Hershey, PA

Jessica and Alexis's visit to Reading gave us a chance to go to Hershey, PA, which is advertised as "The Sweetest Place on Earth." After selling his successful Lancaster Caramel Company in 1900 for $1 million, Milton S. Hershey turned his focus to the production of milk chocolate, which was a Swiss luxury product at the time. To do so he returned to his hometown of Derry Church, PA where he would be able to obtain large quantities of fresh milk and started a factory. Along with the factory, he also worked hard to establish a factory town for his employees that would provide them with a sense of community.

Formerly a location of the Milton S. Hershey School, the Hotel Hershey currently overlooks the factory and amusement park area.

This is the entrance to Chocolate World, where we spent most of our time.

Some of these people really like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (Reese originally worked for Hershey before leaving to start his own company that used Hershey chocolate. After his death, his company was sold to Hershey.)

After spending some time in Chocolate world and going on the tour where we saw the singing cows, we took a "trolley" ride around town where we learned some of the history behind the factory, the city, and the school.

They did a good job of making the inside of the bus look like an actual trolley.

Alexis and Jessica on the trolley.

Brent and Billie on the trolley.

This is a building downtown. Note the design of the street lights.

This home was built by Milton S. Hershey's great grandparents and is where he was born on September 13, 1857. After being sold and repurchased by Hershey, this was the first location of the Hershey school.

After our trolley tour we returned to Chocolate world to make some candy. Unfortunately, facial hair had to be covered up, too.

Jessica and Alexis after preparing to make candy.

Everybody picked a base (dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate) that moved along this conveyor belt. As it went, the fillings that you had selected were dumped in.

After the fillings had been added it was coated with milk chocolate.

Billie, Jessica, and Alexis look for their candy bars in the cooling tunnel. Watching chocolate cool was not as exciting as they make it appear.

While things were cooling everybody got to design their packaging. Here, Jessica oversees Alexis's design.

After cooling, the candy bars were boxed and then put into tins with our designs on the outside.

Possibly the highlight of the day for some of these people - a real, live Reese's Peanut Butter Cup! (You'll remember that they were excited to get their pictures taken next to a picture of one earlier in the day.)

After leaving Chocolate World, we went to the botanical gardens, which were free because spring had not quite sprung.

This is the view of the amusement park and factory from the gardens.

Alexis with some Hershey Kiss fountains. She's probably glad that they weren't spraying water.

A butterfly with some flowers starting to grow on its wings.

We had a good time in Hershey but the various tours, chocolate tastings, and candy makings could be expensive. Regarding the Hershey School, it started as a school for orphaned boys but is currently coeducational and enrolls about 1800 students from low-income families all over the country. Starting in 1905 Hershey created a trust to provide the town's financial services and manage the funds for his philanthropic efforts. The $60 million in Hershey company stock that he gave to the school in addition to 486 acres of land is currently worth more than $7 billion.