Road Trip. Days 5 and 6. ♪♪ Hershey: The Great American Chocolate Bar ♪♪
Thursday we got up and had breakfast once again at the grab and go place, except this time the line was longer. We had hard boiled eggs for a million dollars and the kids had cereal. Who’s even hungry anymore?
Our first stop of the day was the Turkey Hill Experience. They call it “experience” because it’s not a factory, it’s more of a museum. You learn about making ice cream and there are cute play things along the way. Madeleine enjoyed milking the pretend cows. They have all of the Turkey Hill Iced Teas for sampling. They weren’t great. [Tzvi: I liked the lemonade.] They also have a tasting room where you can taste as much as you want.
We started the walk-through but stopped mid-way for our 11:15 make-your-own ice cream class. We had to pay extra for this one. Basically they bring you into a classroom where they teach you about the flavoring process. I should mention once again the tour was full of Jews. Anyway, they give you a cup of ice cream, probably a sweet cream kind of flavor. Then in front of you are 10 or so different flavor extracts including coffee, maple, lemon, cotton candy, etc. You can try all of them and then decide what to put in your ice cream. Then you go to the wall of “Inclusions,” which are mix-ins, and take whichever you want. So basically it’s a very expensive make your own Hewlee situation. I succumbed to my lack of willpower and just got all the mix-ins (except for chocolate covered coffee beans because I forgot about them and I still regret it). Tzvi made a more normal flavor which was maple coffee with waffle cone. The kids obviously went overboard. After we were done and stuffed with our own ice cream we went to the upstairs tasting room for more ice cream. I tasted a graham cracker flavor which had chocolate covered marshmallows. It was delicious. Tzvi had cookies and cream and they actually opened up a new tub for him which was nice. When we were done we visited the gift shop and purchased bowls that will likely collect dust. Overall, a good stop.
From there we drove to the Cherry Crest Farm! Yep, it was a farm day for us. There was so much to do there. We started with a feed the animals situation where everyone but me fed goats and sheep. They were cute, and gross. Madeleine had the best time. We did a wagon ride where the driver pointed out how they raise broilers to be sent to Purdue. I thought of all the broilers we eat on shabbat (not from this farm). Poor chickens. Tzvi bought fresh roasted corn that Hallie took from him. We saw pig races, yep, three of them, one even involving pig swimming! There was a huge bouncy thing that Madeleine was on for a half hour and there was a big slide that Hallie did over and over. Also, lots of Jews. It was a great stop and we didn’t even get to everything. I will say though, it wasn’t so hot, and that made it tolerable. If it would have been hot I think I would have died there.
We didn’t have a real lunch. I had brought sandwiches that I made that morning, but by 5pm people were hungry and cranky. We drove back to Lancaster (the closest city near the Farm/Turkey Hill and about a 40 minute drive from Hershey) for dinner at a restaurant called Luca. It was a pizza/pasta place. We had delicious fried squash blossoms that didn’t have cheese, which is rare. We had three pizzas (one margherita, one spicy tomato pie with hot honey and one white pie with zucchini) and two pastas, all of which were delicious. Madeleine was exhausted and cranky. Tzvi had a drink made with gin that had been fat-washed in olive oil, whatever that means, and had a dash of olive oil in it. [Tzvi: fat-washing is a process whereby you mix a spirit with a fat, chill it, then skim off the fat. What you’re left with is a spirit that has a different texture, usually softer. This was delicious.]
We came back and got the girls to bed. Then Tzvi and I went out for a drink at the Iberian Bar in the lobby. I asked the waitress for the least offensive chocolate cocktail and she recommended the Signature Hershey Kiss Martini. It was a clear drink with chocolate around the rim and a Hershey kiss in the middle. It actually tasted like chocolate. It wasn’t like an amazing drink, but it did taste like chocolate and I had to try it. Tzvi had our signature Kahlua, Baileys, and cream. Always a winner.
Friday we got up and went to the Circular for breakfast, our first buffet breakfast at Hershey. The buffet is fine - the pastries aren’t great, they’re kind of like the mass produced pastries you typically get on a buffet. There was a very good omelet station though – they par cook the veggies, which is great. There was also a good pecan sticky bun. Our waitress was ridiculously nice, and she’s been working here for ten years. I don’t know how someone can be that nice, especially after dealing with annoying tourists for so many years. She was so friendly it was strange. We told them it was Tzvi’s birthday so they brought him a little chocolate thing with a candle.
After breakfast we left the hotel and went to the Hershey Story Museum. It’s a great museum and the tickets were included in our hotel stay. We spent about an hour walking around and learning about Milton Hershey and the history of the company. We learned a bunch of interesting things, like the fact that Hershey started out making caramels before he got into chocolates; he sold the caramel business for $1 million so he could buy chocolate making equipment. Before Hershey, chocolate was expensive and more of a luxury. His goal was to make chocolates accessible to everyone. We also learned that he had purchased the Reese’s company from Harry Reese in the 1960s. Hershey was friendly with Reese, who originally worked at the Hershey dairy farm, but saw what Hershey was doing and figured he could do it too. There was also a cute scavenger hunt for the kids, but at the end they just got a sticker, which was surprising because you’d think the prize would be chocolate. The man giving out the scavenger hunt sheets at the entrance to the museum was a kind older man. That seems like it would be a good job for my dad when he retires.
We also learned about Hershey’s personal life. When he was 41 he married 26 year old Catherine. They were married for 17 years before Catherine died of an “unknown disease” (according to the museum). They had no children. The internet says she died of syphilis, and that Hershey had a couple of illegitimate children that he refused to acknowledge. I guess that doesn’t really go well with the sweet love story.
After the museum we went to Chocolate World. Madeleine fell asleep in the stroller and slept through lunch. Inbar and I shared a Reese’s peanut butter cupcake. It was delicious.
Then we all went for the Make Your Own Chocolate Bar Experience. You start by putting on an apron and hairnet, which is kind of silly because then you go into a room where you “design” your bar on a computer, and then watch (through Plexiglas) your bar being made by machines. It was still very cool – you get to choose the chocolate bar base, the add-ins (chocolate chips, pretzels, etc.) and sprinkles, and then watch as it goes through the machines being filled, topped, cooled and then packaged (you also get to design your own package on another computer) – but the hairnet was just unnecessary.
From there we headed to the Great Chocolate Expedition, which is a 4D experience. It was very cute. It was basically a theater with screens on all walls and it shows you on a train, visiting different candy worlds. The kids loved it. Then we went on the free chocolate factory ride, which is always a lot of fun. Then we went shopping and bought lots of chocolate. We were there for three and a half hours.
From there we went to the outlets where we did some shopping. The girls went crazy at Janie and Jack, and then Tzvi started picking out hats and the next thing I knew we were leaving with holiday outfits for the girls that included a blue beret for Madeleine and a straw hat for Hallie (which is really like a beach vacation hat but she keeps tipping it and saying ‘howdy’).
Finally we went back to the hotel, showered and headed to dinner. Tonight’s dinner is at the Circular, which is the same place we had breakfast, but for dinner they take away the buffet and it’s a nice restaurant.
We sat down for dinner at 630, ordered and got drinks. That was the point where I found out that the prescription that Hallie needed was ready at the CVS 10 minutes away from the hotel and I needed to go get it before Shabbos started. Tzvi was all upset that I was going to miss the entire dinner, but what can you do. [Tzvi: Steph was gone for over a half hour, during which time Madeleine cried that she wanted mommy and needed to be taken outside, twice, and we received an amuse bouche. At one point the waiter looked at our table and just looked confused. I asked about the food and his response was, ‘I was just wondering that myself.’ Then I mentioned we were still waiting for the bread course, and it turned out he’d forgotten to put that in. Steph came back shortly after that and everything seemed to move okay from there.]
Tzvi had a cream of onion soup and I had a Caesar salad. I had a really good salmon and Tzvi had halibut. For dessert we got a chocolate tower and warm soufflé. It was actually a delicious meal.
After dinner we all walked around and went down to where the pool and kids club are. We played some ping pong and cornhole for a while, and then went back to the room where everyone passed out.
Good day.