Friday, May 16, 2008

Good Friends and Good Chocolate

My friend, Amy, who is good at planning trips and getting out of the house when she has a car, invited me on a day trip to Hershey to visit the Jacksons earlier this week. I'm sure she's good at planning trips and getting out of the house anyway, but the only time we ever get out anywhere together is when we both have a car. Ah, the joys of being a one car family. I'm cool with it though. I just remind myself all the time. I say to myself, "I like sitting in this dank, dark, dungeon of a house. Think how much money I'm saving!" Anyway, we both had a car, so we got out of the house. If one of us had a mini van, or say, a Toyota Highlander with a third row, or something silly like that, then only one of us would need a car, but that's another story.
So, we drove up to Hershey, and I got to see the Jacksons house for the first time - and definitely not the last, because I loved it! I want to go back and photograph every corner of it. It just wasn't practical with 8 kids running around, but you'll see it on here someday. Or maybe you could go see the real thing. If not, then there is a really great playground in town called Cocoa Castle. If you're ever in Hershey, I totally recommend a picnic there. Or just a bag of pretzels and some juice boxes (thanks Sarah), because the kids were in such a hurry to explore the playground that they only had the patience for a few bites of sandwich. And really, I was pretty excited too. It was the best park I've ever seen. A huge wooden castle structure (but not all splintery like the wooden parks from my childhood days) with plenty of places to climb, crawl, run, and hide. Tire bridges, and swings. A big sandbox with a ton of sand toys to share. A long row of swings. All of this surrounded by a practical wooden fence, to which my kids said, "Don't fence me in." Just kidding. We loved the fence. Well, I loved the fence. They didn't even notice the fence. So, Cocoa Castle. Totally recommend it.
After running out some energy, we made the required stop at Chocolate World. On the drive up, I didn't tell the kids we were going to go to Chocolate World (or that we were going anywhere near it, as a matter of fact - just in case it didn't work out), but as soon as we pulled into town, the kids noticed the Hershey Kiss shaped street lamps, and Evie asked if we were going to the chocolate factory. A girl after my own heart. Lucky for all of us, it did work out, and we got to see the singing cows and get some free chocolate. Good chocolate. And we bought some chocolate too. Of course. And as if the Hershey sugar fix wasn't enough for a late afternoon snack, Sarah introduced us to the coolest donut shop I've ever been to. I took pictures, so that's going to have to be another post, and you will have to wait.
It was a busy day trip, and unfortunately I'm not a great multi-tasker (don't tell any of my old bosses that. I used to think I was, so I always had it on my resume. Then I had kids.), so while I was running around taking pictures of the kids at the really cool park, I didn't get to hang out with the girls. But, like I mentioned before, there will be other trips. And hopefully next time Dave can chase the kids while I chat it up. That's really my forte anyway.




The whole gang (minus little Tom, who was sleeping).


2 comments:

Hizzeather said...

Hmmm...is someone campaigning for a new Highlander? Very subtle... :)

adventure knitter said...

thanks for blogging about our day...maybe i just post a link to your blog and save myself the trouble of typing all of that!