Jelly Belly

cats&flowers

The seniors went on a very interesting trip yesterday, to the Jelly Belly Candy Company factory in Fairfield. I have never been to such a "pretty" factory. You walk in the main doors to almost overwhelming color and brilliance. The lobby and store area are all done in primary colors, and there are huge "paintings" done in every imaginable color of jelly bean.

Of course, there are taste testing areas, of all the gourmet Jelly Belly flavors, plus gummy candy favorites, and another area consisting of chocolates of every kind. The store had much interesting merchandise, hard to resist.

The tour itself was most interesting, conducted on second floor corridors suspended over the main factory floor, with large windows, and TV monitors for showing the finer points of manufacture. Who would think that it could be such an exacting art, acquiring the perfect Jelly Bellies, to be packed and shipped internationally?

There is a very large dining area at the factory, again, beautifully decorated - bright and cheery. The seniors chose to go elsewhere for lunch, a buffet, after the usual shopping part of the trip. Many of the ladies depend on these trips for their weekly outing for supplies and groceries, as the bus delivers them right to the door of the stores and they can use their walkers and canes. I believe outings such as this help to keep them young in spirit, and they do manage to get around once inside the buildings. There is much camaraderie, on the bus, at lunch, and doing all of the interesting things together. Hooray for seniors!