#100 Hershey Chocolates, PA 5-29-09

I know, I know, I said we weren’t going to drive more than 50 miles away from where the coach is parked, but the home of Hershey Chocolate is only 84 miles away! If we get up early-8:00 am, then we can leave by 9 and get there before lunch. So off we go on Friday.

Look how nice we are greeted at Chocolate World. Aren’t those chocolate people cute?

We go on a Disney like ride through a tour of a chocolate making factory. This is a narrated ride, so you get a lot of information on the making of chocolate and about Mr. Hershey.

We are greeted by happy, singing cows who represent the reason Mr.. Hershey built his chocolate factory here. There are a lot of dairies in the area to supply the milk for making chocolate.

Look! Hundreds of kisses going down the conveyer belt. They are literarily drops of chocolate on a cold belt that hardens the warm chocolate into a kiss.

Here are the bars, getting ready to be put into their wrappers. Too fast for me to figure out what kind of bars. But, I know they have chocolate in them.

A happy cow waves good by to us as he takes our picture.

Next we went to Chocolate University and did our own chocolate testing with a sample bag of chocolates. We learned how the cocoa beans are grown, harvested, dried and shipped. We also learned we didn’t have to worry about the peanuts or peanut butter used in Hershey candies.

After school we jumped on a trolley to tour the city and learn more about Mr. Hershey.

Above is the largest chocolate factory in the U.S. Mr. Hershey failed at three businesses before he started making chocolate. He did succeed in making caramels and sold that business for one million dollars and used all that to start his chocolate business.

On the trolley we met Mr. Hershey’s father and he told us more about Mr. Hershey. Although they could not have children of their own, Mr. and Mrs. Hershey started a school for orphan boys. This was the beginning of the University that is still in operation today.

Above is Mr. Hershey’s mother who told us more about the school and the family. Along the way we also picked up one of the students, and one of the factory workers who told us about life in Hershey. (All of them were the same guy, dressed in different costumes and using different accents. He was hilarious!)

Not only did Mr. Hershey build a school, but during the great depression in the 1930’s he started a building program, expanding the factory, the school and building homes for the workers. Not one of his employees lost their jobs. During WWII the US government came to Mr. Hershey and asked him to make a bar that would have enough calories and nutrition to sustain a soldier while marching. It is told that the words “Hershey Bar” is one of three different phrases all European children could say in English.

In the trees is one of the student residences that were built to house the children attending the University.

Check out the name of the street. Just reading the street names in Hershey makes you hungry!

We are glad to be in an enclosed trolley. Heading down the street, with it’s Hershey Kisses street lights, the rain really started to come down. See all the raindrops on the window? By the time the ride was over it was really raining, so we went inside and purchased some chocolates inside the Chocolate stores. By the time we made our purchases, the rain stopped and we headed back to the RV. A very sweet day!