I was so excited to get $10 free dollars to Auntie’s. Tyler and I love that bookstore. Here’s a few reasons why:

• It’s Big AND Local. We haven’t found many local bookstore that have such a huge selection of books at such a big location
• Downtown Spokane. There’s something fun about old downtown buildings. Auntie’s Bookstore is big, open, and old. It’s awesome.
• Great staff. Every time we go there, the staff are friendly and accessible.
• Huge selection of new and used. I love discovering fun little “finds” there – old used books for an affordable price.
• Autographed books. They are always hosting book signings, from local to national authors, including the likes of David Sedaris, Jamie Ford, Sherman Alexie and Chuck Palahniuk. If you can’t make it to one of the book signings, you can still pre-order a signed book, or even purchase one afterwards.

I didn’t even know they were there until their coupon showed up last week on Groupon.com. After 8 years of being together, Tyler and I are always on the lookout for new and fun adventures. Last night was just such an adventure.

10 Reasons Chocolate Apothecary of Spokane rocks:

1. Groupon.com participation. Yeah, I know it’s basically for their own promotion, but without their participation in Groupon.com, we never would have known about them. Using effective marketing makes them smart (and I like smart businesses).
2. Chocolate Dream Tour Engineer. That’s not exactly what she called herself, but it was something awesome like that. She did a great job of presenting the process of making chocolate and the experience of tasting.
3. 14 different chocolates. By the end of the chocolate tasting, I was on an incredible chocolate high. It was fantastic.
4. A little to-go baggie. Once I started getting a chocolate overload, I wasn’t able to eat the whole piece of the samples. They planned ahead and had cute little to-go baggies so we could save our leftover chocolate. Brilliant!
5. Water. Water is fantastic, and we had plenty of it to cleanse our palate between tastings.
6. Journal & Pen. At first I thought it was silly that they offered a journal and pen, until I realized I wanted to take notes on all of the chocolates we were trying. Great idea!
7. Chocolate and espresso cafe with tables and chairs. People don’t have to just stop in and buy chocolate. They can stop in, have a drink, relax and enjoy themselves. The atmosphere was great!
8. Delicious souvenirs. Nothing like purchasing a souvenir that’s so delicious.
9. Perfect length. An hour event was perfect – not too long, not too short. It seemed to go really fast, which is a good indicator that we were enjoying ourselves.
10. Chocolate High. I felt amazing after munching down on so much chocolate. I could tell from the look in Tyler’s eyes that he was feeling mighty good as well. (He had this big grin on his face, despite feeling kind of sick earlier in the day).

Bottom line: Chocolate Apothecary has a fun Tasting Class that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys chocolate and wants a fun date.