There’s nothing like sleeping in a real bed after a week of tents, ghetto Canadian hotels and leaky air mattresses. Mike and I both slept in yesterday. Amazing! We got up and moving just in time to go to breakfast with Grandpa Fred. He is an awesome host. He drove us to the restaurant (this cute little diner called Brothers Family Dining) and gave us a tour of the neighborhood on the way. Breakfast was delicious, and the company was pretty good too.
Our first stop of the day was Hershey, Pennsylvania, the town that was built around the Hershey factory. It’s pretty cute. They have street lights shaped like Hershey’s kisses and everything! I didn’t know this, but they have an amusement park that Mike says is like a sad Six Flags. They even have an arena and a theater and a stadium, and I heard on the radio that the Monkees are going to be in town in a few weeks. I’m kinda sad I’ll miss that. (Okay, not really.) Anyway, we skipped all that and went straight to Chocolate World (which, admit it, is exactly what you would have done.)
Chocolate world is pretty amazing if you’re an eight year old kid and your parents are willing to pay for fun things like a trolley tour of the factory grounds, or a 3D movie about Hershey’s chocolate, or a giant candy bar with your name in it. Seriously. The place was crawling with kids on sugar highs! It was pretty funny. They do have a free factory tour that you can go on. It’s done up like a ride (they clearly consulted with Disney on this stuff) and it even has animatronic stuffed cows singing about milk and talking to you about how the chocolate is made as you wind your way through their fake factory. It’s pretty funny. And incredibly cheesy. They do give you a sample of chocolate on your way out though. (We figure they do this to avoid spies like Willy Wonka.) We did buy a couple of candy bars, which we had intended to mail to a few people as fun and exciting gifts, but they melted in the car, so gee, darn! We’re going to have to eat them ourselves. Bummer! I will say that Mike’s cousin Drew was right – the chocolate does taste better there – we assume it’s because it’s fresher than what you get at the grocery store.
Next we headed for New Holland to see some Amish people. Did you know that they don’t have iPhones? I don’t understand how they survive! According to Wikipedia, they don’t like to have their picture taken, so in order to respect that, Mike taught me how to use his ‘paparazzi’ lens so we could take their pictures without them knowing it. We are terrible people. Fortunately for the Amish, I’m just about as good with that lens as they are with iPhones, so I think it’ll be okay. (That, and I saw people brazenly taking video of a few Amish dudes plowing a field, so I think that in the scheme of things, my attempts at subtlety were pretty okay.)
We stopped at a quilt shop that was recommended by Mike’s Aunt Mary, and it was actually really cool. They had really cool fabrics, and we were the only non-Amish or Mennonite people in the store. (Mike got some weird looks.) They sell quilt tops, which you can then add the backing to yourself. Some of them (okay, all of them) were amazing! There was one that they called a ‘postage stamp’ quilt that was entirely made up of different colored squares the size of, well, postage stamps! I wouldn’t have the patience to cut that fabric, let alone sew it all together! And it was a queen size quilt! Wow! Anyway, I did buy some fabric to make something with someday (you know, after this honeymoon is over and I’m unemployed and bored in Phoenix.)
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the area, checking out the ‘Amish’ shops. They were pretty awful. Everything was made in China and incredibly cheesy. They had buggy rides that you could go on to see a ‘real Amish farm’ and no wonder the Amish hate us. We felt bad. (I know I poke fun at them not using iPhones, but at least we attempted to be respectful.) And I’ll get off my soapbox now. The little towns we drove through were really cute and charming and everyone we talked to was really nice.
Our last stop of the day was at the RR Donnelley financial printing facility, which is where all the people Mike used to talk to on the phone when he was working hang out all day. It was pretty exciting (not at all.) From there we headed back to Grandpa Fred’s house, where we mooched off leftovers from Monday’s cookout (still delicious, even a day later!) It was pretty nice to have a quiet evening for a change – Mike even got some more pictures uploaded to this here website! I know you’re excited!
Today we’re headed for Gettysburg and then somewhere in West Virginia. I’ve decided that we need one more sweet tea fix before we hit the northern states, so we’re headed towards Kentucky before we head north again to Ohio. It should be fun!