Mee Mee BakerySan Francisco, CAOur first stop this morning was to the little (and I do mean
little) bakery in the heart of Chinatown, San Francisco: Mee Mee Bakery. We were on a mission to see how a fortune cookie is made by a company who has been making them since 1950.
The bakery is on a very busy street in Chinatown; parking is tough. If you plan to spend a while in Chinatown, garage parking is available, but for a short visit, metered street parking is closer (just not very prevalent). We found a spot not too far and the walk was entertaining; Trevor couldn't get over the laundry hung to dry on the fire escape railings!
Interesting side note:
In Chinatown we passed a man and guide dog who recognized us from our visit to Guide Dogs yesterday! We had been asked to help feed one of the dogs reward kibbles while the trainer worked with him. Well...here on this massively-crowded street 30 minutes away, we run into this SAME trainer (different dog)!
Small world...
On our way to the city,
we drove over the
Golden Gate Bridge, where the bizarre fog
San Francisco is known for had obscured the
top of the bridge.
Kind of surreal.
This layer of fog just rested right over the bridge, which you can see in the background of this picture of the balancing clown.
The best thing by FAR about this bakery was being able to walk RIGHT UP to the fortune cookie making machine, bringing the process to life. Plus, the SMELL of the cookies
surrounds you while you're in the shop!
Watch these short clips to check out this amazing machine:
We left with a bag of a variety of different FLAVORS (strawberry, blueberry, plain...). About 20 cookies for $3 - and a demo too! Such a bargain...
(even with the $6 toll for crossing the bridge and the $2/hr metered parking :)Now - it's back over the bridge to Petaluma to
Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Factory
(no toll going out of the city!)
Mrs. Grossman's is a well-run and organized tour.
When you first arrive, you are given a sticker with a photo of the dog you see below - his name is Angus and he "lives" at the factory. We didn't see Angus but we did see a couple other dogs. The workers are encouraged to bring their dogs to work!
We watched a 20-min video narrated by Angus as he walked us around the factory explaining the sticker-making process and how it all began. Our guide then asked questions about the video, giving stickers for correct (and incorrect) answers.
We walked around the factory, right up to the machines used to color, cut, and roll the stickers. The heavy smell of glue would make me crazy if I spent all day in there!
Mrs. Grossman's idea for stickers came by cutting out a single heart from black construction paper and sending it to a company in Los Angeles to duplicate in red.
When she got it back, she was amazed at how perfect they all were and her company was born - on her dining room table, with her two teenage sons as employees. She got bigger and moved into a child's playhouse, then to a bigger house with more employees, and finally her current location in a huge factory.
That first heart sticker
is still her trademark:
The tours are very popular!
It's important you call ahead, at least in the summer. I heard more than one person show up and hear the tours were full. They are supposed to leave every hour but if there are not at least 10 people on the reservation list, they won't schedule one - but when they get to 30, they close the tour...so definitely call before going!
After the tour we decorated our own postcards with provided stickers. Then, of course, we headed into the gift shop where we bought more stickers than we ever needed - but with many "grab bag" bargains, it was hard to pass up! They'll give you a $3 off $20 coupon too (the tour costs $3), so you're compelled to spend at least that! Fun store and a tour worth taking!
Jelly Belly FactoryFairfield, CA
Jelly Belly will tell you the line for their California factory tours, which depart every 15 minutes, can be 90 min or more on a busy day.
We found a Thursday in mid August was pretty busy with a 40 min wait. We decided since we had toured this factory two years ago, we would simply spend a half an hour shopping...and sampling instead.
The tour is great though - like Mrs. Grossman's, Jelly Belly knows how to do tours. Below is a link to a video from their website of the Fairfield, CA tour - but note the photo on their page shows a very SHORT line in comparison to this one that we saw on Thurs, 8/13/2009! (it continues to snake around behind the photos on the wall...)
Jelly Belly Fairfield, CA toursThe crowds didn't stop us from sampling though.
...Or shopping! We managed to load up on some of the all time favorites, like Very Cherry, Watermelon, and S'mores, but some new ones too, like Chili Mango (whew, it has a bite!).
The box Trevor just had to have though, might surprise you (or not). Called, BeanBoozled, it contains 10 beans in some rather unappealing flavors, along with 10 look-alike beans in more traditional flavors...so you're never quite sure which one you'll get when you bite in:
Skunk Spray – Licorice
Rotten Egg - Buttered PopcornEar Wax - Café LatteBooger - Juicy PearBaby Wipes – CoconutPencil Shavings - Top BananaToothpaste - Berry BlueVomit – PeachMoldy Cheese - Caramel CornBlack Pepper - Plum
So you might think twice should Trevor offer you a Jelly Belly sample from our trip :)
And now...we head to Sacramento to begin the Gold Rush portion of our trip!!!!
Sutter's FortSacramento , CAIn 1841, a few years before the CA Gold Rush - one of the largest mass migrations in history - John Sutter built a fort.
Since he didn't own the land, he got a grant from the Mexican government who did own it. He found this perfect site, where not one, but two rivers meet, so it would be easy for people to get to his fort if they were coming by water.
He then built thick, strong walls, connecting them to make kind of a big square or rectangle. He put cannons around the top for protection. Inside the walls he had rooms for a doctor, for cooking, building barrels, sleeping, weaving, offices and more. He had a lot of help building the fort from many Indians who were already living on the land.
Today, the fort still exists in downtown Sacramento.
Some of the buildings are actually original; others have been restored. It is a state park and a popular field trip for 4th graders in the Sacramento area. There are signs outside the "trading post" (gift shop) telling students to leave their backpacks outside. It took about an hour to walk around the fort - there were only a few others inside.
When you first arrive inside the fort (small admission fee) you come to a barrel with a button to push. It explains how to take an audio tour of Sutter's Fort:
The tour begins with the discovery of gold by John Marshall in 1848, which started the big migration west. Gold wasn't discovered at Sutter's Fort but John Sutter is still very important to the discovery. The big discovery that started the Gold Rush happened about 45 miles away from Sutter's Fort in an area where there are a lot of two things: WATER and BIG TREES. When you mix water and big trees, you get good ingredients for a sawmill. Sutter wanted a sawmill because he needed lumber to build more things (and of course, paper!) and even though his fort was next to two rivers, there were not many big trees nearby.
Sutter and Marshall were partners. Marshall could build and Sutter could pay for it. So they agreed to build a sawmill in this area with the big trees on the American River. Marshall built big water wheels that were turned by the moving river water, then these moving wheels powered the saw! After the trees were cut, the lumber is floated down the river - a perfect combination. Sutter had water at his fort, but he didn't have the big trees. So, when Marshall found this perfect spot in Coloma, right next to the south fork of the American River, they agreed to build the mill there.
Things were going fine until one day Marshall was inspecting the sawmill and he noticed the water wasn't flowing as fast as it should. He needed to make the river deeper so he had the Indians that were helping build the mill loosen the rocks in the riverbed. The water ran all night over the loosened rocks to wash away the dirt. The next morning Marshall went out to inspect the river to see if it was better. He looked down and noticed some very shiny gold pieces just sitting right there among the rocks in the riverbed. He picked them up and tried to crush them. Gold is very, very hard and when Marshall couldn't bend the pieces with his fingernail or even crush them with a rock, he was pretty sure they were gold. One of the pieces was about the size of half of a pea, which is pretty big for gold! He put the pieces in his hat and brought them to the other workers shouting, "Boys, by God, I believe I've found a gold mine!"
Marshall brought the pieces back to Sutter and told him he had something he wanted to show him - in private. They went into a small room at Sutter's Fort and Marshall took out the gold. Sutter ran some more tests just to be SURE it really was gold. The little pieces passed all the tests; it was definitely real gold! Sutter and Marshall made a deal to keep the discovery a secret for a while. That deal didn't last very long...
At Sutter's Fort, you can see the same room where Marshall showed Sutter the gold:
Another room at Sutter's Fort contains some original artifacts from the Donner party. We're in the middle of reading the book, "The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party" so this was of special interest to us. The book is incredibly moving...in fact, last night I couldn't put it down after reading to Trevor and finished the last 4 chapters after he fell asleep (then couldn't get to sleep myself laying in bed thinking of how awful it all must have been, so awful it's hard to even wrap your mind around).
They have a replica of an 1846 covered wagon built especially for Sutter's Fort.
Because Sutter's was usually the first place emmigrants stopped when they reached California after their exhausting journey west, they were tired, hungry, and sometimes very sick. Sutter's Fort had food, clothing, medicine, and a doctor (see the room below with garlic hanging!) that would treat the needy travelers for free. I know it looks like a jail with the ropes across the doorway to this room, but they're there just to keep visitors out of the room. Back in the 1800's, there were no bars or ropes over the doorway...just a door that could be opened/closed.
The audio tour is great. It is motion sensored, so as soon as you approach a door to look in at the restored room and artifacts, the voice magically begins narrating a description of what you are looking at! Many people are more inclined to listen than read, so it's a great way to deliver information...especially to children.
Sutter's Fort is definitely a worthwhile stop on any Gold Rush road trip. It is not located along Historic Hwy 49, but it's place in history as playing an important role in the Gold Rush years is undeniable.
Tonight we pick up dad at Sacramento airport so he can join us for the next 3 days of our journey, and tomorrow, another busy day as it's off to
- Marshall Gold Discovery State Park,
- a tour of an underground gold mine at Sutter's Creek, and
- the historic gold rush town of Columbia!
