Chocolate World & Gettysburg

This morning my mom and I got a start on our day around 9 a.m., and I'm glad we did because Chocolate World was apparently a more popular place to be than church on a Sunday morning.  We started our day in the chocolate factory and "packaged" our own Hershey Kisses.  Packaging consisted of us holding our trays while the Kisses poured out of a machine.  It was fun, though, and our Hershey Kiss container had our photo on it.  Here is a picture of us in the "factory". 



We then hit the gift shop where we roamed for at least a good hour.  We got so many gifts that I'm not entirely sure that they're going to fit in our luggage on our way back.  We may be making a stop at the post office this week to mail some of our stuff home. 

Following the gift shop, Mama Bear and I made our own chocolate bars.  Again, "made" is a very liberal term...ultimately we pushed a few buttons on a computer screen and the machines did all of the work, but it was actually really fun watching the bars being made.  The following is our pre-entry into the chocolate factory photo.

Here is a photo inside the factory while my chocolate bar has some Rice Krispie chunks added to it.  YUM! 

Since my dad was the inspiration for our trip to Hershey, Mama Bear and I decided to create our packaging for our chocolate bars in his honor.  Below is a photograph of our final products.

Next, my mom and I made our way through the factory tour.  The tour is not the actual Hershey factory, rather, a mock (but real) factory that you tour via carnival-like cars.  Here are a few pictures from inside the factory:

 Our greeters

Cocoa bean cleaner

Liquor press - to turn beans into powder

Add some milk...

 And here comes the chocolate

Now chocolate sheets

And finally chocolate bars!

And chocolate syrup...

 And Kisses!

Some other favorites...

And the final products

My mom and me outside of our newfound mecca!

We drove around the town of Hershey and looked at the residential parts of town and proceeded to make our way to Gettysburg.  At Gettysburg, we visited the National Cemetery, which contains the graves of over 6,000 servicemen.  

Entrance of Gettysburg National Cemetery

 Graves of fallen U.S. Soldiers, many from World Wars I & II

The site where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address

Graves of unknown soldiers; nearly half the graves in the cemetery are of unknown soldiers

 Cannon

Mama Bear & the cannon

Lincoln Address Memorial

Abe & Me

I just like this sign

 Monument

Major General Winfield Scott Hancock Memorial

Following our cemetery visit, we grabbed some dinner and then went on a candlelight ghost tour.  I was expecting the tour to be a little more eerie and interesting, but I guess it was worth the ten bucks.  More to come tomorrow!