Hangin’ Out With Uncle Shawn

We descended on Shawn around 10:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. He showed us his apartment and then he very graciously allowed me to take advantage of his printer. After I had gone through an unexpectedly exorbitant amount of paper, we headed out to see what Fairfield and the surrounding area had to show us. Since our truck only seats five and his Accord does too, we couldn’t all fit in one car. That meant that I got the rare treat of driving around with just Shawn while Bobby manned the three kids in the truck.

Shawn and I are six years apart and growing up spent a lot of time together since our older three siblings were heading off to college. We used to watch GI Joe and Transformers together in the afternoons after school. When we were older we would go rock climbing together at Great Falls on the Maryland side. (Although I remember not making as much time for that as I should — something I regret now.) I love spending time with Shawn. He is very easy to be with.

We first headed to the Jelly Belly factory tour, but since this is spring break for many, the line was incredibly long. We abandoned ship and headed to Suisun, a nearby town for a short walk along the marina and some lunch.



Everyone ordered fairly standard fare (BLTs, chicken nuggets, gyros) except for Conor. He ordered fish and chips, expecting a few pieces of fried fish. This is what he got:



Regardless of the size, Conor enjoyed his lunch, as did we all, and thus happily filled, we headed back to Jelly Belly. The line was slightly shorter and so we waited. I got into a verbal altercation (which I hate doing) with an incredibly rude woman in front of us, but beyond that, the wait was fairly ho-hum.



The tour was interesting and the machines were great to watch. Jelly Bellies are the only jelly beans that are flavored both inside the bean and on the outside of the shell. We saw Jelly Bellies churning in a machine that looked like a cement mixer. This was where the outer shell was put on, with alternate applications of a confectioner’s glaze and a liquid goop that contained the flavoring and colors. The tour ended, of course, in the gift shop so we did our part for the professional dental community and spent wads of cash on sugar. We’ll start calling for dental appointments tomorrow.








Everyone has to wear a hat on the tour. Shawn and I had trouble getting them to fit on our Miller heads!

The kids sugared up, Shawn took us on a hike at a beautiful park overlooking Fairfield.





Elise and Conor led us on an arduous climb up some rocks, definitely not on the path. But the view from the top was great, well worth the effort.



After the hike, we refortified ourselves with coffee from Peet’s and then Shawn gave us a tour of his work at The Daily Republic. Shawn is the assistant news editor at the paper and we got to see it all, including his desk and the printing press.



For dinner we met Shawn’s California family — Tony and Andrea along with their 14-year old twins, Daniel and Stefanie. Shawn and Andrea worked together at The Daily Republic and they have been friends for many years. They are a wonderful crew and we had a great time getting to know them. All of the kids (except Elise, of course) were pretty quiet in the beginning, but had warmed up to each other by the time the main course was over. This might have had something to do with the fact that Andrea told her kids that tonight they would be meeting their future spouses, but I could be wrong. By dessert, Conor and Stefanie were doing the “Soulja Boy” for all of us!



Shawn picked a wonderful restaurant for dinner and we all left stuffed. Tomorrow we get another day with Shawn. I think we’re going to see some redwoods. Should be cool!