DAY 25 – July 23, 2012 – Kisses from Hershey

Today we took an unplanned detour to Hershey, PA.  We slept last night in a Burger King Parking lot.  And I can say that was one of our worst nights sleeping ever.  It was hot and muggy and no one could sleep.

Mr. S went and did laundry with the kids while I caught up on the blog at BK.  I found a coupon online at Hershey Parks website that saved us $100 but we had to have it printed.  So we stopped by a UPS store and printed the coupon and headed to Hershey Park.

We all (well except Jawbreaker) love Hershey Park.  It’s clean, there are tons of roller coasters (there are even two that race each other), there are shows (I think 8 or 9 of them), and lots of other rides and shopping.  The thing I loved most about the park, was instead of having a shopping section, or a kiddie section, everything was mixed together nicely.  So if the older boys were on a roller coaster, the younger kids had the choice of kiddie rides, or other adult rides, or shopping.  We were able to stay pretty close to each other most of the time even when we were doing different things.  That was my favorite part of the park.

I found out my kids have been calling themselves by the wrong candy name. Here in Hershey you are measured by candy bars, and so when you want to ride a ride, you look for your candy bar symbol to know if you can ride it. Turns out Starburst is a Hershey, Bazooka should be called Twizzler, and Fireball is actually a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.

They have a waterpark, which was awesome for younger and older kids.  Nothing super killer exciting, but enough to turn your stomach.  The kids part was phenomenal, and fun enough adults were playing all over it too.  The slides you ride without a tube were in the kids section, and then tube rides were another part.

They also have a zoo attached to the park.  The zoo, waterpark and rides are all included in your ticket.  It was a great deal for so much to do.  We could have been there for days.  We have some kids saying this was the best part of the trip so far.  So I am glad we have had this flexibility.

The streets of Hershey, Pennsylvania do have lights that look like Hershey kisses.  But we didn’t really bother to check out the rest of the town.  We were at the park from 10am to 10pm, and then Mr. S decided he was going to drive us to Gettysburg, so we could have a relaxing morning.

I will say, something hit me here at Hershey that breaks my heart.  I’ve always thought of my older kids as older than they are.  They’ve been treated like adults for a while.  But my youngest, well they are my babies.  I was stunned to find out they were too big for kiddie rides.  You have to be kidding me.  I tried to make them ride a couple of them, and they were the oldest kids on the rides, and some they hardly fit.  What happened!  I am still stunned by this discovery.

It was a great day other though.  And other than Jawbreaker hating roller coaster rides, and being forced to ride them by his brothers…everyone was happy.

Summary of Day 25
Drove: 66 Miles (98647-98713)
Places we visited or saw: Hershey Park then drove to Gettysburg to sleep (Round Top Campground)

Favorite thing we did today:
Jawbreaker:  Water Park
Spitz: Skyrush Roller Coaster
Bazooka: Great Bear and Lightning Roller Coasters
Warhead:  Roller Coaster
Starburst, Fireball, Mr.S: Everything
Mrs. S:  Water Park