Neighbors At Heart

September 2023 is a busy month for our family! Our Labor Day Weekend started out with a 5 hour drive up north to Hershey, Pennsylvania to visit a friend and to see Hershey’s Chocolate World. Here’s our family trip to Hershey and Chocolate World.

We left early morning to make sure we avoided high traffic areas during busy times. This was our first trip to any North Eastern States. Driving through Maryland and Pennsylvania had some beautiful sights to keep us entertained. Mostly, we just got stuck in traffic near Washington.

After arriving we checked into our room at the Hampton Inn on East Chocolate Avenue. It was freshly renovated and very accommodating for us, our kids and our puppy Beau.

Notes about the hotel;

– The pool was not heated, but was indoors. Since our kids are young they complained about how chilly the pool was.

– The room was very spacious and the couch was also a pull out bed, which was perfect for us with the kids.

– All day coffee in the lobby is always a win in my book!

We went to a BBQ place that evening and had dinner and drinks, followed by ice cream at King Kone. They make a multitude of ice cream flavors that I couldn’t have most of due to Lil’ C’s milk intolerance.

We ended the evening with a back yard fire at our friends house, just enjoying the beautiful end of summer weather.

Our Saturday was our busiest day of course. We started with breakfast at First Watch.

I had The Tri-Fecta which consisted of a waffle, eggs and bacon, paired with a mimosa. This dish’s name is incredibly fitting, since “Trifectas” are what my friend and I try to achieve together in our online game featured in my post The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO).

The kids each had the Kid’s Bacon and Egg with a side of fruit. These plates were the perfect size for them.

After breakfast we made our way to Hershey Gardens.

Hershey has a few main attractions including the Amusement Park, the Gardens, and Chocolate World. We opted out of the amusement park since the kids are so young, they wouldn’t be able to go on most of the rides. Not to mention that it was Labor Day weekend and crazy busy.

Hershey Botanical Gardens was originally a rose garden that Mr. Hershey created for his community to enjoy. Over the years it expanded and became much more than just roses. The garden features plants from many places, including a Japanese section and a Sequoia. The Children’s Garden is a fun area for kids to play with interactive toys. There is also a Butterfly Atrium that is filled with exotic tropical plants and butterflies. Additionally, it contains a fancy Chrysalis Cabinet with more butterflies hatching and growing into their winged life stage. The room even had a Cacao Tree so we could see how the pods look.

Next up we drove down the road to Hershey’s Chocolate World. The lovely thing about Chocolate World is that it’s not inside the amusement park, so you don’t need to pay to enter or park. Chocolate World doubles as the world’s largest chocolate store. It has many activities including Create Your Own Candy Bar, Stuff Your Cup, Movies and a ride showing how the chocolate is made.

It also hosts multiple food and sweets stands both inside and outside of the building. Of course there was also chocolates, candies and souvenirs for all of Hershey’s products.

We decided to try the Peach Hard Lemonade, an Epic Pretzel and Mac and Cheese with Carnitas, Pico de Gallo and sour cream on top. All of these were absolutely delicious. I only wish I would’ve tried more of the sweets, particularly the milkshakes or the s’mores!

Unfortunately, tickets were not available for the Create Your Own Candy Bar while we were there, so we didn’t get to try that. We decided not to do the Stuff Your Cup, since I have a severe nut allergy and doubted Lil’ A would eat an entire cup of candied peanut butter on her own.

The ride taught us about how chocolate is made by Hershey, and where it comes from. Both kids thought the talking animals were hilarious. We grabbed a few souvenirs including stickers, a T-Shirt, a plush marshmallow and a Hershey’s Kisses Make-up pallet for my sister.

After we finished at Chocolate World we went back to the hotel room for a rest. I got my nails done with my friend and the kids went for a swim in the hotel pool.

Our evening finished with more delicious food and another campfire.

Before heading home from our Hershey Family Trip, we went back to my friend’s house for breakfast and for a “quick” look into his beehive! I’ve always been a bee lover, but to get to go into a hive at my own pace and to see how it’s taken care of was an absolute dream. I was very nervous at first about hurting them or getting stung. Neither of those things happened. The bees were preparing for winter. We looked at huge combs, some had some honey already capped but most were still being built up.

I learned about how the colony is formed and maintained, as well as how to keep them healthy and happy.

Big A and I previously talked about getting bees, and this experience really convinced me that urban bee keeping is something I want to do. Hopefully this spring we’ll be purchasing supplies and our first hive.

We would love to use the honey not just for eating, but for making our own mead as well.

Plus, the wax has a variety of purposes we could try to benefit from as well.

We took the scenic route on the way home. We drove an extra 100 miles, but it only added 15 minutes of travel time. It was well worth it to go around the high traffic areas in DC.

Hershey was a lovely little family getaway for our long weekend. We cannot wait to return and see more in the future.