On July 15 we finally made it to the Jelly Belly factory. I’ve heard about it, dreamed about it, but never actually made it there. With Milo being on a 6 week hiatus from water or anything else that would require getting wet, I’ve been desperate for things to do. This seemed like the perfect thing. Also, Joey and Gayle had 2 French students visiting for a month and so I offered to take them too.
We started out the morning with bowling. Nina and her friend seemed excited to do that. They were pretty good too, despite their lack of experience. After bowling we headed for the factory.
It was about an hour and fifteen minute drive. It was fun. The kids entertained the two girls till they were laughing so hard they were red. We listened to some very interesting music to help pass the time.
After getting there all the kids were VERY hungry, so we had a nice little picnic lunch on the curbing outside of the factory. Had I known what it was going to be like inside the factory, we would have eaten our lunch in there. But nonetheless we enjoyed a little picnic and then headed inside.
I felt as though I was at Disneyland waiting for a ride! We lined up right in front of the sign telling us we had an hour wait. But we passed the time going to the bathroom (twice), looking at the pictures and reading the pamphlet on all the different flavors and recipes. It was fun.
After about 45 minutes we made it to the beginning of the line. What joy there was to be found. While we waited our turn the kids went to the free counter and sampled some of the different kinds of Jelly Beans.
When it was our turn half of us went up the elevator while the other half went up the stairs. At the top they take your picture that you can buy for the low price of $22 (did you catch my sarcasm?). Then on to the tour. No picture taking on the actual tour. Too bad too, it was a cool thing to see. The kids were mesmerized. Ok, I was mesmerized too!! We fell to the back of the group and took so long looking at things that the next group’s leader told me I had to catch up with our group so that I didn’t get lost….. It was just so fascinating. Perhaps it was just the whole factory concept, I’ve never seen it before. Did you know it takes 21 days to make one Jelly Belly? Did you also know that they quality check each batch 4 times before they get the final polish and the Jelly Belly name stamped on them? They sure are picky!!
At the end of the tour they give each person (even Keri) a free bag of Jelly Belly’s, the one you’d pay $5 for in the store. It was a sweet deal (no pun intended…..) After that we browsed the Jelly Belly store and I bought some belly flops for $5 for a 2 pound package. We took a few more pictures, got a few more free jelly beans, made one more bathroom run and then headed for the car.
After about 30 minutes (that’s how long it takes to get 6 tired kids and 3 tired adults into a hot car) we were on the road back home. The kids were quieter…..well, not Afton. She was eating the jelly beans in her free bag all the way home and kept getting excited every time she’d take one out. ‘Yay, it’s a green one, I love the green ones’ (insert any color into the sentence and that is what we listened to all the way home from the factory). All in all it was a fabulous day. One I’ll repeat in a few years when some of the younger kids are older and Scott can come with us.
So the pictures at the top of the stairs were really only $17 if you consider the free Jelly Bellies! Factories are pretty cool. Too bad I don’t like jelly beans!
Hello…in 1976 I invented the Jelly Belly beans……in fact a documentary is being released very very soon on my life….it will be called The Candyman-a man and his beans…..if you are ever in southern ca we have a candy factory in covina where we make a great product called Sandy Candy–the kids use it as a sand art craft and then they can eat it…..All the best
I think Ian would give his left ear to go there. I only like the sours and this one kind you get in the mix at costco. I go through and pick that one jelly bean out of the whole container. It makes him crazy. I also took a marker after I did that and marked out the 49 flavors and wrote 48 just to rub it in. You can tell he is serious about his jelly bellys. Too fun!