Snavely, PA

Last Saturday we threw the dog into the kennel and took a trip up to Hershey, PA. Yup, that's where they make all the chocolate that fuels the dental industry. Not only is there a chocolate factory, but an entire amusement park dedicated to all things chocolate and to the man behind it all, Milton S. Hershey.

Our first night there, we tried unsucessfully to get to Dutch Wonderland. Very weird since no one seemed to know where this place was. Our motel guy says its about 5 miles away, the place's website says it's 30 minutes away, one guy we asked at a Dairy Queen said it was about 2 hours from Hershey. Even the people who worked there gave us bad directions. So, after more than an hour of being lost, we grab dinner and head for Hershey Park instead where we pull into the parking lot and again, because of more bad directions from the parking attendant, get lost trying to get to the main entrance. We finally get to the main entrance about and hour before closing and we look so pathetic they let us in for free (normally its $4.50). The kids manage to hop on a few rides and slam down some brownies and cookies. Cold, real cold up there.

The next day we hit "Chocolate World" for some indoor fun out of the cold. Sagada and her cuz, Krysten, get to play factory worker on the Hershey's Kisses assembly line (33 million Kisses are made every day). Then we take the factory tour ride and wrap up the day watching the "ReallyBig 3D Show." Once in a while someone will slip us some free samples of upcoming Hershey products. The "Take Five" bar was good, but I'll pass on the "Dark Chocolate KitKats."



All in all, the whole thing was fun. A little heavy on the advertising and product promotion, and no Surgeon General warnings about tooth decay, diabetes, and such, but the kids loved it and I learned that the S stands for Snavely, as in Hershey Snavely Milton. Say it with me now, "SNAAAAYYVELLY." That's gotta be worth the price of addmission right there.