Day 34: Hershey and Liberty Bell

Went to Hershey Pennsylvania.  I have to admit all I thought of was Chocolate, I had no idea what else was here.  Apparently there is so much going on here.  We didn't look at anything but the Chocolate though :)

 We took a little ride that was inside.  It was free and definitely geared toward children but was fun and actually informative and the best part is after the ride you get some free chocolate!  Yum

Hershey kisses

 This is Fred.  He was our guide on a Trolley tour.  He had a good sense of humor and told us so much about Milton Hershey.  Milton only had a 4th grade education.  He went bankrupt 4 times trying to start his chocolate business.  His 5th time trying to start his business he borrowed money from his Aunt.  When he was about to lose everything one last time Obama came in and saved him lol....(That is a Fred and Gary joke) He had learned how to make caramels and had sold some to a Englishman.  The Englishman liked them so much he bought enough to get Milton out of bankruptcy and made him a wealthy man.  Milton found out that the Englishman was dipping the caramels in chocolate.  Milton decided that he could do that also, he worked hard and learned how to make the best milk chocolate and dipped his caramels himself.  Anywho he made lots of money.

He and his wife were never able to have children.  So they started a school for orphaned boys.  At the end of his life he gave all his fortune to orphaned children  and to this day his school still helps children.

 During the depression Hershey is the only town that had jobs for everyone and the job market actually grew.  This is one of the mansions that Milton built for one of his plant managers.  The manager could buy this house from Milton for $1.  The only stipulation was that when the man was done working for Hershey he would have to sell the house back to Hershey for market value and that was the managers retirement plan.  There is just so so much.  Hershey did an amazing thing here in Pennsylvania.  Very impressive.

Tayler and Lora on Tour

Emma and Hope on Tour

 One of the funny things that Fred said was that Hershey is such a sweet town, it is the only town that you can gain weight just breathing :)  Super fun and very impressive town.

We stayed on Chocolate Avenue

Tayler in heaven

 Interesting thing about Reese's.  A man with the last name of Reese, he might have been a manager, came to Hershey and told him about this candy he had been making at his house and his children really liked it.  Reese wanted Hershey to buy the idea from him.  Hershey didn't think it would sell, but he offered to help Reese out by selling him all the chocolate he needed at cost.  So Reese took him up on the offer and made Reese's peanut butter cups....which is the top selling candy today.

Hershey Kiss street lamps

Tayler loving his Reese's peanut butter "bowl"

Giant twizzlers

 Hope looked online and saw that the Liberty bell was closed on Saturday and Sunday....so we jumped in the car and zoomed to Pittsburgh.  Here it is.  So so cool.   Glad we were able to make it here.  It really helps that everything is so close on the East coast.  I am always happy to know that we only have to drive two hours from one destination after another.  Sure beats the long hauls we will be making at the end of this trip.  We are in Jersey City tonight.  Looking forward to New York tomorrow!