12th Anniversary Getaway: Hello Hershey!

 

After we left the Flight 93 Memorial, we had roughly three hours of additional travel before we reached our next destination, which was Hershey, Pennsylvania! Those of you who have read along here for many many years might remember that my very first ever grown-up vacation was to Hershey, back in 2009. Ryan had never been there and had heard me talk about it so highly that he wanted to fit it into this trip. (Fun fact: one of my high school classmates is the President of Salty Snacks at Hershey! I checked to see if she’d be around when we were there, but alas, she was away for the holiday.)

            But before we arrived in Hershey, we did have a bit of a drive. It was through the mountains, and once we got past the worst of the weather, I told Ryan I could drive if he needed to take a nap. So I did! I was feeling a little rough – because I accidentally saw someone getting sick on the side of the road. Ryan tried to cover my eyes, but it was too late. Can’t unsee that.

            We stopped at a truck stop for lunch (there weren’t many other choices) and had no complaints on the food! It was a good choice.

(I did not use even close to one of the FOUR dressing containers they gave me.)

            I follow a cookie company on social media (similar in style to Crumbl) that is based in this area, so as we came into Harrisburg, we stopped at one of the locations to get a treat for our anniversary. Alas we could not find it. We found the building it was supposed to be in. I even looked it up again right that very minute and verified that it was supposed to be in that building and open at the very moment we sat outside the building. Nope. Womp womp. I saw they also had a location in Hershey, so we decided to try again the next day.

            So we got back in the car and made our way over to our hotel, which was our least favorite of the three we stayed in while gone. All the hotels close to Hershey were either booked or above our price range, so we stayed in Harrisburg. The hotel reeked of cleaners and was just rough overall. So it wasn’t hard to turn right around and leave for the evening, once we unpacked the car!

            We had dinner at Chipotle, which was a fun treat for us.

            And then…off we went to Hershey Park!

            I did not visit Hershey Park when I was there in 2009, but after doing some research, I saw that they had some winter-and-Christmas-specific offerings, including rides on roller coasters, so we decided to spring for the tickets. Ryan rode a coaster when we did WinterFest at King’s Island a few years ago and loved it, so he was really looking forward to it. We saw that they had s’mores and reindeer and lots of lights and trees.

            Something to note if you go is that you also have to pay for parking at this adventure, and it wasn’t cheap. What I did not know until we arrived and parked was that one of the things (Chocolate World)  I had planned for us to do the next day was now lumped into Hershey Park and only accessible through this parking lot. Chocolate World stayed open an hour later than Hershey Park, so we decided we would do both areas on the same night to avoid a repeat high-priced parking fee. (Last time I went, Chocolate World was accessible by a regular parking lot.)

            It was still super cold, but thankfully it wasn’t snowing or raining or anything else, so we didn’t have to fight the elements.

            We found the coffee pretty quickly so we could stay warmer while we walked around. Saw lots of lights and enjoyed moving around after so many hours in a car.

            Unfortunately ALL coasters were closed that night – presumably because of the weather. The smaller, fair-like rides were open, but Ryan was so sad about the coasters.

            I really wanted one of the s’mores, but I have to say I was sad they didn’t allow this to be an experience like we had last year at the St. Louis Zoo. There, we purchased a kit, found a fire pit, and roasted our own marshmallows – and stayed warm while we enjoyed our treat. At Hershey Park, they made and assembled the smore’s and kept them in warmers until purchased. There weren’t any warm areas to eat them, either. So we cuddled up on a park bench to eat ours. We were sad about that, but Ryan declared this was the best s’more he ever had. We shared a gourmet s’more, which is made of two chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, and Reese Cups. Not gonna lie – it was pretty amazing.

            We went to see the reindeer, because the line was a lot shorter than going to see Santa! They had nine reindeer, and they were fun to watch. They were eating. 😊

            I was also sad that the Christmas Tree area wasn’t open yet. I had been looking forward to that. In retrospect, we probably would have skipped Hershey Park, because it just wasn’t as great of an experience as we’ve had at other parks in past years. But we did go ahead and visit Chocolate World, which was the part I had planned to have us do the following day. And that was a good experience.

            I found online that you can create your own giant Reese Cup, and since Ryan LOVES them, I told him this would be totally worth the $20. And it most certainly was. We were there in the last hour before closing, so we didn’t have to wait in line, but it looked like there might be times when you have to take a number. The experience itself is free; the product is $20.

            Here’s how it works: an employee works with you and puts a giant helping of the peanut butter filling on a slab. You can pick four mix-ins. Ryan chose white chocolate chips, cookie pieces, Reese’s pieces and crushed up peanut butter cups. The employee cuts the mix-ins into the peanut butter (think Coldstone Creamery style) and then presses it into a giant chocolate shell. You can choose two syrups to pour over – from chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel. Ryan picked chocolate and caramel. Then the cup is covered with a flat shell. They recommend you eat it within two weeks (refrigerated) because it doesn’t have preservatives.

            Ryan had SO MUCH FUN with this! I had a couple samplings of it, but he ate most of it and declared it was one of his favorite parts of the trip.

            We also took the little “ride” tour that allows you to see what the factory lines look like when they’re making different candies. This was very similar to the experience I had back in 2009 – and was free to do.

            We did a little shopping in the gift shop, which includes some candies you can only purchase IN Hershey. I would have loved some ice cream or other bakery treat, but I didn’t want to indulge that late at night.

            When this day was done, we had walked over 20,000 steps, and that felt really good for spending about four hours in a car!

            We spent one more day in Hershey, but this post has been so long, so I’ll save those stories for another day.

            I’ll leave you with the photo we took for our travel map picture! (Big thanks to the kind lady walking by who took it for us.)

12th Anniversary Getaway: Visiting the Flight 93 Memorial

 

The minute I knew we were going to Pennsylvania for our anniversary trip, I told Ryan I knew I wanted to visit the 9/11 Memorial for Flight 93 near Shanksville. If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that 9/11 is the first major event I remember from my adulthood, and each year I set aside the day on 9/11 to watch all the documentaries and sit with the stories of those who lost their lives that day. It is important to me to visit each memorial eventually, and this is the first of those stops for us.

            It snowed overnight – and guess who left their snow scraper in Indiana? The Shaffers. Ryan used a hotel towel to clean off the car so we could pack up. We had breakfast at the hotel and headed out for the Memorial so we could arrive right around the time it opened.

            The memorial is free to visit, and we weren’t sure how busy it would be on a holiday weekend. Well, it turns out when you show up as it opens – on a frigid, frigid day – it’s pretty empty! We were there about three hours, and by the time we left, there were more people there, but it was certainly not busy by any means. I appreciated that. I wanted to take my time and pay my respects. (Note: The Visitor’s Center is open daily from 9-5, except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. The grounds as a whole are open sunrise to sunset every day of the year.)

            The Visitor’s Center has a gift shop, and it includes several books written by family members of people on Flight 93 and about the investigation of this particular piece of 9/11. There is also a really beautiful, moving, and well-done tribute to 9/11 and this flight. There were no pictures allowed in that section, although the one other lady in there with us seemed to have missed that memo and took pictures (with her phone volume on…kerchunk, kerchunk, kerchunk) at every single station. Sigh.

            We bundled up as fully as we could (and still be mobile) to walk the outdoor trails. The website says the trails are closed in the winter, and they were certainly slick the day we walked them, but no one stopped us from venturing forth.

            We started on the Allee trail, which is 1.2 miles and makes a wide circle around the flight path. Because this trail was out in an open field with no protection, it was frigid out there. We kept a pretty good pace just to try to stay warm, but the whole time we walked, I thought about all the things I’ve seen on the documentaries and tried to imagine the heroism and terror that filled those final seconds of these people’s lives. I could not wrap my mind around it. Also, as I looked around and thought about the little burgs we’d just driven through, I was amazed that the plane didn’t strike any homes or people on the ground.

            Quick note: There is also a driving road that parallels this walking trail, so if you are there in bad weather or simply don’t wish to walk this distance, you can drive from the Visitor’s Center to the next section of the memorial.

            When we made it to the other side of the Allee Trail, we found the Trail of Remembrance. It’s a ½ mile (one way) trail that leads to the site of the original temporary memorial. We walked it (a mile out and back) but weren’t able to read any of the signs on the trail because they were covered in snow and ice.

            The next stop was the Memorial Plaza, where we were able to duck into a shelter to warm up (aka feel our hands again. They had some informational signs that were similar to ones in the Visitor’s Center, but pictures weren’t prohibited outside.

            I took some pictures of the wreath laying area, and there were a few wreaths present.

            Then we walked toward the Walk of Names. To our left was a half-wall, which provides a barrier to the impact zone and trees that mark the official final resting place for all those aboard Flight 93. Only family members of the victims are permitted past that wall. There is a boulder out in the field that marks the impact zone.

            They have a Wall of Names with panels for each victim of the crash. I took pictures of a few of the names – the ones whose stories I felt I knew the best. Some panels had little snow-covered gifts left at the bases.

            I touched each panel and read each name out loud as I walked.

            There is also a gate that looks out into the field. The gate is made of hemlock wood – symbolic of the trees at the edge of the impact zone.

            Our final trail was almost a mile long and took us back up to the Visitor’s Center. All in all, we walked over 3 miles of trails that day. It was cold, it was windy, and nothing about it was ideal. But it was important to me to walk the steps and remember the lives of the people for whom this space was a terrifying and tragic day. It was as moving experience as I imagined it might be, and I was so thankful we had a nearly private viewing of this place.

            We went out on the overlook ledge before we left, but the wind up there was piercing and brutal by that time, so we didn’t stay long. 

            Our last stop before leaving the park was the Tower of Voices. It sits at the entrance to the park and is a 93-foot-tall windchime tower with 40 chimes – one for each passenger and crew member. We read on a sign that winds have to be 12-15 miles an hour to activate the chimes, and they were activated this day! We didn’t stay long, but we appreciated this piece!

            You can take a virtual tour of this memorial here by watching the series of videos, but we heavily encourage you to visit in person if you can. I would allow no less than three hours. On a warmer day, when it's possible to peruse the outside parts more, I'd say at least four hours would be a good minimum. The beauty and intentionality of this place is solemn and meaningful. (Maybe pick a warmer day.)