Our Trip to Pennsylvania- Day Five: Hershey

Our first stop today was Hershey's Chocolate World. We hopped right on the ride through the "factory" as soon as we got there. Jackson was amazed at all the chocolate, and Adam liked the singing cows. It just made me want some chocolate. It was a good thing they gave us all a miniature Hershey bar at the end of the ride. We then walked through the gift shop and drooled over all the candy they had. I never knew Hershey made so much stuff. Some of it wasn't even chocolate!
Next, we went to a new attraction called "Make Your Own Chocolate Bar", and you really do. You decide what you want in your bar and watch it go down the factory line being made. It was really cool.

Then we headed with our homemade bars to buy some of the stuff we drooled over earlier. I think we ended up with one of each! Sorry, Aunt Jamie we couldn't find any Nestle stuff anywhere!

We went to a diner to eat lunch and then headed over to Hershey Gardens. They had a Butterfly House, a Children's Garden, and many rose gardens. It was awfully hot, but a neat place to visit.

It was getting late which meant it was time to start our journey home. We have arrived in Harrisonburg, VA and will be back in Mebane before we know it.

We visited with the Hershey Kiss at the store. Jackson really wanted to buy one of the world's largest chocolates- Hershey Bar, Hershey Kiss, Twizzlers, you name it! He settled on some Jolly Ranchers, not even chocolate! Adam wanted everything he saw no matter what it was.

Here we are in the Make Your Own Chocolate Bar factory. As you can see we had to wear the Factory Worker get-up. Haitnets, aprons, and gloves. I even had to take all of my jewelry off. Adam and Jackson are scanning their ticket and choosing the ingredients they want to add to their chocolate bar. You could even put sprinkles on top.

I think this is Jackson's bar. He chose chocolate cookie bits, vanilla chips, and rainbow jimmies, i.e. sprinkles. They said they used some kind of vibration system to get the right amount of insides added to the bars. This is how they get the peanuts in the Mr. Goodbar.

The bar is getting chocolate poured over it to "close it up". The screens vibrate to get all the extra chocolate off.

Sprinkles get added on top (if you wanted them- I opted out.) and the bar heads through a cooler. While your bar is being cooled, you head over to another computer where you design your wrapper. Once the bar is cooled it gets sent through another machine where it is boxed, a laser prints your name on the box and then the box is sealed. A lady on the end takes your bar, puts it in a tin box and then wraps the tin box with your designed wrapper.

Here we are in our chocolate factory attire holding our finished products. It was a pretty cool experience.

Jackson and Adam sit on a cow in the Children's Garden at Hershey Gardens.

There was a "Spa Garden" which had a claw foot tub full of flowers and these big stone slippers.

Adam had to try the slippers on, too.

This has been a great trip. I think Sesame Place will stand out in Adam's mind as he is still looking to go back to Elmo's House. He also been looking forward to each new hotel visit. Jackson seemed to enjoy everything we did, and I hope he will remember it all. I have loved having the chance to see "the world" and these new experiences through the eyes of a 7 and 3 year old. You never know what they will get out of something, and it's usually a completely different perspective from what I see. It's been a lot of fun, but I am definitely ready to sleep in my own bed and am ready to send the kids to their own room. At 10:30, we are still waiting for Adam to fall asleep. He has just now stopped turning flips in the bed and has finally quieted down. This has given us some insight as to what he must do up in his room each night after we tuck him in and head back downstairs. I miss my Sarah and can't wait to get her back either!