Hershey and Gettysburg- Wednesday, April 7, 2021

     Often when we've come to Gettysburg in the past, Julie will want to swing by Hershey, PA, if only for the Hershey's Chocolate World ride.  This time, because of COVID-19 restrictions, we had to plan ahead.  Before we had left home on this trip, Julie had made online reservations for the ride for 9:30 on Wednesday morning, so that set up the first part of this day for us.  We had to leave Gettysburg by no later than 8:30.  We actually got started early and pulled into Hershey Chocolate World at about 9:25, right on time.  Emma thought it was ironic that the main smell that wafted through the parking lot area was manure instead of chocolate.

    We got our temperatures checked (with a newfangled video screen for the adults) and our phone scanned for our timed entry.  Hershey had certainly cut down on the waiting lines.  We had to snake a long way through the railings where the queue usually was but there was no one else in line for that whole distance and we got right into one of the ride cars.  We've ridden this "factory tour" many times in the past, and were immediately struck by the many updates it had.  It still tells the (rather boring) story of how chocolate is made, but they've added in a lot more of the chocolate bar characters.  Julie did not like them.  Her favorite three singing cows (which were previously the only characters on the ride) were replaced with more than a half-dozen cows and a pig.  ("There's no pigs in making chocolate!" she complained, but Emma pointed out that Pioneer Woman puts bacon in hers.)  Julie's favorite song ("Hershey's Chocolate, Hershey's Chocolate, It's a Hershey's Chocolate World!  Wherever you go, whatever you do, there's always a Hershey bar waiting for you!") was replaced with something that seemed somehow lamer.  Once we rode the ride once, Julie didn't even want to go around for a second time- and she always wanted to go around for a second time.  The only chocolate we ended up getting were the free fun-sized minis that were handed to us as we got of the ride.  We did a little shopping though, and then headed on to the zoo.

     ZooAmerica is a part of Hershey Park.  It is a small zoo, but it features a variety of North American animals, all of which are rescues who have been rehabilitated here.  Abby's favorite thing about the zoo was not any particular animal, but rather the many ramps and bridges that connected the different buildings.  Scott liked the road runner exhibit and remembered it distinctly from when we visited here when the girls were younger.  Emma liked the nearby armadillos and porcupine even though they were sleeping.  But Julie was most fascinated by the huge number of turkey buzzards that had gathered in the park.  Her hypothesis is that there were a few females in one of the cages and the dozens that were gathering were males.   Whatever was the case, Emma picked up a feather that was almost certainly from one of them.  The zoo itself isn't very big, but it was just the right size for us today.  It was a job herding Abby in the right direction and it was starting to sprinkle a little by the time we were done.  We went to a nearby Red Robin for lunch, and then headed back to Gettysburg.

     When we arrived back in Gettysburg, Emma felt like she needed to take a nap.  Scott knew that Emma's front bike tire needed air, so he walked it up Cemetery Hill and back down the other side, but the attendant at the first gas station wouldn't give him enough change to get air, so Scott continued down Steinwehr Avenue to the next gas station (near the hotels that we stayed in during more recent trips.)  He got air in the tires there, but still had to walk the bike up the hill again and had to walk it through the National Cemetery because of the "no bikes" rule.  The only time he really got to ride it was down the other side of the hill and into our hotel parking lot.

     There was still a lot of time left in the afternoon, so Julie, Scott and Abby let Emma to rest while we went out shopping and battlefielding.  Our first stop was the Gettysburg Heritage Center, where Scott likes to by DVDs and books.  Abby bought a rag doll named "Molly" there, and used her own money that Grandma Frank had given here.  She carried Molly around the rest of the afternoon.   From there, we stopped at the Irish Brigade gift shop.  It has always been a favorite of ours, and Scott was sad to see that the owner is selling the place and retiring.  No doubt the hardships of running a tourism-based shop during the COVID year was a factor in his decision.  The silver lining for us is that everything was 50% off, so Scott ended up buying three nice t-shirts for about $26 total.  Then we went to the ice-cream shop nearby, "Mrs. G's", and Abby and Julie shared a cone.  We got a sarsaparilla to bring back for Emma.

     We were hoping that Emma would text us that she was ready to join us, but we hadn't heard from her yet.  We decided to drive to some of Julie's favorite spots on the battlefield.  We went to Devil's Den where Julie was hoping to let Abby play, but we found that Abby had fallen asleep.  There were a lot of people there anyway, so we continued on.  We went to Sachs Covered Bridge, another favorite spot of Julie's, but there were even a lot of people there too, and Abby was still asleep.  Julie got out and took some pictures.  Scott had the idea to walk the trail of Pickett's Charge with the GoPro, but when we stopped at the Virginia monument where he would start, he couldn't get the GoPro to work.  We texted Emma and told her to be ready for us to come and get her, since it was now after 5:00.

     We didn't know where we wanted to eat today, and probably because of that, we ate at the only place that's on our side of Cemetery Hill.  It's called  "The Pike", named after the Baltimore Pike, and right next door to our hotel.  We had never stopped there before, though we had driven by it many times.  We probably won't eat there again because the food was a little disappointing, but it was nice eating outside on their deck.

     Since the hotel was right next door, we all wanted to make use of the room for a quick freshening up.  After we rested there, the sun was about to start going down.  We figured it was the right time to resume the ghost tour from yesterday.  We went down Seminary Ridge to the "Eisenhower Power Tower" where we had paused yesterday, and continued with the "tape."   We ended up visiting some of the major features of that end of the battlefield, including Devil's Den, Little Round Top, and the High Water Mark, though this time we were going in the dark.  Emma thought that these stories were lame, since they seemed to just be about random lights and malfunctioning cameras.  Scott liked the story about the young girl, a daughter of a park superintendent, who thought she heard and intruder walking in the Codori house and called other rangers to help.  Abby slept through the entire tour.  Emma's favorite story tonight was the "Woman in White" at Spangler's Spring, which was also our last stop.  We then made a supply run to Sheetz and returned to the hotel for the night.