American Travels, Week 4 part one

Day twentytwo, Friday 17th of August

Today Billy had a special 'treat' in store for me, a visit to the famous Hershey Park. But before we could enjoy the rides we had a 2 and a half hour drive ahead of us to the town of Hershey. We got up early and instead of messing about at home trying to get some breakfast we went to the original waffle shop. A great and inexpensive place to eat breakfast. Not only do they serve waffles but also a wide variety of other breakfast favorites, including pancakes, eggs and cereal. The service is great, the coffee is continually being refilled, up to the point where you actually have to say no, or you'll never get out of there. Then we began our drive through the lovely central PA valleys and along the Susquehanna river. In passing we saw the copy of the statue of liberty (as featured in the book: Weird Pennsylvania) and got to the park just after opening.

First stop of the day was a visit to Chocolate World, a fun and free ride explaining the history of the Herschey chocolate factory and the process of making chocolate out of cocoa beans.

Then we were off for the real fun of the day: a park simply stuffed with all kinds of rides, small one, big ones, waterrides anything you could think of. We decided to leave the water rides for the end of the day, so we wouldn't need to walk around completely soaked. Hershey park celebrates it's 100th birthday this year, so you can imagine there are rides from almost every era, from classic wooden rollercoasters and carousels to state of the art thrillrides. We almost experienced them all, some even twice! At the end of the day it was time to get thoroughly soaked on the water rides, first the Canyon river rapids that pretty much left us dry untill the very end when we passed through not one, not two, but three waterfalls! And they did warn us. The we were off to the wettest ride of all: the Tidal force. Shivering and wet we decided to just live a little and went straight back for another plunge. After a day full of thrills and fun we were gently herded out of the park well after closing time.

Day twentythree, Saturday 18th of August

"I have no recollection of this day."

Sleeping

Day twentyfour, Sunday 19th of August

Today we wanted to go outside for a spell, but nothing too far away, so we settled on Spring Creek park, a nice little park with a creek running through it, as well as a covered bridge. After having parked the car we went for a long stroll, looking for a good place to have our picnic and play some badminton. Yes by then we had turned into badminton fiends who needed to get their fix! The picnic places near the car were all taken so we decided to drive around to the other side of the park to a few spots that were empty next to a baseball field. This was perfect as we had lots of room to play and have our salad and grilled sausage dinner. All in all, perfect for a quiet sunday afternoon.

Day twentyfive, Monday 20th of August

Today we coerced Steve into having dinner with us, as we wanted to celebrate his birthday. After some deliberation we finally decided on the Corner room. To my joy and amazement the special for the day was an all-you-can-eat pastafest, consisting of several different types of pastas and a few different sauces. Way to go corner room! Lucky for us Steve was also in possesion of a dinner voucher, so he ended up paying for the meal. Happy Birthday Steve and thanks again!