Sunday, September 9, 2007

Labor Day Weekend

From Gettysburg we headed Northeast to spend the weekend at the mountain cabin Mary's sister Lavern and husband Bob had just purchased in the Northern part of Pennsylvania. On the way we stopped at the Hershey Chocolate Factory. This was a real experience in more than one way. First, you get to take a "Disneyland" type ride that shows how they make chocolate. Then you go to the food court which is really a candy court. They have a store that has nothing but racks and racks of candy (see photo to the right). This is the ultimate "Kid in a Candy Store" set-up. From bags of miniature Hershey Bars, 5 pound Hershey Bars, 25 pound Kisses and everything and every kind of candy that Hershey makes, there they are all over the place. At one of the 6 check-out counters our mouths dropped as we watched people buying $40, $80, over a $100 worth of candy.
The really kicker was trying to understand why some parents, at lunch time, would let there kids eat nothing but candy? You haven't lived until you are in a great big building full of hyper/whacked-out kids on sugar highs. One mother with 3 boys suddenly grabs her 11 year old and screams "what in the world has gotten into you - will you calm down and stop acting like this." Duh.
After a short stay in "Hyperville" we headed North to Lavern and Bob's cabin. In actuality, it was not a cabin at all. It was a very nice house. Two bedroom with a guest cabin out back. Just 25 feet from their porch was a private pond (see photo to right and below under Map) full of fish. With about 11 acres of privacy, it was a beautiful spot. The weather was perfect and each night we built a nice fire and just sat up into the early morning hours solving the world's problems.
Lavern caught fish from the pond one night and we had a fish fry. Bob brought a big bucket of clams and we had steamers another night. We relaxed and ate well. It was a fun time and we look forward to going back next year.
From Pennsylvania we headed South to Cumming, Georgia to spend time with some friends and Jerry was speaking again, this time in Atlanta.

1 comment:

Neil said...

When I was a kid, we used to take tours through the Nestle factory in Illinois. They would toss candy to you from the production floor! Then my mom would always let us each pick out a bucket of Laffy Taffy at the store. Now, as a parent, I can't even IMAGINE setting myself up like that!

Bob and LaVern's looks SO beautiful! And Vernie still fishes?? And there are clams?!? Wow. Sounds like oodles of fun!!!

-Ashlee