Krispy Kreme Field Trip - YUM!

This week my kids and I had a very impromptu and last minute field trip to a local Krispy Kreme Donut factory which is located about 20 minutes from my home.  Let me just say that from the moment you step out of your car in the parking lot, you are hit with the most amazing smell.  I don't know how the people that live near the factory stand it!  I would gain weight on the wonderful smell alone.

Before I get started on the tour photos, I thought I'll share some facts about Krispy Kreme that we learned while visiting.  Krispy Kreme was born in Winston-Salem, NC, in the summer of 1937 by Vernon Rudolph.  He purchased a yeast raised donut recipe from a French chef in New Orleans.  He started selling the donuts to local grocery stores.  The smells permeating the air attracted attention and people wanted to buy the hot donuts they could smell, so he started selling them out of his factory location.  Over the years these donuts became more and more popular.  Shops began popping up all over the southeast.  At the time of Vernon Rudolph's death in 1973, there were 60 shops.  1989 brought the very first Krispy Kreme retail store front located in Greensboro, NC.  Today there are  1000 stores across the county.  They can even be found in Canada and Mexico.

The factory we visited in Concord, NC services the entire north and south east, even Canada.  They produce 300,000 donuts per day 364 days a year.  These donuts are shipped to grocery stores, gas stations and other retail locations.  Now that's a lot of donuts!  We also learned that as an employee of Krispy Kreme, they get all the free donuts they want, along with free Krispy Kreme coffee and Coco-Cola products.  Now you can understand where they get the energy to make that many donuts!

During our tour the line was running filled donuts.  Creme filled, chocolate glazed donuts to be precise.  We started out by viewing the donuts rising inside huge glass ferris wheel type machines.  Up, down and around they go until they have risen to the proper height.

Once they are finished rising, they get dumped out onto a conveyer belt of 350 degree oil.  They cook on one side and then are carefully flipped and cooked on the other side.  Before heading into a cooling compartment along the line.

 

After cooling, any duds are disposed of and two workers stationed on either side of the line carefully use a machine to poke a hole in each donut and fill them with creme.  Each worker fills two donuts at the same time.

 Next the donuts are placed back on the line and go through a machine that gives them their chocolate glaze.  Lastly they are inspected for perfection and placed by hand into their individual sealed boxes. These boxes are stacked at the end up the line and then shipped all over the country.

All of the kids that participated in the tour got to take home a complimentary package of freshly baked donut holes.  I may or may not have made them share. -grins-

All in all its a quick tour that took maybe 30 minutes in all.  But, it was interesting and there were free donut holes.  Win, win!!  Basically, this factory is a larger version of what you would see at one of their franchised retail locations.  If you ever get the chance, check it out!  Its a really "sweet" tour.  Pun intended.  LOL

PBS/WTCI TV Station Tour

Today we had the opportunity to take a tour of our local PBS station. I have to say that having toured one of our "big three" channel stations last year, I though I knew what to expect. PBS/WTCI went WAY beyond my expectations.

First, they broke us up into groups. The younger kids went with one tour guide, and the older kids went with anotherr. They took us to a bright, fun room to watch an episode of Martha Speaks. When setting up your field trip, you have the option of choosing what you'd like to focus on. After the show was over the kids did an activity sheet and played some games with the tour guide. She then proceeded to let the kids each go to the small adjacent library and pick out a book to take home with them. All of the books there were from PBS shows. My kids all chose Magic School Bus chapter books.

Next, we got to meet with a designer in his office and he showed us how the promos and commercials are added in. He actually showed us a promo that he had been working on. We saw how the image comes in, extra information is added, sounds and voice overs are added, and finally, the final product. Very cool!

Our guide then showed the control rooms and explained what goes on it them, where the director sits during programs, and finally, into the studio. The kids were all able to play in front of a green screen and make parts or all of themselves disappear by placing a green drape over them. They also got to be on TV (not live), and we got an explanation of the teleprompter and camera equipment used.

Before we left, each of the kids got a goody bag filled with stickers, information and another book. We had such a great time and learned so much! I highly recommend visiting!

Visiting the Nina and the Pinta.

Sorry for not posting the first part of the week, but we've had some seriously nasty storms in our area both Monday and Tuesday, and something was up with my internet.  I was unable to post and read email until today for some reason.

Today my family had the awesome opportunity to visit a replica of Christopher Columbus' favorite sailing ship, The Nina.  We also were able to tour The Pinta.  The Nina is as close to the original as could possibly be made.  This ship was actually used in the movie 1492.  How cool is that?

The tour guide that showed us around both of the ships was extremely friendly and knowledgeable.  He told the kids all about how the ships were built, how they compared to the original ships, and so much more.

Its just amazing to think that anyone would want to sail off into the wild blue yonder on such a small ship.  Not knowing what was out there, not even sure of where they were going, sleeping on the deck, dealing with storms, yucky food, animal smells, and so much more.  Obviously, I'm not the adventurous sort.

 

The boys were completely fascinated by the huge tiller used to steer the ship. Here they were looking out the hole that the tiller goes through.

Here are some of the many zillion pictures I took. 

To me, this field trip was made even more special because we are currently studying explorers.  How often do you think you actually get a chance to stand on the deck of an actual sailing ship built exactly like one from 1492?  This was one of those awesome experiences that I hope my kids won't soon forget.

Corn Maze Fun!

On Friday we went to a local corn maze for a fun afternoon of wandering around inside a seriously confusing maze of corn stalks.  We have visited this particular maze before, but this year I set up the field trip consisting of around 70 people.  Nothing like a little added stress!  Once we all got signed in, paid, and accounted for, we were off.  The group I was in seemed to do fairly well in finding our way through.

They have signs posted throughout the maze that have questions at varying levels of difficulty.  If you can answer them correctly, they will point you in the right direction.  Of course, even if you go in the right direction, there are still lots of side trails that lead you around and around in circles.  I can't tell you how many times we ended up making big loops or wrong turns.

There are also these elevated platfforms in a couple of places to help you see your way.  Its fairly easy to keep your bearings at this maze though since you can see the mountain and barn at all times.  Even knowing where the entrance and exit is, we still managed to get completely turned around.  The kids had a great time though and that's what matters, right?

After finally wandering around for quite some time, we managed to find our way out.  We then hopped on the hay ride with a bunch of our friends.

After the hayride, the kids went on a super cute cow train ride for a quick trip around the field.  

It was a nice, relaxing way to spend a lovely fall day with friends.  What could be better?

Fall Fun at Little River Farms!

Sorry for not posting yesterday.  It was a crazy day at the Crow house.  Just didn't have time to sit down and do anything yesterday.  Do you ever have those days?

Today my homeschool group had our annual fall event at Little River Farms.  Aside from the fact that I had to get up and out way too early, it was a great day.  Here are some of the highlights...

The gang's all here...well a bunch of us anyway.

Haley & Ryan with the donkey.

Goats!  

Hedgehog...isn't she cute?

Chinchillas are SO soft!

Buddy the umbrella cockatoo was so loud!

The boys loved the bearded dragons!

Turkey time.

Ryan, aka The Turkey Whisperer.  This female turkey would walk right up to him and talk to him through the fence.  It was the funniest thing!

Check out this chicken's hairdo!  His name is Tina...Tina Turner that is. LOL

In addition to all of the cool animals at the farm, we also got to go on a hay ride, some kids went on pony rides (for an extra charge), we had a picnic lunch and they played on the playground.  

Lastly, the kids had a stick horse (or buffalo as the case may be) race.  Not quite sure who won, but they sure had fun and they ran off some energy for the ride home.  BONUS!  

Now we're home, tired, dirty and listening to the thunder roll.  Literally... now if we could just get some rain to go with the thunder.  Its been so dry here.  Hope your day was as good as ours.

WDEF Channel 12 Field Trip

This morning we went on a field trip to one of our local television stations. This was by far my kids favorite field trip to date! I really think the highlight of their whole visit was watching themselves "disappear" on the studio's green screen. Not only was this a fun field trip, but it was very educational. I doubt we'll ever look at the news the same again!

Haley had the opportunity to pretend to be a newscaster and read the mornings news from the news desk, while on camera and reading the teleprompter. She loved it!



Here the kids are "disappearing" on the green screen!



Checking out the command center.

Chattanooga Times Free Press Field Trip

Today we had the opportunity to visit our local paper, the Chattanooga Times Free Press. We were amazed at the size of the printing press! Our tour guide shared lots of interesting facts about the history of the paper and of the printing process. We got to see how the papers are made from start to finish. Really amazing stuff!