Spring Break -- Day 3

Well...my little chapter book of a Spring Break went on hold due to another teensy road trip. My family and I went to Utah for our church's General Conference in Salt Lake City. It was a wonderful experience for James, Me, Monica and Amanda. Jenna and Brielle stayed behind at their Aunt Annie's house. But I will have to write about that later. For now, I get to reminisce about the tastiest day of our Spring Break Trip!!

We got up early in the morning to get to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, just 40 minutes north of SF. We hoped to get in the 1st tour at 9:15 am. It was a good thing, because the next groups of tourists were more crowded. I like less-crowded groups. The factory was making Green Apple Jelly Bellys that day. A bonus to the tour was the Mrs. Grossman's Stickerpalooza going on in a room upstairs. Jenna, Brielle and I got plenty of stickers for a buck. Wait for tomorrow's post to see what sort of mischief a girl can get into with stickers and a long car ride.

Brielle and Jenna in the Jelly Belly Gift shop.















We drove to Berkeley to get grab some lunch at a Burger King. Let me not sugar-coat how weird Berkeley appeared to our family. You see, our family rarely sees the transient hobos in action. One guy was seriously mentally challenged while demonstrating his use of the newspaper vending racks to stash his found food. Although James forbade me to look, I looked. Our girls were curious as to why our local hobos were not as entertaining. Could it be that Berkeley people were more tolerant than our local leaders? We didn't stick around to ask.

Tour #2
James was determined to reserve a tour of a Dark Chocolate-making factory at 12:30. He kinda didn't care that Jenna wasn't old enough to take the tour. But Jenna and I showed him!! We had some delicious hot cocoa in the Scharffen Berger Cafe while waiting for the tour to finish.


Afterwards, looking for something to do, we drove to the west side of San Francisco to see the sites of Golden Gate Park. This little-known park is comparable in size to Central Park in NYC. We chose to spend our time in the Japanese Gardens and then walked over to the Botanical Gardens and Conservatory, and a very fun kids playground.

A cute note about this Conservatory and the Butterfly Gardens-- James spent time in and around San Francisco as a boy because his grandparents lived in nearby San Raphael. As a group, his family would visit GG Park, but James' father would not spend the money to enter the tempting glass-walled conservatory. That made little Jamie sad. James has finally lived the dream. I am truly happy we got to be there with him for that.

The flowery gardens outside the conservatory.

A desperate would-be escapee from the Butterfly Garden on James' backpack.

The climate inside the conservatory would be so sticky-humid and hot in one room and then very cold and humid in another. This photo kinda shows how huge some of these plants have become.
After the park, we jumped into the Denali and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to San Raphael. We drove around his grandparents former neighborhood. Amanda got her wish of the day and we dined at Quizno's. Our hotel that night was our favorite! I recommend the Embassy Suites in Mill Valley with all my heart!
Phew!! Wasn't that awesome? Hello? ((crickets)) Oh well, we had a wonderful day. I was accused of taking a chemical substance which enhanced my happiness, but I am quite sure I was high on life instead. Spending quality time with my family is the best type of happiness there is!

Next up... finding out that the navigation system in our car is better than any road map because it doesn't care if you take the main road......