This trip was a long time coming! Early on, we knew we wanted to take the kids to Washington, D.C., but we knew we’d have to wait awhile, until they were old enough to have some sense of the history of the area, an understanding of what’s in the Smithsonian Museum (and the ability to read…), and a willingness to walk (a lot!). Meg had Missouri Scholars Academy for three weeks in June, so we signed up Calvin for his “sleep away” camp at YMCA Camp Wakonda around that same time, leaving July open for a driving vacation out east!
As this trip evolved, we tacked on a few other things. Calvin had been asking to go to Hershey, PA ever since he found out that Hershey was a real place (with a theme park). We also added Philadelphia, PA to the trip, since none of us had ever been there. While we were in Philly, we also stopped by a few colleges that Meg may consider (more on that later). So yeah, we saw a lot of stuff in 11 days!
On the way out, Brooke had heard from a co-worker about Casey, IL, a small town whose claim to fame was a collection of some of the “World’s Largest ______________” things. For example, here’s a giant chair (with Calvin next to it, off to the left, for scale). We also saw windchimes, a mailbox (below), a golf tee (at the country club, naturally), bird cage, see saw, and pencil. It was a relatively short detour off our course, but we like to add in those bits of Americana into our road trips where possible.
We stayed in a hotel that night (one of many…) in Ohio and got up the next morning to head into Pennsylvania. We weren’t originally thinking about it, but as we drew closer to looking at the route, we realized we could stop at the Flight 93 National Memorial while we were making the trip in. The kids knew about 9/11, but mostly the Twin Towers portion of the story: not the Pentagon or Flight 93. It allowed us to talk about it a bit, and it was also an opportunity to cover what Brooke and I were doing as everything unfolded 25 years ago.
Honestly, it was a pretty somber visit. There isn’t much to see, and their museum is mostly covering the entire 9/11 story, not just the Flight 93 portion of it. There were some artifacts, but a lot of it was news broadcasts, pictures of the passengers, and a timeline of the events on that day. We’re glad we stopped in, as we probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go otherwise.
It did end up adding a few hours to our travel time than we were initially planning for, though. The Memorial isn’t exactly “right off the highway,” so navigating to Hershey from there took longer than we planned, but it ended up working alright. We had tickets for the next day, but like other theme parks, after 7:00 pm the day before you have tickets, you can go ahead into the park and check things out for a few hours.
There are actually two “Hershey” things to do at the park: one is Hershey Chocolate World, which is free (mostly) and is basically a big candy store. The ride above was the only thing we did in Chocolate World, aside from looking around at candy, t-shirts, and having a light dinner. After that, we had to drive the car from the free parking lot around to the paid one to actually enter Hersheypark Amusement Park. As it was relatively late, and we’d been driving all day, we got our bearings and rode Comet (an old-ish roller coaster), the Tea Cups, and Brooke and Calvin went up Hershey Triple Tower (there are three towers, gradually increasing in height – you are shot up the tower, you get dropped, you go back up…you get it…).
Hersheypark feels very compact, like they had limited space to fit in all the roller coasters, so they’re kinda weaving in and out of one another. There is a water park associated with it, too, but that’s more at the back of the park (think of it more like a rectangle than a square, so you park in the lot, and you have to walk through a lot of park to get to the water section).
It was very hot, so that ended up affecting some rides. We waited in line for Coal Cracker (log flume) and got pretty far, only to have it shut down while we were in line, so that was disappointing. Great Bear (kinda like Batman: The Ride at Six Flags St. Louis) was pretty good, but we were delayed as we were ready to load onto the coaster by someone who threw up on the seats, so we had to wait for their cleaning protocol to be carried out.
I think the ride we all liked the most was Candymonium (pretty smooth, relatively new, coaster), but that was the first thing we rode that Thursday morning, so in some ways it was down hill from there. Brooke, Meg, and Calvin did Skyrush (I looked at how high it was going to go and said “nuh uh”), and Meg wished she had taken my lead. She said it jostled them around and forced their heads down. We also rode Trailblazer and soopersdooperLooper, and both were “fine” (the latter only had one loop, so it was mostly intended for younger kids, we think).
Jolly Rancher Remix was the last thing we rode, and it ended up being a solid bookend to Candymonium that morning. Jolly Rancher is also pretty new, so it is smooth, but what it does is backs you up on the coaster, then drops you down the hill, through 4 or 5 loops, then you go up the other side….only to be dropped down backwards through what you just went through. I normally don’t like those, but this one was pretty fun!
One nice thing is that they let you leave the park and re-enter. They have workers taking pictures with a cell phone (essentially…), so when you return, they compare using facial recognition to allow you back in. We had some lunch stuff in the car, so we went out and found a shady spot. It was also nice to just sit for awhile before going back in.
Ultimately, Calvin had a good time at Hersheypark. Was it as good as Disneyland? Uhhhh, no. But probably nothing is. The experience was marred by some delays and broken down equipment, so that wasn’t great. We paid $27 for a refillable soda cup that we could all share, but more than a few self-serve stations weren’t working, making us question whether the cup was worth it in the end. We didn’t pay for the “Fast Pass” they were offering, but it seemed like most other folks weren’t, either.
Would we go back?? Yeah, I think so! One day was enough, though. Disneyland benefited by having 3 days in the parks to walk around. There are a few rides we would have gone on again, but the heat and lines had us focus on the rides we hadn’t gone on yet. After awhile, I think we were all pretty over it, so we stopped in to Hershey Chocolate World, filled up on some candy bars, and headed out toward Philly!
….but that’s a story for another post. 🙂