One night I was reading an American Girl book to Mary Grace and the lead character mentioned going to Hershey Park while she was in Pennsylvania. I turned to Mary Grace and said, hey, Hershey Park! Would you like to go there?
Anne and I had mentioned going there at some point in the last 3 years but it was always a destination that was somewhere down the road... like Disney. I mentioned it to Anne that night and that was enough for her to take the ball and run with it. She put together all the details, including the accommodations, discount passes to the park, an itinerary and even printed directions. In addition to Hershey, we would also go to Ikea in Pittsburgh to get supplies for the basement!
So I took off of work a Thursday and Friday in early August and off we went. The long drive there was softened by lots of car activities including watching a Scooby Doo movie on the iPad. Between the printed directions and the GPS on my phone, getting there was a breeze, except for that stretch of route 81 that went though a clone of Jefferson Road in Henrietta.
When we arrived, we immediately went to Chocolate World. We parked, stretched and made a beeline for bathrooms and restaurants. On the way in, we got to take it all in. LOTS to do, but alas, the factory tour that Anne had done as a young girl was replaced with something more modern.
After lunch we visited with the Reeses Peanut Butter Cup character, then when the Hershey Bar character came out, the line was instantaneous and insane so we skipped him.
We explored the gift shop afterward and I snapped this photo next to the "make your own Hershey Kisses mix". We ended up buying some at William's instance. :)
We first did the Hershey Experience Ride thing. I was so cool that the kids wanted to go on it again, so we did! It's their summer vacation after all! Best part? The singing cows, of course!
Next, we did Make You Own Chocolate Bar, which was very interesting. The kids had fun picking their ingredients and seeing their chocolate bar going down the assembly line.
We left shortly afterwards and checked in at the hotel. We had a little time before we had to leave for dinner and the amusement park, so we all went to the pool and played there and in the hot tub. Thankfully, we had it all to ourselves!
Lackluster quick dinner, then off to Hershey Amusement Park! We got an OK parking spot but still walked a good 20 minutes to the front gate. The kids were so excited to see all the Hershey product banners, etc.but we rushed them into the park since we only had 2.5 hours until the park closed.
That night, we did the monorail, the gondolas and a few kids rides.
Day two coverage in the next post!
