Touring a Candy Factory..... Heck Yeah!

Okay, so we Homer's have a few interests. Honestly, we're fairly simple creatures.

1. American History

2. Baseball

3. Disney

4. Food

Anytime one or more of these manifests itself on vacation, it's sure to be a good time. Our most recent discovery was the Jelly Belly Factory in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Who knew this little bit of yumminess was between our two ballgames? We just had to stop.

This was the queue where we waited for our tour to begin. We donned our mandatory head gear (although we were never actually by any food production areas, so I think the mandatory part may have been a little overkill) and the tour began.

So, you're not actually allowed to take pictures during the tour, which apparently, made Will very upset. However, we did get free jelly beans at the end of the tour.

Now, I need to be completely honest with you. I am not a huge Jelly Belly fan. The big jar you buy at Costco with the million and a half flavors is not a done deal for me. Don't get me wrong, I like most of your basic jellybean flavors, but every once in a while, you bite into something, that someone in a dark R&D lab thought would be a good idea. I mean, buttered popcorn.... if I wanted that flavor, I'd go to the movies. Ditto the ice cream flavors.... mint chocolate chip is just not the same in a candy form. However, being able to pick out and purchase as many jelly beans as I want in whatever flavors I choose is HEAVEN. Let's just say I bought lots of watermelon jelly beans! It was so much fun and we ate way too much candy. They have a lot of the rejects (in size and shape, not in flavor) for sale and we bought bags and bags of what they call "belly flops." We won't even go into the ten pound box of Sunkist Fruit Gems that my mom bought. Let's just say that my grandchildren will be eating them years from now.

At the end of the tour, even Will had come around and Allie had her crystal jellybean. What a booger! (And just in case you're wondering, they have that flavor too!)