Hershey Park {long post}

We went to Hershey Park for a 3 day weekend. It was a 3 hour car ride. {Can you say FUN!!?}

We were all pretty excited about going since the girls & I had never been there & the last time Joe had been there he was a kid. We left Thursday afternoon figuring we could beat the traffic, get to The Hershey Hotel, have dinner & relax the 1st night. Mission accomplished.

We had dinner at the Harvest Restaurant at the hotel. It was ok, we ended the meal with shot glasses of various desserts (sorry no pic).

The next morning we had reservations for the Hershey Park Character Breakfast. We took the shuttle bus over to the park & upon arrival we saw the characters.

Family pic with the Hershey Kiss...

At breakfast they served a fruit & muffin/bread platter with chocolate butter. Sounds better than it was (can't believe none of us liked it). Meanwhile the characters walked around dancing to music by a singing guitarist (there was also a juggler entertaining everyone). I personally thought it was cheesy but as long as the kids were happy who am I to argue?

See? Happy!!Then they brought out everyone's breakfast of eggs, sausage, french toast & potatoes. {This is where the happy part disappeared.} Gianna does NOT eat any of the above mentioned breakfast items. After struggling to get her to try some eggs or french toast I found out they had cereal. Of course they did not have her favorite cereal & this is when it got real ugly & I threatened to go back home. WHY oh WHY does my kid have to be a SUPER picky eater???

After breakfast we head to the park gates....The day was overcast (cruddy pics) but it wasn't super hot & the park wasn't crowded. The girls by the statue of Milton S. Hershey.We then took the girls on some rides. This is probably where I discovered I was a Disney snob. See at Disney everything is themed to Disney (& the food is better-LOL). As we walked around to the rides they seem like regular rides you'd find at a carnival. I was expecting Hershey themed rides. Needless to say the girls didn't care...especially if they were the driver of the rides making them go up as high as possible to scare your mother/ride buddy.Too high for me! Joe kept trying to convince me to go saying stuff like "You'd get the best pics of the park up there". No thanks--not interested!At the far end of the park is the waterpark. (cruddy pic alert)The girls couldn't wait to go to the waterpark, they weren't thrilled when we told them we weren't going until the next day when the weather would be nicer.It took awhile but I finally found something that was "Hershey" related...Another part of the park is Zoo America. It's a walk through park that has this guy along with some of it's larger relatives. This eagle (?)
In a "Nocturnal Animal" building this fox was hysterical. He was behind glass in his habitat dashing back & forth like a ping pong ball.
After we left the park we walked over to Chocolate World. Now that's my kind of place! First you see the iconic factory chimneys.
Then there's the Sweetest Place on Earth!!

We took the Chocolate Tour that's animated since it's not sanitary to have millions of people walking through the actual factory. But on the bright side you get a free sample of the newest Hershey Kisses at the end of the ride....Then there's this Utopia of Chocolate...Did you know they made extra long Twizzlers?? (You can insert your own dirty joke here)

I can't begin to tell you all the delicious things I could make with a couple of these babies....My favorite spot....

Gianna in her glory...

And no that is not a real bottle of chocolate syrup much to her dismay, just a coin bank. There was also a food court inside along with tasty treats. They looked so good! But we settled on ice cream....well actually Joe & Gianna had ice cream but I had to sample some since Joe was raving about it (yes he was right). Marissa & I had milkshakes, can you say YUMMMMMMM!?!?! She had a chocolate shake & I had a chocolate peanut butter cup shake. It was THE BEST milkshake I have ever had!! From there we went back to our room & crashed....it was a long fun-filled day.

The next day we hit the waterpark, but I didn't bother with pictures. That night we went to "The Fountain Cafe" in the hotel, named after this....

Outside the cafe was a verranda with a beautiful view of the park & the flower gardens. We relaxed here awhile. Gianna was trying to look innocent when we know all about her flower picking obsession.

Marissa wasn't into my taking her picture so I didn't get a lot of her as I would've liked. She's hitting the "TWEEN" stage hard!View of the hotel from the parking lot... The next day was our last day so after check out we headed to the park for more rides. Gianna had the ride to herself. Marissa declared herself too big for this one & thought it was kiddie-ish. **sigh**We went on the Monorail that took us around the park & outside by the factory.We got to see the Hershey Kiss lamp posts. There are wrapped & unwrapped Kisses around the streets of town.Had to hit one last ride which we made Marissa go on with her sister, & despite the attempts at looking cool she enjoyed it too!
Believe it or not, despite my mocking the park a little we did have a good time! It was 3 days of family time which you just can't get enough of...tantrums and all! LOL!

Next up our Hershey Gardens experience!