January 14, 2014

• Epic Road Trip, day 22, part 1

  After a yummy breakfast the kids and I loaded up and aimed the car to our first planned stop, Fairfield, CA, where the Jelly Belly factory is.

  

  I’ve been here several times but the kids hadn’t and it never, ever hurts to visit. Except for the wallet, that always takes a beating. But, before we spent money we did the tour and saw the Jelly Belly Art. They made all these pictures out of beans!

  

  

  And my favorite,

  

  After finding room in the car (don’t ask how, I have no idea) for all the Belly Flops we bought (much cheaper), along with some gifts and jokes (barf flavor that looks like peach, for instance) and postcards, we snagged a few caches nearby and headed to some unknowns places.

  We were looking for a wacky roadside attraction but were having trouble navigating the roads due to traffic, convoluted one ways and turns that went the wrong direction, but I came around a curve and saw theses statues and knew I had to get a photo of the kids. We drove around the block as I explained that there is no parking and a lot of people out and about so what I wanted them to do was as soon as I pulled over to the side of the road, they were to jump out and pose, I’d get their picture through the car window and then they were to run as fast as they could back to the car before we got rear-ended. Ready? Go!

  

  Perfect.

  After that we found a garden that had a cache hidden in it. We enjoyed getting out of the car and stopping long enough to smell the flowers and admire textures and patterns for puzzles!

  

  

  

  The water looked gross to me, but it was hot and boys must play in whatever water they can find so that’s what Quin did.

  

  When he left to explore other things, I got a picture of the fountain. Isn’t it cool how the slight wind pulls the water around?

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  This one isn’t so much about the flower, but the big black bee that landed on it.

  

  Obviously I hadn’t seen many flowers on our trip so I got a little carried away. One last picture!

  

  Then, because it was too much to expect us to drive right by a giant severed hand without getting a photo, we had to work our way around the block and try again. Unfortunately this was right in a business district so parking was nonexistent but we had a red light against (well, for us in this case) and I was able to get this one through the windshield. K also got a photo of this, but a lady walked in front of it as she took the picture. Then, the light was green and it was time to go.

  We stopped at a park where a couple of geocaches were and I liked how the sun was right behind an extremely tall palm tree. When I got home I was surprised my camera had picked up the rainbow, which I hadn’t seen and I love how it’s circling the sun.

  

  I really enjoy California! But the rest of today’s drive will have to wait for another post.

  • 7:44 pm
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