We left Milford this morning and headed over to Norwalk, Conn., because we had heard of this place called Stew Leonard’s, reputed to be the World’s Largest Dairy Store. When we got there, we were kind of disappointed to see what looked like just a regular grocery store from the outside, but we decided to venture in anyway, just in case. We were not disappointed! Stew’s houses its own milk bottling plant right inside the store:

And as if that weren’t enough, it also houses a variety of animatronic figures that sing and dance while you browse for groceries. For example, there is singing animatronic butter:

There’s also a band of singing milk cartons, a lobster trapeze artist, singing lettuce and bananas, a talking cow, etc., etc., etc. The other cool thing about Stew’s is that they have information readily available about where their products come from with photos of the farms and the like. They also have a live video feed of their own dairy farm:

As Brian said, that’s transparency!

So after that, we got on the road and went through several states, starting with New York:

Then, New Jersey:

Then, briefly, Delaware!

Then, Pennsylvania:

In Penn., we made a stop at the Herr Foods snack factory to take their factory tour.

It was a great tour — one of the best we’ve done. We learned all about how Jim Herr started the company with, like, a single kettle and a potato peeler, and we saw pretzels, popcorn, and chips being made. We were the only people on the tour at that point (we totally dodged a bullet because an entire busload of schoolchildren had been on the tour before ours), so that was really fun. Our tour guide went onto the manufacturing floor towards the end of the tour and filled a giant bag of freshly cooked potato chips just for us! They were still warm and everything. Obviously, we are now obsessed with Herr’s. Check out our giant potato chip bag!

Thanks, Herr Foods!

After that, we continued into Maryland:

We met up with some friends for dinner, which was fantabulous as always, and then we headed home. We’re back in D.C. now and have about a week to recover before we get back on the road again!! We have a lot to do this week, of course, but we’ll try to check in, especially if there are any balcony updates.

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