Hey Friends!  So today I had planned to give you a recap of our Christmas Bucket List, but I forgot the paper at home that I recorded what we did on what day.  I didn’t want to just put up anything, so I figured I’d wait, and instead, updated you a little about how our trip to Northern California is going in the San Jose!  So far it’s been busy busy busy, yesterday was insane waking up at 2:30am to get to the airport, the nice part was we got in so early we had plenty of time to do so many activities!

Jelly Belly Factory Tour

They won’t let you take pictures in the actually factory, but it was really interesting seeing how everything was produced.  Food science is always so interesting, they said to get the flavors for the Jelly Bean they have to start with the actual flavor (coconut, kiwi, etc), so my question is what do they start with for stinky socks Harry Potter flavors?

Factory Tour

My favorite part about the Jelly Belly tour?  The Wine & Chocolate tasting was amazing!

I mean what isn’t to love?  Wine + Chocolate = amazing.  It included a wine glass with the Jelly Belly Logo printed on it as a souvenir.  I love this picture because Mr. Hungry’s double fisting with a wine glass in one hand and chocolate in the other!

I would HIGHLY recommend doing the wine and chocolate tasting if your up there!

Il Fiorello Olive Oil Tasting

After the factory tour we headed out to do an olive oil tasting (it was the day of tastings!) which I’ve never done before so it was really fun!

They actually had you taste the olive oil straight, which really allowed you to get the flavors!  Fun fact, we learned that a joke in Italy is “1,2,3 cough” because a good olive oil should make you cough.  It definitely did make me cough a little bit, at first I was trying to hold back my cough, then he explained that’s totally normal.  Whew!

Afterward we did a vinegar tasting, then appetizers, then gelato with a lemon olive oil on it, it was a lot but also so much fun! Bonus, there were many opportunities to practice with my new DSLR!

I’m getting artsy!

Full of jelly beans, wine, and olive oil ….

Nutcracker

Today we had a lovely lunch at Amici’s Pizzaria in downtown San Jose, I got a Spinach Salad with Chicken it also had roasted peppers, red onion, feta, bacon, pine nuts and red wine vinaigrette, seriously DELICIOUS!

Then we went to see the Nutcracker!

I always forget how much I love the ballet, I’m so glad we got to go! Fun fact, I do wear glasses for distance.  At the end of grad school I noticed I couldn’t see the powerpoint from my preferred back of the classroom spot so I eventually had to get glasses (check out this super old post from when I first got them!)

Now it is time for some of this!

and this….

Have a great night!!!!