31 May 2021
After travelling back to New Jersey, we repacked once again, reloaded the car, and headed to Pennsylvania. We had two fun family events that were postponed from last fall - a Bar Mitzvah for one great nephew, and a Bat Mitzvah for a great niece. The two young people did very well with all their 
studies and were able to read the Torah beautifully. Each event had a smaller-than-usual party, since the planning had to be begin a few months prior and also had to follow the Covid protocols from that time. Actually, it worked out well having a small party with fewer guests, because it gave everyone more time for more conversation with people. We both really 
enjoyed this family time - as well as being able to hug other people for a change!
And then, because this is a Phebe and Richard trip, we took the days between the two events to do something we've always talked about doing. We both agreed that our retirement is the time to do 
all those things we've always wanted to do - so we spent four days in Hershey, Pennsylvania, home to the Hershey Chocolate company!
We didn't want to do the more touristy things like go to the amusement park or the zoo, we just wanted to visit the factory and see 
the street lights shaped like chocolate kisses.
I had hoped that the air would smell like chocolate, the way some small towns in Europe do. But apparently the Environmental Protection Agency forced Hershey to control the emissions, so the town no longer smells like chocolate. Of course, I would never think of chocolate fumes as being air pollution, but what do I know?
Hershey Chocolate Company no 
longer allows tours through the actual factory, the way they did originally. I'm not sure if there were health concerns or if there were too many people like Richard who want to swim in the vats of chocolate. The compromise is a free tour through a simulated chocolate factory, possibly using the old equipment. So we did that.
Milton Hershey started Hershey's Chocolates in 1893 - over 100 years of chocolate!!! Yum! One wall had a huge mural featuring the founder, as well as a few quotations by him. 
After all, he was the founder of what has become a huge empire - an empire larger than Milton ever envisioned!
The tour begins with people getting into little three-car trains that are attached to cogs on sort of a giant conveyor belt, for lack of a better 
explanation. The cars are each colored for signature candies: one silver for kisses, one orange for Reese's, and one deep brown for basic Hershey bars. Makes for a colorful ride!
People get into these cars when each mini train arrives at a giant rotating 
circle. Yeah, not so great for those of us without the balance of a gymnast or the grace of a dancer. We both had assistance both getting onto that circle and then getting into the car. There's something about hopping from a stationary surface to a moving surface that gets me every time.
We rode past various displays while a disembodied voice explained what we were seeing - roasting chocolate beans, breaking them into nibs, grinding them into paste, mixing in milk, and so on. There were small rivers of chocolate that weren't deep enough for 
swimming, and tubes that mimicked chocolate pouring down to be formed into various candies. It really was pretty amazing to see the entire process, including the wrapping and packaging.
At the end, we both had assistance getting out of the car and back onto 
unmoving land - and, the best part, we were each given two mini Hershey's bars of chocolate. Milk chocolate, the standard - ah well, still tasty, though not as good as the special dark that I prefer.
The rest of the Hershey Chocolate World was rather commercial, with a 
variety of souvenirs featuring various Hershey products. Yup, tee shirts, sweatshirts, bags, mugs, pillows, stickers, pins, magnets, on and on. We bought nothing, but we did look.
We drove around a bit, along Chocolate Avenue, Cocoa Avenue, and ate at the Cocoa Diner. It all was very kitschy, but we both kind of enjoyed the silliness of the whole thing.
It was a nice little break, and we both had a good time. Even without swimming in molten chocolate.
No comments:
Post a Comment