Road Trip Day Eight: Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania- Hershey

We set out today with sunny skies (of course!) to come up north to Pennsylvania. Abi was really excited to get 'prizes' again and loved her first one in Maryland. I printed off some pictures from a flannel board story web site of The Three Little Pigs. She is currently obsessed with this story and she played with these things forever.

Pennsylvania was just an Airhead...

We got to Hershey, Pennsylvania early afternoon and headed over to the Chocolate World. We were really looking forward to this as my parents and I came here 7 years ago on our huge road trip across the US and Canada. It has actually been vastly improved since then and is even more fun and we did more things this time. Abi was excited because she had seen the brochure back before we even left Wisconsin and carried it around it for a few weeks. Here she is with Grandma and Grandpa before going in

First we had lunch in the Kit Kat Cafe. Abi's hot dog came in a collectible Chocolate World lunch box.. she was so happy!

Then we went on the tour- it is like a ride.. like the tamer Disney ones. She LOVED it!!!

Then we went on the trolley tour through Hershey which was just fascinating. We learned so much about Milton Hershey. He was amazing and has done so much good. In fact, he has no real heirs because he had no children but he and his wife set up a school for orphans which is now a school for orphans and underpriviliged kids- but not just any kids. They have to have good grades, be motivated and want to learn, and have no criminal background. They come to the school and live in houses that are really pretty- he wanted it to be non dormitory living and they have "dorm parents" These kids have everything provided for them and when they leave school if they have kept up their grades and had good behavior the whole time they leave with a new wardrobe, some cash, a laptop, and a scholarship to whichever college they want to go to up to 77 thousand dollars. He set it up this way before he died saying the children (all boys at the time) of this school were his heirs.. so every time you buy something Hershey the profits go to these kids.

Then we saw the 3D movie. This was Abi's first 3D movie experience and she loved it as well. She was giggling and trying to grab things and grabbed my moms arm with a squeal at one part where there was a spider. It was so cute. I think we all had so much more fun because of her reactions to everything.

After the movie Abi and I wanted to make something to take home to Daddy so we went to the Factory works area. Here they gave Abi this hat, took her picture and put it on a really cute ID on a lanyard ( she didn't want to wear it here.. she wants to save it for dress up) and she got to put together this gift for Daddy...
opening the box...

pushing the button to start the machine...

collecting the treats...

putting the lid back on..

shaking it... doing a little dance...

and sending it down the packaging line with a little blow kiss...

So, it rained here today too. I think it followed us. Oh well. Hopefully we won't get too soaked in Philadelphia tomorrow!!