We spent three nights in San Fran. The first full day we decided to take fairly easy, and allow the little ones to get their bearings a bit. Road tripping can be rough on toddlers.

We did fit in a visit the Jelly Belly factory, though!

The Jelly Belly staff conduct free tours of the factory, which give a bird’s eye view of the factory floor. This includes both the manufacturing of the jelly beans, as well as the packaging. Sadly you’re not allowed to take pictures during the tour itself. (The cool hats were compulsory for the tour).

The tour took about 40 minutes, and was punctuated with jelly bean tastings.  Of additional interest were the various jellybelly artworks that dotted the walls. And did you know that President Ronald Regan was a big jelly bean fan?  They made them in red, white and blue, just for him.  One of the many fun facts we learned.

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Sugar rush in the gift shop.

The rest of the day we spent cooling off in the motel pool. Most of the motels we stayed in had a pool, and Natey in particular probably would have been happy to forego the touring and stick with the pool!

Little Matty-pants, with the cutest dimple ever.

THIS FAMILY.  Loving the spa, or as they call it in some places in the US, whirlpool.  Eva’s swimmers are super-cool.  If only they came in my size.

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This is what holidays are about; sometimes just doing not a great deal of anything.   Btw -that little wooden boat is one that Andy designed and that he and Steve constructed together while John and I were in Houston.  It’s a well made little thing with a wooden sail and a little wooden sailor that Andy named Mike, after Brenna’s dad.  Incredibly this boat AND the sailor survived Andy’s whole trip and made it back to Australia eventually.