On the way, I tried explaining to Maggie what we would see, putting it in terms she could easily understand. "We're going to learn how milk gets from cows to our grocery stores. She replied (in a duh tone of voice that was way too teenage-like for my taste), "I know how it gets from the cows to the stores. The farmer goes 'squeeze, squeeze, squeeze' and milks the cow, then he puts it into a bucket, and he pours the milk into a bottle and takes it to the store."
We weren't allowed to take photos during the tour, but that didn't stop me from whipping out my camera before and after it. Here are some not-on-the-tour highlights of our day:
A special parking place was reserved for ... Maggie?
No, evidently that's the name of the huge brown Mayfield cow.
She didn't enjoy having to wear this hairnet ...
... but she sure enjoyed the post-tour ice cream!
From left, Paxton, Meghan, Lilah, Ian, Cason, Alex, and Maggie all enjoyed posing by "Maggie."
After our visit, we found a really nice park (called simply Athens Regional Park) where we ate lunch and let the kids play.
Maggie and Heidi on the very top of the playset.
The tour was neat, especially to a group of kids who were mesmerized by thousands of milk jugs zipping past them on conveyor belts. We even got to see them making the famous yellow Mayfield jugs -- they pour melted plastic into molds, then blow air into the center for nine seconds to "inflate" the jugs. Pretty cool. We were also allowed to see some of the ice cream production lines. No cows though ... Mayfield contracts with multiple dairy farms who transport their milk to the factory.
When I asked Maggie what her favorite part of the day was, she first answered, "Getting to stand in the trailer." It took me a minute to figure out she was talking about the cow trailer. When I clarified, "No, what was your favorite part about the tour we did inside the building?" she replied, "Getting to play with all the toys at the end."
That would be the gift shop.
3 comments:
Funny what her favorite parts were. That always cracks me up to see what they like the best. Looks like you guys had fun. Wish we didn't have such a busy day and could have joined you!
Sounds like fun! I want to go sometime after Joshua gets over his milk allergy. Boy, that would be mean to take him and then he not be able to have ice cream afterwards! How funny about the cow named Maggie!
LOVE that you toured a dairy! :-)
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