Some of you might remember my travel blogs featuring trips to Bristol, Virginia in the past, as I like to highlight our adventures spent there among our travels. Our grandson, Joshua, tries to plan every second of our visit with some kind of exciting opportunity for fun. After all, he only gets to see us a few times a year, and this past one, was even less.
So, you can only imagine his enthusiasm when he discovered that he and his momma would be spending at least an entire week visiting us! One of his wishes was to visit Hershey so that he could see the "kisses" on the lamp posts that are featured on the main street. So, yesterday, our gallivanting adventures took us to the Hershey Zoo and Chocolate World. It was a glorious sunny day, and the temperature was just perfect.
When we arrived, I'll have to admit, I was pretty surprised to see that the parking lot at the zoo was already full at 11:00 in the morning, but someone was leaving as we pulled in, so we managed to get a space right at the entrance. And, although the lot was full, the zoo was big enough that we didn't really notice many people around.
If you've been to this zoo, then you know that it is relatively small, with no large animals like giraffes, elephants, hippos, rhinos or such. There just isn't enough land for those type of creatures to be comfortable. But there were certainly enough species to entertain.
The Southern Swamps featured a spoonbill
alligator
and various snakes, which I was not keen on photographing.
Moving on, the interior desert held fast moving roadrunners
along with some slow-moving turtles.
The bear exhibit was lacking a bear, but offered entertainment nonetheless.
A sea otter delighted us with his quick moving antics.
A pair of bald eagles made Grandpa's day. (He loves bald eagles!)
There were white tailed deer
and mountain lions sunning on top of a rock. They were kind of difficult to spot, but we knew they had to be there from the sign.
There was a huge mound, with many holes that were home to prairie dogs, but we never saw even one, despite waiting for a bit of time for at least one head to pop up. I suppose it's much cooler below ground. But, that was about enough for this nine year old boy, so we headed over to chocolate world to take the free tour.
But, first, we needed a picture next to the kiss mobile.
We walked the long trail up the ramps to the area where we embarked on the car for the ride.
Personally, I found the talking cows to be quite amusing.
and there was the surprise of the piggy popping up from the hale bay to add to the fun.
Candy bar holograms explained the process of making Hershey chocolate,
going through the step by step procedure.
which even featured how the bars go through the packaging.
We were wished a fond farewell by a hershey kiss,
and, after debarking from the car, we were each handed a mini Hershey bar as a treat! I must say....that really hit the spot!
Down in the shops, Joshua opted to fill a bag of candy with as much as he could stuff in that thing.
There were many varieties to pick from. (Not sure if he picked them all.)
Marty decided to stick with the standard Hershey bar
but the store was filled with a multitude of delights.
And, obviously, beer...from Troeg's brewery which is located just down the road.
On the way out, we got a photo with some candy bars
and we took a brief walk through Hershey's chocolatetown. I was amused by the bell tower which held a kiss shaped bell.
As you can see, this guy had quite a bit of fun
and, how lucky are we that the weather was so accommodating?
A perfect day for a sweet adventure!
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