Chocolate Factory

As a celebration of the ending of Seminary and Memorial Day, we decided to go to Hershey, PA and the chocolate factory.  The Captain got a Curious George book from the library in which said monkey went to a chocolate factory and it gave me the idea.  We are only about 5 1/2 hours away, and not likely to get any closer, and since we're trying to take advantage of our East Coast positioning, it seemed like a good mini-trip.  We left Saturday afternoon and stayed in Harrisburg, PA.  I really like Pennsylvania and Harrisburg was beautiful.  Here's a crappy picture of a beautiful skyline:

There were lots of cool bridges, too.

There was an Arts Fair that weekend, so on Sunday after church we took a walk by the river, right by our hotel and saw the art show.

On our walk, two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and The Captain chose the one more traveled that day.

 And it made all the difference because otherwise we wouldn't have seen this squirrel.  

Here he is all hot and tired after our long walk.

On Monday we headed to Hershey's Chocolate World.  I recommend going early because it wasn't very crowded at all.  We went on the free ride that explains how chocolate is made.  I think that was The Captain's favorite thing of the day.  And since Joy fell asleep during it, it was pretty nice for us, too.  

The Captain got to be a worker and package his own Kisses

We learned the art of chocolate tasting

and got a chocolate bar at the end.

And we got to design our own chocolate bars.  

This was supposed to be the highlight of the day, but The Captain would have none of it at first because in order to go in, you had to wear a hairnet and apron.

You would never guess from that cute little sheepish grin that he had to be carried kicking and screaming OUT of the chocolate factory.  The sweet ladies trying to convince him to come in were at the end of the experience when we actually went through a few hours later.  They recognized The Captain's name and were so happy he made it through.  They told him he did a good job and they were glad to see him.  

Our chocolate on the assembly line.

The Captain watching his being made.

Early Engineering lesson?

Just add chocolate . . . 

And sprinkles, of course.

And for lunch, we had pizza with chocolate sauce because we were at a chocolate factory, after all.

Then we bought A LOT of chocolate, went on the free ride one more time, and headed back home.  All in all a good time.  And apparently the amusement park there is super fun, too.  Maybe next year . . .