Day Two - Hershey, PA

We plan to get to New York City tonight. It's a 6-hour drive from Pittsburgh, so we break it up by stopping in Hershey, PA.

When I worked for UrbanPromise, we took our 3rd graders on a weekend retreat to Messiah College over Halloween and spent one evening at HersheyPark and Hershey Chocolate World. The place has fond memories for me and I thought we would enjoy the stop at the half-way point in our drive.

It's changed quite a bit since I was last there. It's much larger and has many more attractions and visitors. It wasn't quite the quaint little stop, but it was still a lot of fun to see, smell, and taste all the chocolate.

We did a "tasting" adventure. It was a little corny, but educational. Even Camden went to school.

We drove the final 3 hours...which turned into a little bit more when we hit traffic going into the city on the Lincoln tunnel. But we made it by early evening. Just in time to check into our hotel (1/2 block off Times Square - gotta love Priceline) and for Kevin and Austin to go the the corner pizza shop for dinner.

We were warned that hotel rooms in NYC were tiny, but this was comical. The hotel was geared to the young, hip, chic tourist...definitely not a family of 4 on a vacation. It was perfect location, so we aren't complaining, but our room was probably 8'x8'. Just enough space for a full bed...and a pack-n-play and a sleeping bag on the floor.

This is the entire room - wall to wall...and I'm in the bathroom doorway! All-in-all, though, we loved the stay.