New England - Day 1

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[youtube=pI9Z_2gVg0A]

I've never done a proper visit of New England, so we decided to get down to brass tacks and planned one doozy of a trip!

We began in Harrisburg, PA, mainly for its proximity to Hershey and the corresponding Hershey's Chocolate World. A site never to be missed, we wanted to pay homage to the wonderful chocolatier and worship at their altar.

Flying into Harrisburg was wonderful. We approached the runway from the north, so we didn't get a great view of 3 Mile Island like I was hoping for, which is just south of the airport. But the view was still magnificent of downtown Harrisburg and the Susquehanna River.

Being the general science geek I am, especially with nuclear stuff, I insisted we drive down to a view of 3 Mile Island's reactors and cooling towers. There really is no "official" place to see them, and access to the island itself is obviously restricted. But we found a place to pull over on PA-441 (River Rd, where many others were also stopping to pay their respects) and I got some great pictures to remember the old plant by. Heather reminded me to make sure and get some shots of the reactors, as she didn't want me looking like a fool who oohs and aahs over cooling towers, which are really nothing but huge concrete structures (but this still fascinates me!).

Once I was done geeking out, we headed over to the raison d'etre of Hershey, PA: Hershey's Chocolate World! The happiest (and most diabetic?) place on earth! Or at least in Pennsylvania.

We were famished as we pulled in, and were really jonesing for a bit of SOMETHING. I had heard vaguely there was a cafe in old Chocolate World, and suggested we give this a try. We wandered in and found the cafe was there and had real food, not just chocolate. I ended up getting a very tasty sandwich and, for dessert, a wonderfully delectable s'more made with (what else?) Hershey's chocolate. Heather had some salad and a cheesy soup.

Once our appetites were sated, we were finally able to wander around this chocolate lover's dream world. There were tons of places to buy stuff, most of it chocolate or Hershey's related merchandise. We ran across the 10 pound bar of Hershey's chocolate, the World's Largest Reese's, and the World's Longest Twizzlers. As we still had a whole trip ahead of us, much of it in the car, we were reluctant to buy some chocolate, so I got my picture taken with them instead!

Then we departed on a quest to find the Chocolate World Ride, the one that depicts an actual Hershey chocolate factory. It was a wonderful ride, there was no wait, we got right on. There were singing cows reminding us "it's the milk chocolate" over and over again. I even took a video on one of our many trips through the ride. Check it out!

We spent quite a while at Hershey's, but finally we decided it was time to leave. We still had tons of time ahead of us, though. (This would be the *only* time in the trip where we found ourselves with expendable time!) After some discussion, we finally decided to make the trek out to Gettysburg, arguably one of the most hallowed grounds in the US and a place I was very interested in seeing.

We explored the visitor center and then, knowing we didn't have a ton of time before it would begin to get late, we went over to what I considered the centerpiece of the area, the place where Lincoln read the Gettysburg Address. We went into the National Cemetery and found the monument there, then we wandered around the battlefield across the street. We were lucky enough to even get some scrumping in! These apples would prove tasty treats later, even though most of the apples we saw were pretty infested with worms.

By now the sun was beginning to set, but Heather wanted to push on and see Maryland real quick. I relented and we crossed the Mason Dixon line into Maryland. We rolled into Emmitsburg and Heather jumped when she saw signs for the Shrine of St Elizabeth Ann Seton! It was another unexpected stop; unfortunately, we were too late to get into the gift shop as it had just closed. Instead we walked their very beautiful grounds, including their old cemetery.

We returned to Harrisburg relatively late, after having dinner at a Pizza Hut in Emmitsburg, and we were both very tired, and we quickly fell asleep.

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Photos

World's Largest
Hershey's Bar, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and Twizzlers.