Good morning everyone, happy (Cyber) Monday!  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Weekend and ate way more than you should have (just like me).  So… Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and Budweiser Beer, have those 2 companies ever been mentioned in the same sentence before?  Well today they have.  Over the weekend, my parents and brother were in town, so we decided to do some not-so-common things outside of San Francisco.  Our first stop was the Jelly Belly Jelly Bean factory tour in Fairfield, CA.  Once inside, you can go on a free self-guided tour of the facility to see how the Jelly Belly Jelly Beans are made and packaged.  The tour has 18 videos that range from 30 seconds to 3 minutes and described the steps of the jelly bean making process.  We went on Saturday morning and unfortunately, the machines were not running, but the tour was still very informative and fun.  I had no idea how popular Jelly Belly Jelly Bean art was and there were many statues and portraits made out of thousands of jelly beans.

I took a picture of this poster so I could remember which Jelly Belly Jelly Bean looked and tasted like.  At the end of the tour, they gave everyone a free small bag of jelly beans.  During the production process, if a jelly bean is too small, too big, or misshapen, the jelly bean is rejected.  All those rejected jelly beans wind up in big 2 pound bags called Belly Flops.  Each bag costs $10 or you can get 5 bags for $30.  It is fun to see the interesting shapes of the jelly bean Belly Flops.  Along with making jelly beans, the factory makes other tyoes of candy treats.  The whole tour took us about an hour from start to finish.

Just down the street from the Jelly Belly Jelly Bean factory is a Budweiser Beer Brewery Tour in Fairfield, CA.  The tours cost $5 and include two 10 once samples of various beers brewed here (not just Budweiser and Bud Light).  On the day we were there, the beer making process was not running and the plant was being cleaned, but we did learn how the beer is made, stored, packaged, and served.  Our tour guide (Armando) was terrific, he knew everything and was very passionate about the beers made here.  I didn’t take any pictures inside, but the Clydesdale statue outside was cool.  The real Clydesdale horses visit this plant during spring time and it is a big celebration.  The entire tour lasted about an hour with a final stop at the bar for your second 10 once beer.  I was surprised to learn how many beer brands were made at this plant.

After finishing both tours, we were pretty hungry, so we went to a local Mexican restaurant called El Pitayo.  My mom and I split a Super Burrito and it was awesome.  After filling our bellies, we drove around wine country and stopped at the Miner Family Winery.  My parents had a wine tasting and I just enjoyed the view from the winery.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!