Hershey, PA

Saturday, June 20th, 2009
We got packed up and got ready to leave the condo by 10:00 a.m. We headed to Chick Fil-A for breakfast after saying goodbye to everyone. Said goodbye to Danny, who was headed to the airport with Joe and Paulette, and then Chris and I were headed off to Hershey, Pennsylvania with Grandma and Grandpa trailing behind us. We made it to Hershey around 4:30 that afternoon. We went on our free tour ride to see how they make the chocolate. At the end of the tour, everyone received a free mini Hershey bar. The boys loved that! They wanted to go on the ride again just to get the free chocolate. Then we walked around the Hershey store and drooled over all of the candy and chocolate. After that we went on a guided tour aboard a trolley. That was a lot of fun. The tour guides actually put on a whole show. They told us all about the town of Hershey and how Mr. Hershey made his fortune, all the while making it funny, entertaining, and singing to us. Well, everyone got to sing along. They left song sheets in everyone’s seats so you could sing along if you knew the song. All I could think about during the whole tour was how much the guy on the tour reminded me of my brother, Josh. He looked, talked, and acted like Josh! It was so funny and strange and eerie all at the same time at how much he was like Josh. About 2 minutes into the tour ride, both Chris and I turned to each other and said that he reminded us of Josh. After Hershey and dinner at Bob Evan’s, we settled down in Lancaster, PA at a Sleep Inn for the night.




when i went to wake the boys up, this is how i found them sleeping. too cute!



our last morning at the condo before we all leave and before danny flies home.



we arrive at hershey's chocolate world! yeah!





there was a free tour ride that showed you how they make the chocolate and the process
that goes on. it was a cute, fun little ride. they had animals singing. it was very kid
oriented.











their free hershey's bars at the end of the tour ride.





chris found his favorite place at the hershey store! there were gobs and gobs
of candy everywhere! i didn't know hershey made so much candy!









this was cute. the kids got to put on factory hats and pretend they were factory workers.
they were given a plastic gear container to put hershey's kisses into.







they set them on the grate and pushed the button and the kisses would come out
and fill up their containers.









after that, the lady would have them close them up and do a little shake and dance,
then they would set them on a conveyor belt and they would go in one end of the wall,
and come out the other end all packaged up with their names on it. they thought that
was pretty neat!









they couldn't forget to clock out after they were done working.





next we decided to go for a trolley tour ride.

















the new hershey kisses street lights that they were putting up all around town.













that's the hershey amusement park.



hershey stadium.









here we go through the mountains!!!!





chris's father's day present - garmin.





















Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Today was our final day of our vacation. We were excited and ready to be home, but dreading it all at the same time. Being home meant getting back to the daily grind. It meant cooking and cleaning for me, which I didn’t have to do all week long. It meant going back to work for Chris, which he thoroughly enjoyed being away from. It meant going back to paying bills instead of spending vacation money and not worrying about bills. For the boys, it really didn’t mean anything. They got to go back to playing with their toys and just having fun. Oh! to be young again and not have a care in the world! We got to see a lot of pretty scenery on our way home. We got to drive through 3 tunnels that went through the mountains. That was really neat. I wasn’t as nervous driving through those tunnels than I was going through a tunnel that was under the ocean. That tunnel leaked water on us. Around 10:00 p.m., we pulled into our driveway. We were home. We had a fun trip. It was great being with family. It was interesting seeing and hearing about our country’s history, but I think we got our fill of history for now. We are going to start thinking about where we want to go in another four years for our next vacation.