as well!

I was able to enjoy a Key Lime Truffle,  Lemon Truffle, Scotchmallow & Scotch Kiss. I would have SO loved to try more, but even with my insane sweet tooth I only like sweets a little at a time- so it takes me FOREVER to each one piece of chocolate!

 The Scotchmallow was REALLY REALLY good- it was hard picking between that and the Lemon Truffle as my favorite. Luckily, they sent us home with a goodie bag FULL of chocolate, so I will get to try some more!

The staff and management on board for the event were so fun! They gave a little presentation on the background of the company and where/how it was established in 1921. We then participated in a mini exercise that had teams of 6 boxing up chocolates- the technique was not something I can claim to be good at- an 8 year old beat me for goodness sake! ;)
 [original photo by Carolyn]
After everyone boxed up their 12 pack via "left to right, keep it tight!", we had trivia questions to answer for door prizes. Of course my smarty pants "+1" got a question right and won herself a great little See's coffee table book!
"WARREN BUFFET!" -melissa
We learned so many fun facts about this great little small, USA based, family owned and old time valued candy company. Knowing all of this, see where it has come from and appreciating it that much more- it will keep me going back for more See's Candies in the future! Thank you See's!
The second part of our night, for Melissa & I, was dinner! We decided to give Rojo a try. I have been hearing about it and with West End being pretty close to Melissa's house we headed for there. We enjoyed house margarita's on the rocks with salt, a huge basket of chips, salsa and tacos! Melissa went with an order of the chicken tacos and I decided on "waiter's choice" Carne Asada tacos! YUM..... great choices! Get out to Rojo for your next dinner out and about, it was super good!

We had a great night of sweets, treats, laughs, nerdy selfies and good conversation. This is always a treat with a good friend- especially when it's LONG overdue!
 Thank for the fun night out Melissa!