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2004-08-11 - 6:09 p.m.
I want candy
Since we have been together, J.G. and I have made a little tradition of going to Hershey Park with her brother John for the last 2 summers. The first year, one of John’s friends came with, and last year it was just the 3 of us. Then, as this summer arrived and we finally set a date, we couldn’t find one that wouldn’t conflict with John’s schedule, so it was just the 2 of us this year. Maybe he didn’t want to feel like a third wheel or something. But on the morning that we left, he was just sitting around the house, and I don’t think he had anything big planned that day, he should have come along. Oh well, maybe next year. One of the upsides of it being just me and J.G. was that we decided to make a whole weekend out of it, and book a hotel room for the night, so that we could stay in Hershey over night and not have to drive home after a long day at the park. And since she’s going back to school for the fall this week, it was kind of our last hurrah of the summer together. Since J.G. took the liberty of booking the hotel room and buying Hershey Park tickets on eBay herself, we made the deal that I would pay for all food and other expenses for the trip, which I think was pretty fair. I had to work late Friday, so I came over to her house after work and crawled into bed, and in the morning we got up and got ready to go. We got on the road after 10, and the drive to Hershey is less than 2 hours, but we decided to stop for lunch before getting there, so we got there around 1. We saw a sign for a Cracker Barrel and decided to stop. J.G. looooves Cracker Barrel. And since it was early, I was able to try their breakfast menu for the first time. The pecan pancakes were tasty. Since we got to Hershey Park in the early afternoon on a Saturday, it was already a bit crowded. But J.G. had the brilliant idea of heading over to the far end of the park, away from the entrance, where there’d be less people. The lines for the rides were a little shorter, although we still had to wait at least 20 minutes for most stuff, but that’s still not bad. My approach to amusement parks is usually a little chaotic, but she always had a plan, looking at the map and figuring out what we should get in line for next and after that. It was kinda cool, we were never bored, we always made sure we had enough time for the good stuff. At one point we were in line for a roller coaster behind this little 9 year old girl who was scared. J.G. tried to reassure that it was fun and not dangerous. Then I told the girl, “see how they’re screaming on that roller coaster? It’s not because it’s too fast or dangerous. Once they lock you into the car, spikes come up through the floor and into your feet.” I’m a troublemaker. Since the park didn’t close til 11pm and we could stay as late as we wanted, we decided to do the Chocolate Factory tour around dinnertime as our break, since that’s kind of a relaxing little ride. It’s kind of cool going through there and learning about Milton Hershey. The more I think about it, that guy is like my hero. Here’s a guy that figured out how to mass produce milk chocolate, which most people in America had never tasted before, and became hugely successful, and then built a town for his employees to live in. And when he and his wife couldn’t have children, he built an orphanage and an amusement park. I mean, if you can accomplish half of what he did in his life, you have something to be proud of. After the tour, of course, we hit the candy store, which is what I really look forward to every year. The Hershey superstore has like everything they make, including a lot of stuff you can’t get anywhere else. When we went 2 years ago, I discovered the Zero bar, which is a white fudge candy bar with caramel, peanut, nougat and almond in it, which I’ve never seen anywhere before, so I assume it’s not widely available. So every year now I make sure to get a few of those. They’re pretty good, but it’s also partly about their preciousness. J.G. got a bunch of candy for her candy dish for when she’s an RA at school this fall, and some boxes of Hershey bars for some raffle thing her mom’s doing at work. So she had quite a haul. But so did I. Here’s the full tally of candy I bought: 6 king-size Zero bars, 2 Cadbury fruit & nug bars, 2 Cookies’n’Creme bars, 2 Whatchamacallit bars, a bag of Reese’s Pieces, a bag of Almond Joy, and a bag of York Peppermint Patties. And that was all for just a little over $20! The prices there are so great you just can’t pass it up. It was a good thing that J.G. was there to keep me from pigging out on candy that weekend. Since I brought it all home, I’ve been snacking on all that stuff pretty consistently, but it should still all last me quite a while. After taking the candy back to the car, we went back into the park for another go. When we realized how many rides we still wanted to go on, though, it started to feel like a race against time. We got on a couple more coasters, and the nice low key stuff like the swings and the ferris wheel. We shared a ferris wheel car with 3 girls, one of whom was really really scared of heights and freaking out, and her friends kept laughing at her, and I couldn’t help but get cracked up too. When we got up in the air, one of the girls kept telling her “we close to Jesus”. The only real disappointment of the day as far as rides go was that we didn’t get to ride the Storm Runner, which is the new coaster this year. We were in line for another ride when we heard that the line for it was like 2 hours long. Dang. So maybe next year we’ll get in line good and early. By the time we got back to the car and on the way to find our hotel, it was pretty chilly out and we were both a little beat. J.G. was a little grumpy, but once we got to our room and we decided to splurge on room service, she was a happy camper again. In the morning, we took a dip in the hotel’s indoor/outdoor pool, which was a little crowded, but it still felt great to get a swim first thing in the morning. Then we drove home, and I was back in time to hang around for an hour before running off to work. Good weekend. -al
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