On the actual day of our anniversary the Monday of last week, we were meandering our way down Interstate 81, when Mrs. PopCulteer asked, “We’re not on the clock are we? What if we see someplace cool to stop?”

I replied that we could stop anywhere we wanted, and then told her to get off at the next exit. I’d seen something.

We had stumbled onto the Lindt Factory Outlet Store in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Neither of us had any idea that there was such a place, but tucked away in an industrial distribution hub, with a sign nicely visible from the highway, was yet one more stop on our chocolate journey that had thus far included Boyer, Hershey and even Fudgie the Whale (I’ll tell you about Fudgie in a later post).

So we stopped in and were immediately greeted with free candy. As you can see at left, this is a happy place. The store offers a pretty complete assortment of Lindt Chocolates (which are pretty darned good, if you haven’t tried any yet) and the store is pretty impressive because it’s one huge room, with giant photographic murals on the walls, and sprawling open spaces which can accomodate bus tours and candy demonstrations. They don’t do factory tours since this is not where the factory is, but it is one of their main warehouses, so there’s plenty of chocolate passing through this building.

We sort of had the place to ourselves, which was really cool.

Most of the photos you’ll see were taken by Mel.  My camera was in the car and I didn’t want to leave this chocolate paradise. You can find more details about the Carlisle Lindt Factory Outlet Store by visiting their Facebook page. There are other stores around the country, and you can find them by going HERE. If you’re in the area, have a sweet tooth and appreciate fine chocolate, you ought to stop in.