Pennsylvania Vacation: Day 6

We met up with Brian's brother and family at Hershey's Chocolate World around 10:30 am.  Hailey and I signed up to "Make Your Own Chocolate Bar" and got right into the 11:00 time slot.  The rest of the group went on the free factory tour.  After Hailey and I were finished, everyone joined us for another factory tour.  They gave out a free mini chocolate bar at the end, so no one complained about going a second time! :-)  After the tour, we shopped for some chocolate goodies...how can you not?...and then left to get some lunch.  A friend of mine had mentioned an ice cream shop (Cloverdale) in Hershey that was serving ice cream made by students of the Milton Hershey school from noon to 2:30.  We drove the short distance over there after lunch to try it out.  I was anxious to try a honey-vanilla flavor they had and it did not disappoint!  It was very good...you could definitely taste both flavors in it.

We then drove over to Lititz, PA for a tour of the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Factory.  We learned how to twist a pretzel and how pretzels got their start.  They gave out free samples of their hard pretzels at the end, which I have to say, were much tastier than the pretzels you get at the grocery store.  I also bought a soft pretzel to try and loved it.  Our next stop was a short distance away...the Wilbur Chocolate Company store, first opened in the early 1900's.  There wasn't a tour there, but we were able to watch them make some of the chocolate through glass windows at the back of the store.  We picked up a package of Wilbur Buds (similar to Hershey Kisses) to try.  After that, we drove to Aaron and Heidi's house to relax and have some dinner before heading back to Lititz for their 4th of July parade.  The parade was quite long (over an hour), but the kids had lots of candy by the end and some of the floats/participants/entertainment were really neat to see!

  

Daddy and his girls in front of Hershey's Chocolate World.

 

Mommy and her girls in front of Hershey's Chocolate World.

  

"Make Your Own Chocolate Bar"...you used computers to indicate what type of chocolate you wanted (sweet, dark, or white), the inclusions (nuts, candy chips, etc.), and if you wanted sprinkles on the top.  Then you pulled down on the lever in the next room to start the bar's assembly.

 

Next, you walked along and watched as the machine put the bar together and then sent it through the cooling chamber.

 

While in the cooling chamber, you put together what you wanted the wrapper to look like.  They had many many choices!  At the end of the line, they have the bar packaged in a tin case and enclosed in the wrapper.  The chocolate bar isn't as big as the tin, though...it's just a little bigger and thicker than a normal Hershey bar.

 

The factory tour took about 15-20 minutes and showed how the chocolate went from a bean to a bar.  Clara loved waving to the singing cows and when going through the roasting tunnel, they actually pumped hot air to simulate the beans being roasted!

 

More of the tour.

  

The Cloverdale Ice Cream shop.

   

Hailey also tried the honey-vanilla flavor.

  

Learning how to twist a pretzel at the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Factory.

    

They also explained how pretzels used to be made and how they are made today.

  

Visiting the Wilbur Chocolate store. 

 

Wilbur Buds

 

We saw many of these Endless Summer Hydrangea bushes in full bloom everywhere we went.  They were so beautiful!

 

When walking up to the parade, we saw this group of ducks.  I've never seen a cream-colored duck before and am not sure what type it is!  If you look closely, you'll see she has little ducklings nearby as well.

 

Lititz 4th of July parade.