Singing Cows and Oh, So Much Chocolate!

The weekend saga continues! We got up fairly early on Sunday -- mostly because none of us slept all that well -- and had breakfast in the hotel "bistro". The bistro was pretty much a souped up Starbucks stand, but the coffee and scones were good and the server was friendly.

After breakfast, we checked out and headed back to Hershey to visit Chocolate World, the semi-free chocolate store in between Giant Center and HersheyPark.

Oh hai chocolatey treats!

I say "semi-free" because there is no admission and the Simulated Chocolate Factory Tour ride is free. Everything else, like the Chocolate Tasting and the Make Your Own Chocolate Bar, definitely has a price tag. There's a big food court, a huge candy store that carries all thing Hershey (did you know that Sharfenbarger chocolate is a Hershey product? I didn't!), and a souvenir/apparel store where you can outfit yourself with hats, hoodies, plush toys, and a zillion other Hershey-labeled things.

Abandon diets, all ye who enter here.

So, we went on the Simulated Factory Tour ride. We had gotten there pretty early, so there was absolutely no line. What a hoot! Joe and I had been on it before, but I heard that it had been refurbished. Well, it was much the same, actually. But that was all right with us, because who can knock singing cows and animated candy that explains how Hershey bars and kisses are made? Not I!

Moo!

It's very cute. After we jumped out of the car and navigated the moving platform, we passed through another money sink, where a nice young man handed me a souvenir book with pictures of us photoshopped onto various backgrounds. (They took our picture before the ride -- hah.)

A big kiss!

Of course I caved and bought it. In addition to the book and the photos, we got a download code so that we can get digital copies of the pictures. So we got that going for us! In addition to the photo book, we bought some -- you guessed it -- chocolate.

Sonnyeboy, Joe, me, and the photobombing cow

By the time we left, the crowds were swelling. We noticed that the line to park for HersheyPark was bumper to bumper, so we were more than happy to head on home.