The Chocolate Hill Road

I picked James up after school as usual. He'd had a good day, overall, but was unfocused and tried to sneak games instead of lessons at computer time during class. So no more computer time for the rest of the day.

Which is probably why he wanted us to go visit our public library before picking up his sister. One of the library's computers is loaded with I Spy and Dora edutainment games that he loves to play. We were just there on Tuesday.

"Are you sure you want to go there, Honey?" I asked, a little desperately. "How about something else?" He looked at me with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes and a roguish smile lit up his face. "I want to go to the Chocolate Road!" he announced.

Huh?

"The what, James?" "Chocolate Road, Mommy. Chocolate Hill Road!!" And then he pointed and I went "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Because he was pointing uphill to:

as in:

So this is new and fun. Usually he just asks to go up the hill. I had no idea he knew the actual name of the road. He's certainly never said it -- until today. We had a lot of fun, saying the name of the road all kinds of ways. We looked for trains, cows, and horses. We passed bicyclists and enjoyed the rolling drive through vineyards and pastures, beside creeks and over small rivers, enjoying a lazy afternoon of patches of light and colour on a cloudy day.

So Chalk Hill Road now has a secret name I hope I will always remember: The Chocolate Hill Road.