Chocolate World

Somehow I never posted about our last day of vacation in Hershey, PA. It's been a few weeks now and honestly the details are fuzzy now so here's a quick run down of the day.

We woke up, packed up and said goodbye to our lovely hostess, the owner of the apartment we stayed in. With a long day of driving in front of us, we opted to use the small amount of time left to explore the area with what it's most famous for - chocolate! Aptly named, Chocolate World, it's a "free" tourist attraction that also offers other activities like a 3D movie and make your own chocolate bar that are ridiculously priced. We kept it simple and cheap and just rode the chocolate making experience ride with the boys.

Family Portrait on the Ride

It was informative but also really cheesy complete with singing cows. Dylan loved it. Upon exiting the ride, we were handed a free sample of chocolate then dumped in a huge chocolate store.

We got a few souvenirs to commemorate the trip and looked around. That was all there was to Chocolate World for us. So since there wasn't a line, we went on the ride again. Dylan loved it even more the 2nd time around and Cade was, as he always is, along for the ride. Then we filled the car with gas and hit the road.

While the trip there was a horrible disaster the trip home was, well, equally disastrous. Before we left, I looked at Mike and said "Whatever happens today, I want you to know I had a really great vacation with you and the boys." Good thing I said it when I did because I was not in a state to make that statement when we finally arrived home almost 9 hours later.

The weather cooperated with us but traffic did not. We missed our NYC bypass turn off and got great views of the NYC skyline while sitting in traffic around it for 2 hours. Cade, when he wasn't sleeping, was pretty much screaming. Dylan didn't sleep more than a few winks. However, even though a kid his age is normally a wreck with no sleep, he was the only one that seemed to get through the day mostly unscathed. He was pretty happy watching movies and tried to close his eyes and fall asleep when I told him it was bedtime (but just couldn't). Mike's nerves were shot after driving in traffic for so long and mine were shot as well with trying to keep Cade happy for so many hours. It was a rough trip and we just barely survived it. Let's just say we're not planning any car trips again any time soon. At least none of that magnitude.

Man, it was so great to be home. We had a great first family vacation (minus the trip to and from) but there truly is no place like home.