After Gettysburg we drove about an hour to Hershey, PA. We checked into our hotel and then drove over to Hershey's Chocolate World. They have a little amusement park there, but it closes after Labor Day. Just as well. They also have a museum that is closed for renovations, and wont open till January. I would have really liked to see that. Did you know that Mr. Hershey was a Mennonite? He also built the town of Hershey for his factory workers. It is a pretty little town. Anyway, they do have a free tour/interactive display/gift shop that you can visit, since they no longer let visitors inside the real factory (a bit Willy Wonka-ish if you ask me).
Here we are waiting to go on our tour. It is kind of like a ride...you sit in a little car on a track that takes you through the chocolate-making process. Even though the kids knew it wasn't the real factory, they were completely floored by the whole thing. Here was Abby's comment--"Is this really real or am I DREAMING!!??" They LOVED it. In fact, we went twice.
The tour lets you off right in the middle of a gift shop. Which makes me think that it was all a giant commercial. A very fun, mildly educational commercial. Look at this chocolate bar! 5 lbs. Thank goodness it was $30 or we might have come home with one.
We went to another section called "Factory Works". The kids get a factory worker hat, and get to fill these little containers with hershey's kisses. Then they put them on a conveyor belt and they come out the other end wrapped in plastic. They could buy the container for $5. Luckily they are managing their own souvenier money and no way were they going to shell out $5 for a handful of Hersheys kisses.
On the subject of souvenier money, this is what we did. First of all, Chloe is loaded from babysitting and her miserly ways. But the other kids had nothing. So before we left Kresten gave them tons of extra cleaning jobs, and offered to pay them each $10. So that is all they have had. Well, they have been keeping journals on the trip with varied levels of interest. So then we decided to pay them $1 per journal page. It has worked out really well. They are writing much more, plus they have a way to earn a little extra money as we go. I think we are spending much less than we would have if they were just asking us for things every step along the way. Interesting what they will not waste their hard-earned money on!
3 comments:
Brilliant parenting! I'm so impressed. This is such a fun blog. I'm with you!
I love the journal idea. I am going to have to use that one on my girls on our next big trip.
That is an awesome idea!
Kind of the inverse of how we took our family trip back in high school where we each had to pay my parents 3x our age to attend. LOL I was 15 so I had to pay my Dad $45 and still have my own money after that. Luckily we had three years to earn up the money. LOL But what a ride. 4 1/2 weeks with 10 kids, a dad and a pregnant mom in a van pulling a trailer. We saw the nation and you can't beat that.
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