The "Sweetest" Place on Earth

Because this blog is my attempt at somewhat of a family record, I'm going to back track a couple of weeks. In order to escape another "Open House" weekend (see previous post), we headed up to Hershey, Pennsylvania...yes, that would be Chocolate World, USA. It wouldn't normally be my first choice for a get away, but it is only a 2-hour drive and friends have told us it's a great family vacation spot...lots of things for the kids to do. So after putting our finishing touches on the house Saturday morning, we packed in the van and headed up to PA. We lucked out with fabulous weather and made our first stop at the zoo. Being so spoiled with the National Zoo in DC, it's hard to take other zoos seriously, but Ella always enjoys seeing any type of animal and it was small enough that it only took us a couple of hours to get through. After lunch at the zoo we quickly headed over to the Hershey Lodge where we were staying so Brian could make his golf lesson. Due to an error on their part, Brian's group lesson turned into a 1-hour private lesson with a professional golfer. Sweet! In the mean time, the girls and I sampled some much needed chocolate and headed to one of the planned activities at the Lodge: the Kiss Hunt. It turned out to be a lame scavenger hunt throughout the entire hotel, which would be rewarded by a chocolate bar at the end. A chocolate bar was not nearly enough incentive to drag two tired kids through the hotel looking for clues on paper hershey kisses. Several rests were needed and we only made it to the third clue!

The third clue was located at the swimming pool, which was simply too enticing--so we called it quits and met up with Brian there. Ella hasn't really been swimming since last summer, so she was a little rusty on her swimming skills, but jumping into Dad is really what the pool is all about anyway.

We actually didn't hit any of the major Hershey sites, which was more than okay--the pool and miniature golf were more than enough to keep us occupied for the weekend.

If you haven't ever read Eloise, it is a total hoot. Anne sent Eloise in Paris to Ella for Christmas, and she periodically incorporates Eloise-isms into her daily life. (I am often referred to as "Cherie".) So Ella and I are in the shower Sunday morning at the hotel and she states that we must put towels on our heads like Eloise, her "Nahnee", Weenie the dog, and pet turtle. I was amused at how she related us in the hotel to Eloise's trip in Paris. Anyway, we threw out as many French words as we knew with our towels on our heads, and got ready for the day.

Some of Eloise's words actually turned out to be fitting for the day.
"You have to be content with everything in France
for instance if you want a jelly bean
you can have almond paste instead
or if you want the sun you can have pluie (rain)"

Rain is indeed what we ended up with. We headed to the Hershey Gardens where they have a darling children's garden. We took our time letting Ella play in the garden, not really paying attention to the dark clouds looming overhead.

Before we knew it, we were caught in a down pour and were quite far from the car. I wish I had an after shot to the picture below, because we were soaking wet. Some kind woman gave me her umbrella while I ran with Samantha under my jacket, screaming all the way. Brian pushed Ella in the stroller, and we made it to the gift shop absolutely soaking wet. But we did manage a picture while the sun was out (minus cooperation from Ella).

Hats off to Hershey, PA--indeed a great weekend trip with the kids, but next time I'm in Hershey, it will definitely be for a girls' spa weekend.