The Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival was quite an event. Over the course of a few hours we hand-scooped and gave away almost 4,000 cones of gelato. Attendees were given a choice of Ferrero Rocher, our chocolate-hazelnut flavor, or Stracciatella, milk gelato with little rags of chocolate.

The periodic rain was much less of a deterrent than the loud music performance that took place directly above our cart. I felt like the neighborhood curmudgeon yelling, “Turn that racket down!”

One of the reasons we had such a long line was that our portions were so much bigger than some of the bites of chocolate being given away at other booths. The event raised an awful lot of money for Project Open Hand so it was well worth it.