Big Road Trip Day 5--Chocolate World and the Poconos

A storm blew through overnight but thankfully the rain had stopped by morning. But--everything was wet. We had left our dishes drying on the table the night before on the tablecloth and of course the tent and the tarp were wet. Thankfully checkout wasn't until 2 so we ate a quick breakfast of fruit, nuts, and cinnamon raisin bread and left everything and went to Chocolate World--this is outside of Hersheypark and more about Chocolate and less about roller coasters.





We decided to pay the exorbitant prices and do a few things since it was vacay and who knows if we will ever be back. The kids and I did the Create Your Own Candy Bar and it was really fun. First we had to get suited up. I actually had to wear a beard cap in addition to the rest of the getup b/c of my nose piercing. First you used a computer touch screen to create your candy bar. You could choose your base--dark, milk, or white and then three add-ins. I chose pretzels, almonds, and raspberry pieces on dark chocolate. It is soooo good (I'm still working on it--it makes a big bar!).

Then you get to watch your bar being made...



Above you will see that no matter what your base is they all get "robed" in milk chocolate.

While the candy bars go into the cooling machine you go into another little room and create your label.

They give you a fancy tin to take your bar home in. Joe and Grace finished theirs within an hour but Hannah and I still have ours. :0)

We also did the Chocolate Tour--that was free and was basically a ride where you learn about how they make chocolate bars. We also saw a 3-D show that was disappointing. I thought it would be more informative but mostly it was just dancing candy bars. Overall though we had a great time at Chocolate World. Sorry I am not bringing home any chocolate souvenirs. We have NO room for anything that is not necessary for our trip so no souvenirs.

After Chocolate World we went back to the campground and used towels to dry off the remaining water and took the tent down and did all that stuff. Then I took the kids to the pool (and read my book) while Ollie loaded the car again. I'm working my way through a biography of Diana. It's interesting and when I get home I'm going to look for another biography that will tell more about her life after Prince Charles.
We didn't get out of Hershey until almost 2 so we had to change our original plans of driving to Massachusetts and instead went to another campground in the Poconos. There were no grocery stores around and we hadn't planned earlier for dinner so we ate at a great seafood restaurant for dinner. It was a nice treat and we all ate everything they gave us.
Then the kids did some Parkour outside the restaurant while Ollie tried to find us a good place to camp (we don't plan ahead much, can you tell?). That's him on the bench in the background using his iPhone to find a place preferably with laundry facilities since we had a bunch of wet stuff.

And this is what he found. It was just beautiful! It was more of an RV park but they let us camp on the grass in front of the lake. They also had a washing machine and dryer but no detergent or machine to change dollars into coins...so, Ollie went out looking for a convenient store...before he left he helped us get a fire started and the kids finally got to roast marshmallows! After fire time and climbing trees I got the kids ready for bed and Ollie started the laundry and we eventually called it a night.


We all slept well but then woke at about 6:30 to the rumble of thunder. We took down camp faster than ever and crammed everything in the car finishing just as the rain started. We were rolling out of there by 7:30 in the morning in the rain and it hasn't stopped since.