The Hershey Company is headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It is an idyllic small town with beautiful old houses, tree-lined streets, new schools, etc. Milton Hershey began manufacturing the first Hershey chocolate bars in 1900 and the company has been successful ever since. It is one the largest producers of chocolate and it is a huge, multinational company. The Hershey complex in the town includes besides a chocolate production plant, a school for underprivileged children, a museum, an ice arena, outdoor stadium, and most importantly for the Kralovec children, an amusement park. Followers of my blog know how much I loathe amusement parks (see Universal Studios Japan). They are $500 days for families of 5, parking kilometers away from the entrance and a crowded day mostly spent waiting in line for the rides.
I can throw all that aside when I see the joy and amazement on the faces of my kids. They loved the roller coasters and all the waiting time and crowds were worth it. Hershey Park is a typical amusement park with many large rollercoasters, smaller carnival-style rides and plenty of over-priced restaurants. We discovered the lines shortened in the late afternoon on this particular day, going from 1 hour plus waits to 15-30 minutes waits on the most popular rides. We arrived as the park opened at 11:00 AM and took full advantage of what the park had to offer. We were a bit nervous about being around so many unmasked people, however, we spent the entire day outdoors and wore our masks when we neared people. We ended up with negative PCR tests two days later before we left for Uzbekistan.
My middle son Oliver suffers from motion sickness like I do, but overcame his apprehension to go on the big rides with Ocean and Owen. I was proud of his courage. However, both Oliver and Owen experienced vertigo when they tried to sleep upon our return to Freeland that evening. My daughter Ocean, as you can see on the lead photo on this post, absolutely loves the rides and went on a few more than the boys. I went along with her on the water ride and loved to listen to her laughter.
It was a good, bonding family day as we celebrate the last few days of us together as five, before Owen heads off to university. Owen did a good job driving us back on the 90-minute journey back home. The park and town is worth a visit. Perhaps in the future we’ll go to the museum, although I really feel that sugar and the chocolate industry might someday be viewed similarly to tobacco because of its detrimental health effects on Americans.
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