Wherefore Art Thou Chocolate? - December 27-28, 2009

What better way to head back home to Jacksonville, Florida, from Columbus, Ohio, than through the beautiful state of Pennsylvania!  Sure it's not the most direct route, but when you're an addicted waymarker (and chocolate eater), does that really matter?  Of course not!  So, we got up bright and early on the morning of December 27, loaded up the waymarking mobile, and hit the road.  Hershey, Pennsylvania, here we come!  Yea, baby!

We pulled into Hershey in the afternoon and lost no time making our way to the Antique Auto Museum of Hershey, a Motor Vehicle Museum!  And you'll never guess what was parked out front under the entrance portico -- it was the Kissmobile!  What a wonderful Sighting!  The Biologist had been keeping her eyes open for one of these luscious vehicles for a couple of years and she finally got to see it.  I'm not sure who was happier, her or the Marine.  Now he doesn't have to hear her say all the time, "I'd better bring along the camera and GPS in case we see the Kissmobile while we're out."

Next we decided to wander around Hershey a bit to get our bearings before heading to the hotel where we had a reservation for the night.  We spotted Hershey's Iconic Factory, a few Pennsylvania Historical Markers, This Old Church that was lovely, the Soda Jerk Diner where we had dinner, and some Unique Chimneys.  That was all we had time for before darkness fell and we dropped off to sleep at the hotel.

The next morning we headed over to the Official Local Tourism Attraction better known as Hershey's Chocolate World where we spotted some 3 Dimensional Art and Giants of Commerce.  We first took the free chocolate tour ride that includes animated singing cows and culminates with the distribution of a free sample of chocolate (yum!).  The ride ends at the entrance to a giant Candy Store where we wandered around salivating and sniffing all the wonderful smelling chocolate.  Of course we couldn't resist picking up a few items..

 After making off with the chocolate, we decided it was time to hit the road and start heading south.  We made yet another detour... a slight one to run by the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, a Research Institute in Laurel, Maryland.  The Biologist started her career here in the endangered species research program back in 1985.  This was the first time she's been back here since 1988.  There have been a lot of changes in the past 20 years!