Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Hershey, PA - May 2006

After a few days in Amish country, we headed over to Hershey, where we had rented a small house, met up with my other brother Georgie, and spent a few days in Chocolate Country!


Now, if you're turning 40 and looking for a great way to celebrate - I definitely recommend this!   Practically everything in Hershey has to do with chocolate!

We started out at Hershey Park....

Hershey Park is an amusement park, built by the Hershey company, originally for their employees.   Naturally it's grown over the years and now it's got some great roller coasters.   It was a lot of fun.    Of course, I LOVE roller coasters!

Later that evening, we had dinner at the Circular Dining Room at the Hotel Hershey.    What a MAGNIFICENT dinner that was!!!

Of course, it didn't hurt that we had a cutie-patootie waiter   :-)

Most of the items on the menu had some kind of relationship to chocolate.   We had seared scallops with a cocoa foam as an appetizer, which sounds odd, but was VERY good.   Chocolate martinis, chocolate creme brulee,      mmmm.... I'm drooling just thinking about it.    If you're ever in the area - make reservations.  It's WELL worth it!!

The next day, we rolled ourselves out of bed and headed over to Chocolate World!    That's the visitor center for Hershey - they used to do factory tours, but I suspect the health department didn't love that, so they built Chocolate World.    (Also known as "The Mother Ship")

Inside, there's a little ride that tells you all about how cocoa beans are turned into yummy chocolate candy (I'm sure there are other products too, but my attention span stopped at the candy and stayed there....).     It's a cute little ride, and free  :-)       

The ride drops you off and on your way out, they give you a little teeny tiny candy sample - but that's just to whet your appetite because when you get down the ramp, you're in the biggest chocolate gift shop I've ever seen!   They had just about everything you could imagine there!
Terry, Georgie, and I had some fun with the Hershey's Kisses!

I will admit that I pretty much wanted everything they had in that shop!!   And of course, there were lots of good gift ideas to bring back to those who couldn't make the trip   (wink wink)

After we had our fill of chocolate (is there such a thing?), we went out to the Hershey Botanical Gardens.    These were originally planted by Milton Hershey's wife (her original rose garden) and they've been built up and expanded over the years.    The gardens were sooooo lovely.   We just loved all the tulips that were everywhere, but we were a little too early for the roses.
Does this picture look familiar? 
It was taken just inside the entrance to the gardens.



There were tulips everywhere, and they were just amazing!   All sorts of different colors and shapes.   I had no idea there were so many varieties.   And I enjoyed ALL of them!

There's also a really cute Children's garden section.    There is a scavenger hunt for the kids that teaches them about the plants, and all sorts of fun kid-sized things to explore...



Oh and I almost forgot to tell you how cute the town of Hershey is!!

Here I am at the corner of Cocoa Ave & Chocolate Ave.....

And check out the street lights!

Even the pavement in the road in town was brown!!


On our last day, we went to the Spa at the Hotel Hershey.     Oooooh what pampering we got there!!!   This is a world-class spa, and boy did we enjoy it.    I had a Whipped Cocoa bath, a Cocoa Massage, Sweet Feet (a chocolate pedicure!).    I smelled so good!!!!   It was sooo relaxing and even in the lounges between treatments, they had hot chocolate and coffee for us.    We just loved it!!

After we were done, we walked around the hotel grounds, which are also lovely....


Hershey is a wonderful place - and not just because of the chocolate!    All of the people we met were just so wonderfully nice.   And of course, it was extra special that I got to spend the time with my brothers!

I really hope to go back there some day......

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