October 5th – Mom loves chocolate. So guess where she had to go today!?! Actually I love chocolate too but mom doesn’t let me eat any. One of the tour guides slipped her an extra bar just for me though – only he told her to eat it for me, it’s no fair! But anyway I’m getting ahead of myself.
We left the hotel near Philadephia this morning. Mom just wanted to drive around through some of the back roads of Pennsylvania. She thought it was beautiful! The map at the end of this post isn’t really accurate as she didn’t keep track of all the places we went, so it’s just a general idea of where we went. Here’s some pictures we took of the beautiful area we were driving through.
Eventually mom decided we better continue on even though it was absolutely beautiful here. We got on the freeway and I started to notice changes. There started to be more open fields as we headed west. I wish I could have gotten out and romped and played but we didn’t find any parks or anything and she was just wandering through roads generally heading north.
So we started to head west. Mom says it’s time to start heading toward home unfortunately. So we drove a ways, then
This stuff looks yummy
she decided to stop and see one of the sweetest places on earth, Hershey, Pennsylvania! Wow was this place fun! As you drive into town one of the first things you see is their welcome sign. 
I got to ride my very first amusement park type ride. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, we got in this “car” (well that’s what mom called it, but it wasn’t like any car I’d ever been in before) and it took us through this “factory” showing us how chocolate is made. I was so excited! I kept looking around at everything and couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t get pictures of everything, but I know you want to see the highlights. Boy did this stuff look yummy!
After the chocolate factory tour, we went to the shop. We didn’t find a pin for me, but we found LOTS of chocolate. Mom even found the World’s Largest Hershey’s Bar,
but she didn’t buy one. We had to hurry because it was kinda late in the day and mom wanted to take a tour of Hershey and learn some of the history. So I got my first trolley ride! 
Mom says it wasn’t like a real trolley because it was not on tracks, but it looked like a trolley! The tour guide was really good and he told us all about the town and how Hershey had built it. Mr. Hershey did a lot of good things here, it was pretty amazing. He built houses for his workers and sold them at cost so everyone would have a house. He and his wife couldn’t have children so they started a school for orphans which is now open to disadvantaged children. It has an amazing statue in front of their 
founder’s hall. All of the children live in houses on campus with a 9-13 other children and “parents” whose full time job is to care for the children providing them with the love and attention they need to do well. Mom thought it was pretty amazing what they do their.
We also got to see Hershey’s mansion that he built for his wife. It was beautiful and is now used by Hershey’s execs. He also built many other houses,
a community center, and lots of other things needed in a town. The cultural center brings in many major productions every year. Of course also a garden and a memorial garden.
Oh and don’t let me forget about the lightest chocolate in the world! They must give off the best light, chocolate light! Mom laughs and says yes but when the lights go out, it’s dark chocolate. That must be really yummy, mom loves dark chocolate. She still won’t let me have any though. But at least I got a picture with the bag.
Everything closed there at 5pm, so we got back on the rode and headed on towards Pittsburg.
By the time it got dark we started driving through the mountains again and mom started looking for a place to stop. We kept driving through these things called tunnels. They were kind of like the tunnels in the Metro except there were a lot of lights and we were in our own car instead of on the train. I thought they were cool though. We didn’t get a picture, but maybe we will tomorrow. Mom says there are still more to go through.
We stopped for the night at a rest area. Mom said she was too tired and the signs in the rest stop said that the nearest hotel was 80 miles away. Mom had packed stuff for camping so we just camped in the car. I don’t think it’s going to be very comfy but we’ll see. As you might guess the map below isn’t right again since we didn’t make it all the way to Pittsburg, but I don’t know exactly where we stopped. Mom says the maps are good because they show where we’ve been and how to get where we’re going. Well as long as it works for her. She’s the one driving while I get to ride and look out the window and sleep. But all this traveling is fun!
