Chocolate's not so sweet

Friday. At last we get to Hershey. I'd been looking forward to this event on the trip all year. In fact, I had hoped to join my December Mom's friends for a trip to Hershey in August. But it just wasn't meant to be and I couldn't fit it in my summer schedule.

The trip would have taken 2.5 hours from Raystown lake had we not gotten lost in Harrisburg. Google was totally wrong on those directions. We had to stop to ask for directions at a gas station. Word to the wise traveler. Stopping for directions at a gas station is no longer the recommended solution to getting lost. When was the last time you were able to speak English with a gas station employee. This guy was clueless. When I asked him how to get to Hershey and he said he had never heard of it, I knew we were in trouble. How can you live in the US and not know Hershey? Better yet, How can you live less than 5 miles from Hershey Park and have never heard of it. Obviously, this man had not been in the country for a week yet. Either that or he was simply a very sick individual who doesn't like chocolate.

So I bought a map and we figured it out. The parking was the first surprise. We were arriving shortly after the park opened and yet, we had to park back in Harrisburg. Nice of mister Hershey to provide a tram though.

The chocolate tour at Chocolate World was wonderful. First you walk through halls with exhibits about how chocolate is farmed, harvested, dried and shipped. Then you walk onto a rotating floor to climb on board the Hershey kiss shaped cars (that's a rather loose interpretation of the shape of a kiss, but I think that's what they had in mind). The cars are on a conveyer belt and they travel around the "factory" while three singing cows deliver an R&B melody about how wonderful Hershey chocolate is. Through the exhibit you get to see some pretty convincing (though too clean) factory images of chocolate being ground and cooked and mashed and mixed. Then conveyer belts of different candy packages. Perfect to make you crave Hershey chocolates. The boys liked it. The parents liked it. Unfortunately, the picture of us in our Hershey kiss car was a bit too washed out. Don't know why, all the other digital photos that they took looked fine. Ours was not though, so we didn't buy it.

On to the amusement park. We had an $8 off coupon. Too bad because it only counts towards adults. A couple sold us two kids passes outside the park. They had extras and were charging us a few dollars less, so we saved on that. But the starting adult price is $45. After Lakemont and their $2 admission price, we were suffering sticker shock.

Going to Hershey convinced me that I don't need to spend the money to go to Disney. Personally, I hate rides. Most of the rides at Hershey said, "This ride is not recommended for persons of a larger size." I am large, but do I fit the generality of "persons of a larger size?" I'm personally not going to test this theory. I rode one coaster that totally freaked me out. I had visions of my "larger size" causing the rollers holding the car on the track to fail and then the whole car would come flying off the track bringing the other 3 cars of innocent people flying with me. Oh the carnage! My white face and look of horror just terrified Firstborn who kept looking back at me saying "Mommy! Are you allright? None of the rides scared him, but the look on his mother's face when she rode one ride terrified him.

The one cute thing at the park was the way they classified the rides. Each height range was assigned a candy type. Lastborn was a reeces cup and Firstborn was a jolly rancher candy. We could then go on any ride that allowed their candy types. Lastborn was allowed on more rides than I would prefer he go on, but he set his sights for the roller soaker. We journeyed up to the water park and they got in line. Luckily, I insisted that the boys take off their shirts and shoes because just standing in line for the ride, you get soaked. DH chose to leave his shirt and shoes on but ended up taking them off and carrying them by the time he got on the ride. The silly man.

The line was 1.5 hours long when they started but it took a total of 2 hours to get to the ride. 1) they had mechanical difficulties with one of the cars. 2) they kept letting handicapped people into the line to ride. If you get a handicapped pass at these parks, you get to ride without waiting in line. It's a nice feature, but added a half hour to the wait for the rest of the people in line.

Thankfully, Lastborn loved the ride. He got squirted by people on the ground and the ride showered him with water. He got to dump water on the people below. All in all a great time.

It was almost 7 by the time they finished that ride and we had to find some dinner and get home. If the lines weren't so long and the park layout so confusing, it would have been a great time. But in 80 degrees with high humidity, it was too much walking and too much waiting in line. We were all in a bad mood by the end of the day. But not a bad enough mood to drop lots of money at the gift shop.

While waiting for Firstborn and DH to finish a ride that for which lastborn was too short, we played one of the midway games. Shoot a target with a water gun to push an object up a pole. You race with other park visitors. On the second round we won a stuffed animal. Lastborn chose the blue dolphin saying it would be his pokemon. Later that night, he and Firstborn decided it looks like Kyoger. So that became it's name.

On the way home, Lastborn was saying the dolphin's name was Kyoger John Scalzi. He thinks that everyone's middle name is John. But Lastborn, your middle name is Rudolph.
No it's not. It's John.
No. John is Firstborn's middle name.
Mine too.
No. Your middle name is Rudolph, like your grandfather's.
You mean Rudolph is a real name?
Yes. It's a real name and it's your Grandpa Scalzi's name.

He was silent for a while.

OK. So his name is Kyoger Rudolph Scalzi, but we'll call him Blue.