December 27, 2006
Corny
Today was the BEST DAY EVER! Taking advantage of the fruits of my tireless and fruitful research into Michigan tourist attractions, we went to Battle Creek today to visit KELLOGG'S CEREAL CITY!
KCC is Kellogg's Corp's museum/family tourist attraction featuring the lovable and colorful characters from Kellogg's brand cereals. You know and love Toucan Sam, SnapCrackle+Pop, Cornflake Cornelius, and of course, Tony the Tiger! And they love you, too, and want you to start your day right with Kellogg's cereals.
The Kellogg's company has its roots in the bizarre world of 19th century health reforms, a la The Road to Wellville. Indeed, they had a preserved copy of WKKellogg's tract by that name. The museum portion of Cereal City alludes to, but basically glosses over, the odd beliefs and teachings of the Kellogg brothers, such as the idea that eating bland food will decrease one's sexual desire. No sexual desire here, folks. Cereal is for KIDS! Indeed, it's a fun place for the kiddies, with a play area and plenty of interactive stuff. They no longer offer a factory tour, so instead they have a simulated production line that you can go through, fully guided by some veteran Kellogg's employee (seems like the cushiest job at K-logs), which at the end of, you are given hot, freshly produced cornflakes from a gumball dispenser-looking spout.
You can pay $20 to have your portrait taken and applied to a box of Frosted Flakes. We passed, in favor of procuring a plush Cornelius and Toucan Sam. We had our picture taken twice with the guy in the Tony the Tiger suit. Cornelius is the green rooster mascot of Corn Flakes. (he represents the boring cereals, Toucan Sam represents the gross ones).
We also saw uncooked Froot Loops. They look like brightly colored balls of Playdoh. Nothing healthy about those freak-ass things. Those are colors nature intended for lizards who need to scare of predators. Not for human consumption.
I highly recommend KELLOGG'S CEREAL CITY if you find yourself in Michigan for any reason.
And you do need a reason.
We had plans to visit the Air Zoo but didn't have enough time to do both, so we ended up going to a pizzeria recommended by Juli in her college town of Kalamazoo. T'was good pizza.
I've been consuming way too much cheese.
Posted by Zerd at December 27, 2006 08:29 PM