Fun Field Trip....The Sweetest Place on Earth

Daddy had a 2 1/2 week trip to Philadelphia, then Nashville, and then St. Louis, MO.  We got the wonderful opportunity of going along.  So we will have several posts of our adventures living in a hotel and visiting fun and cool places.

On our way to Philadelphia, we didn't realize we would be driving right past The Sweetest Place on Earth....Hershey, Pennsylvania.  So we decided to take a side trip on the way to Philly.

 Brayden's favorite candy in the world is a plain Hershey's bar.  He also loves them with Almonds.  He still loves M & Ms though, just like when he was little.

We got there about 8:15....not sure what it would be like.  People started showing up shortly after that. Chocolate World opens at 9 am....and we sat in the van for a while before we realized the long line of people forming.  So we quickly got into line.

 My former favorite candy bar....when I was pregnant with Caty, I could've eaten these every meal and had no regular food!

 There was some educational poster describing how Hershey's grew.

 And then we learned how chocolate comes to be....Hershey's has this really cool ride that they take you through the steps of making chocolate from bean to bar.  It's very neat....and FREE!!!

 From the cocoa bean in Africa and South America.

 This was a ride....can't tell how excited they were, can you???

 Our singing guides.....

 The sorting of the cocoa beans.

The beans are roasted....This was a cool glowing tunnel, and it even was blowing heat out.

 My pictures did not turn out great.  So there are lots of gaps.  This is formed cocoa powder ready to be mixed with the milk..

 And here comes the milk again....

 Now I have to laugh here......they actually said that by adding the milk they are making their chocolate bars more nutritional for you and your family.   LOL!!!  Can't say I ever thought of chocolate as extremely nutritional.

We rode this ride 2 times....about 15 minutes apart.  The Hershey Kisses meter went up by almost 60,000 pieces in that short about of time.

 Hershey bars formed.

 Wrapping the bars.

 Hershey Kisses

 Brayden really loved this special treat...and his chocolate drop treat at the end of the tour.

This was a fun side trip for us!!!  And now on to our next adventure......Philadelphia!!!