Fair Oaks Farms

What an interesting experience today was!  Robyn and the girls arrived shortly before 10:00 this morning to pick me up, and we were off on our way to a dairy adventure.  After paying our entrance fees, we immediately signed up for the next bus tour of the dairy operation.  We had a half hour to kill before boarding, so we decided to take in the 4-D movie.

We all donned 3-D glasses that were almost bigger than the girl's’ faces.  But what the heck is 4-D?  We were about to find out.  As we sat watching the movie pop out at us, a tractor rolled by harvesting grain in the movie and the seats began to shake and rumble.  Then an actor that was demonstrating the old method of milking a cow by hand turned to the audience and squirted a stream of milk from the cow’s teat at us, and a blast of water sprayed each of us from the seat in front of us.  That did it!  Both girls were scared out of their wits and screaming bloody murder!   They both climbed into their mother’s lap in between screeches.  Personally, I thought the whole thing was a hoot.  8-10 year old kids would be thrilled with the movie as well, but little ones not so much.   The finale was a cow burping at us and then turning around and sending  some fresh manure our way!  Now there was a THE END!

 

Needless to say, the movie almost created a disaster to the day.  We were able to find a play area for those under five, to help two young ladies forget about their traumatic experience.

Eventually, we boarded the cow bus and took the tour of one of the big dairy farms about a mile away.  It was more than boring for young children, but I enjoyed it all.  What an operation it is.  The cows are free to wander around to get their feed, and socialize, and visit the rotating milking parlor on their own three times a day.

 

By the time we finished the tour, the girls were hungry and we had a picnic lunch out of the back of the car.

Then it was on to the playground before enjoying some dishes of ice cream made on the premises.  There is also a tour available of their cheese making facilities, but this was definitely not something to put the kids through.  I purchased a small slab of Havarti cheese to enjoy.  I also took advantage of a free taste of their cheese fondue.   They didn’t tell me until after I had the cheese soaked piece of bread in my mouth that it was made with jalapeño peppers!    Both Robyn and I agreed that this would be a great outing for families with a bit older children.

 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy