Mt. Vernon Chocolate Stroll
If you love chocolate, the place to be today is the eastern Iowa town of Mount Vernon.
The 7th Annual Mount Vernon Chocolate Stroll runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the city’s First Street, which features several businesses that specialize in sweet treats.
Joe Jennison is with the Mount Vernon/Lisbon Community Development Group. “We have several chocolate vendors in town…we offer chocolate shortbread and we’ve got a company called Mount Vernon Confections that does chocolate ice cream and they make all sorts of chocolate treats,” Jennison said. “We have a number of stores up and down the street that sell chocolate automatically, so it seems to be a good fit for us.”
The events also include a parade prior to a playing of the original 1971 movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” at Mount Vernon’s Bijou Theatre. “We’ll do a Willy Wonka chocolate parade…people dress up like their favorite character or anything associated with chocolate,” Jennison said.
The local pet store will even have a chocolate lab petting zoo. There’s also live music throughout the day at the First Street Community Center.