A Mini-Vacation

This week was the All-Star game in Harrisburg. Rob had a couple meetings to attend, but found that he would have quite a bit of free time. Because of this, we decided to join him. The kids LOVE staying in hotels, and Harrisburg and Hershey offer plenty to keep kids busy.

Tuesday evening Rob had a dinner to attend, so the kids and I ate at a restaurant downtown, swam in the hotel pool and gorged on junk-food. We watched movies in the room, and just chilled out.

Wednesday morning Rob had a breakfast meeting, but by 10:00 am, the rest of the day was free. We took a short drive to Hershey. It was a bit too rainy to go to the amusement park, so we visited Chocolate World instead. We had a fabulous time!

(Click on the picture to take you to Chocolate World's site......)

Of course, I forgot my camera *rolleyes*, so all I had was my phone. It takes pretty good pictures, when the lighting is optimal. Some of the pics are a bit dark, my apologies.

First we took a virtual tour that showed us how chocolate is made. We started at a cocoa bean plantation, and ended up in a "store" that sold all of Hershey's chocolate goodies. It was well done, we all enjoyed it.

The boys.

Caroline pointing out all the candy.

A race car, I'm not sure who drives it.

We decided to treat the kids, and let them create their own candy bar. This was serious business. We all had to wear hair nets and aprons. All jewelry had to be removed, and Caroline and I had to wear gloves because of our nail polish. (Aside.....I don't know why they made us do this. All the food was behind glass, we didn't touch anything but touch screens. I guess it was to make the experience more realistic. Personally, I think it slowed it down considerably.)

We all got to decide what extras to add to our bar. We could choose chocolate, graham cracker, crispy rice, vanilla chips, caramel or sprinkles. There was also an option to add sprinkles to the top of the bar. Everyone's bar was different!

Caroline DID NOT like the hair net. She was ready to walk away from the whole thing because she hated the hair net so much.

See the open space? Caroline bolted before I could snap the picture.

Drew all ready to create!

Gabe, a bit worried about...well....everything.

Caroline, begrudgingly letting me take her picture.

Daddy and the boys. Caroline's charity with photos was clearly expired by this point.

The back of Caroline's head as she watched her chocolate bar being created.

Drew was extremely excited to get the process started.

Gabe watching as the crispy rice was added to his bar.

There goes one of our bars, it's heading to the cooling tunnel.

Mesmerized by the chocolate.....they are definitely my children.

Watching the bars as they proceed through the cooling tunnel.

Our names on the screen, with the amount of time left in the cooling tunnel. (We're at the bottom.)

Caroline with her candy bar. (We even got to design our own labels!) She's asking me: "NOW can I take the hair net off?!?!"

Drew proudly displays his bar.

Gabe and his strange grin.

This.....THIS...dear internet, is what $75 worth of candy bars look like. But it was worth it.

In the gazebo outside Applebee's.

At the All-Star game. This is Kevin Harvick's Nationwide series car. He was there, but we didn't get there in time to get a ticket to see him.

At home tonight.....ready to dive into those chocolate bars.

Wow! They are BIG!!

And they were very, very good. We have more left over for a few days. I never realized freshly made chocolate would be so much better than the chocolate bar you buy at the grocery store. Let me tell you.....there is a HUGE difference.

It was a nice, little mini-vacation. My leg couldn't take a driving my further, or walking much more. The kids were thrilled, and that's all that mattered.