Mmmmm Chocolate 11.07

Day 6 - 11.07.09 - Sunny Near 60

HERSHEY is a little piece of heaven on Earth. The smells of chocolate are everywhere. We started our day at Hershey World. We went on the Hershey Factory Tour where naturally at the end you are given complimentary chocolate...today it was Mr. Goodbar. After this we decided to take the Hershey Trolley Tour. It was a great tour of the town where we saw the birthplace of Milton Hershey, the mansion he built for his wife, the largest chocolate factory in the world, and the school he created and endowed his entire fortune to.

It was very enlightening and I learned that this was built as a "Model Town". Mr. Hershey designed this town as a place that his workers could come and raise a family. He designed the park, the community center, and all that surrounds the factory as places for his workers and the community to thrive. It is an incredible place and I recommend that all visit and take the tour to learn the history of Mr. Hershey's ideas.

Mr. and Mrs. Hershey were not able to have children of their own and so the started an orphanage for boys where they would come, be educated, fed, and clothed at no cost to them. Over the years the school has evolved to what it is today. A school for students aged 4 to 18. In order to be eligible to attend you must be living in a situation where you are not being well cared for, have no parents, or are in serious financial situations. They come to the Milton Hershey School where they are housed, educated, clothed, fed, and given insurance. They only restrictions are that you must be able to learn, be in no trouble with the law, and be a US citizen. Upon graduation students receive an $80,000 scholarship to use at any university in the world. Their only task is to take what they learn and put it to use making their community a better place just as Mr. Hershey did. It was the most amazing place. They have a theater that seats 2,700 and has a stage larger than Radio City Music Hall. I could go on for a long, long time about this place but I recommend visiting the website and/or visiting the school. The most incredible thing. The school owns 78% of the Hershey Chocolate Company and 100% of Hershey Entertainment which owns the parks and museums. This was thanks to Mr. Hershey who died penniless as he gave everything to "his children."

After visiting Founders Hall at the school we headed to The Hershey Museum where we went through The Hershey Story and The Chocolate Lab. When we arrived we ate lunch at the Zooka Cafe. Zooka was apparently a special candy that they sold at Hershey years and years ago. After lunch you will see in the pictures that Ben and I were able to make our own chocolate bars with our own special ingredients. Neither of us have tasted them but we will! Once we were done in the chocolate lab we headed up to the museum where we were able to learn more and see artifacts from Milton Hershey's life. We also designed our own chocolate labels and sent them to our Mom's!! Our last stop was at the picture booth where as you'll see we made the front page of the paper.

It was a great day full of chocolate and education in Hershey. We are now back at the hotel, Ben is in the hot tub and I am watching some TV. Tomorrow we are off to Gettysburg for the day!

Hope all is well. We're supposed to be getting weather near 70!!!

Love!