Hello Pennsylvania, Home to Chocolate Museums and Fun Rides!

Cold, cloudy, and rainy days typically limit the amount of fun we can have outside. So when some friends changed their plans with us last Saturday and the weather was only supposed to reach a high of 34 degrees, Amelia and I figured we would spend the day playing at the house or a museum. 

Little did we know, Mom and Dad had a back-up plan (really would you expect anything less from Mom - she probably had 4 back-up plans).  So we piled into the car and headed for Pennsylvania.

Did you know Pennsylvania has all sorts of cool things we have already seen (the Please Touch Museum, our Poconos Lake House...) and a lot of cool things we had not seen (A chocolate factory/museum, train museums, a caboose motel, an Ice Cream playhouse, a Harley Davidson factory, Lancaster, amusement parks...). 

So, we decided to knock a few things off the checklist... first stop: Chocolate Museum and gift shop.

 

Here we are outside the Hershey Chocolate museum.  They had a fun car ride that takes you through their factory, where you get to see and smell the chocolate being made!  They also have a floor that spins in a circle at the same pace as the ride.  Dad says it is so you don't fall coming out of the ride.  I just thought a moving floor was really cool.  Best part about the ride (other than the singing cows), you got a candy bar at the end.  So we rode twice.  It's the milk chocolate, Hershey's milk chocolate.  It's moo-tricious.

 

Some of you may remember my Halloween costume from 2012.  I like to think this trip was a long time coming.

 After the chocolate museum, we bundled up with extra layers - so many layers I could hardly walk (although it might have been the crash after the chocolate that kept me from walking).  And we headed to Hershey Amusement Park (right next door to the museum - so cool).  There I got to go on my first ever ride.  Amelia and I boarded the rainbow balloon pictured above.  It was so exciting, I could hardly contain myself.  I was giggling so much that I made mom giddy with excitement.  Amelia had a lot of fun too, she even smiled.

After the balloons, we drove some cars (pictured above), drove a couple of spaceships (one went really high), drove a helicopter, rode my first rollercoaster (Amelia was too small to come on), rode my first monorail, and drove a 'moon car' (as dad called it). I love amusement parks and so did Amelia. 

Dad requested that I add in a note that we stopped in Lancaster on the way back for an Amish dinner and to see some horses and buggies ride through town. 

Oh Pennsylvania, you are so much fun every time I come to visit.  Check out all of my photos from this visit here.    You can also check photos from Mom & Dad's last visit to Hershey and Lancaster (with Aunt Mimi).