Hershey’s Trip Part 1
In early December, I had the opportunity to travel to Hershey, PA for a blogger trip. You may remember the giveaway I hosted as part of the trip. Well I didn’t get around to a recap because once I got back from the trip, it was crunch time for the holidays and the new year. I finally just recently downloaded the pictures from my camera, got all my chocolate goodies put away, and sat down to write up the trip. I’m going to be featuring different aspects of the trip over a couple different posts. So hang in there!
After a bumpy turbo-prop flight from Boston, I landed at the airport and there was a driver waiting for me. I was pretty shocked at how tiny the airport was! A driver picked me up and we were off to the sweetest place on earth. My flight got in early enough that I had time to go check into my room and relax a bit before meeting up with the other bloggers.
The accomodations were amazing! Hershey’s put all of the bloggers up in the Woodside Cottages at The Hotel Hershey. They were cute cottages that had a great room that everyone had access to and then we each had our own bedroom and bathroom. So we had two keys to keep track of, but that was ok. The great room had a mini fridge, a big table, couch, TV, and fireplace. The rooms were amazing too. I had two queen size beds, a desk, TV and a HUGE bathroom with a double sink, shower, toilet, and soaking tub. Each room also had a door that went directly outside with a little porch area.
Once I threw my stuff down, I started nibbling on the chocolate bar they gave me when I checked in (I went with dark as opposed to milk chocolate) and digging through my swag bag. I was excited to find all kinds of goodies in there including a branded Flip camcorder!
After a late lunch, we headed over to Chocolate World! I have really enjoyed meeting a variety of bloggers over the past year and it was really interesting to meet some non-food bloggers. In fact, there were only two of us who called ourselves food bloggers. Fellow baker, Anna, from Cookie Madness (who I had met in NYC earlier in the year) and myself. That was it. Naomi from Bakers Royale was supposed to be there but she had a job interview come up at the last minute. I would have loved to meet her too!
Once we arrived at Chocolate World, we were introduced to the Hershey’s team who put the trip together for us. We started with the Chocolate Tour Ride where we learned all about how chocolate is made at Hershey’s.
We got to see the Really Big 3D Show that was actually really neat. I swear I had to sit on my hands not to reach up to grab the Hershey Kisses that looked like they were dropping from the sky!
And of course, we got to make our own chocolate bars. It was a lot of fun choosing the mix-ins and then designing our own labels for our candy bars. Once all the design work was done on the computer, you got to see your candy bar going through the various stations.
I chose a dark chocolate base (obviously), and pretzel sticks, chocolate cookie pieces, and butter toffee crunch for my fill-ins. I opted not to get festive sprinkles on mine, although they were really cute.
I was bummed that when my candy bar made it to the pretzel station, only four little pretzels came out! I love the salty-sweet combo so I definitely missed those pretzels when I bit into the candy bar later.
Speaking of later, here is a picture of my candy bar after I got it back to Boston and cut it open. The candy bar was huge! It was about the size of a normal Hershey’s bar but really thick. It was very chocolatey!
After that we had time to shop! Hershey’s provided a $50 gift certificate to use in the store, so I stocked up on some hard to find products, like cinnamon chips and dark chocolate cocoa.
We also got to try some new products (which they sent home with us as well). I loved the tiny Reeces peanut butter cups. I see some peanut butter cup brownies in my future!
After a long afternoon at the Chocolate World, we headed over to Harvest for dinner. I didn’t take any pictures the rest of the night, but I had an amazing Dark Chocolate Braised Pork Shank. The entire meal was amazing, and we got to meet the head of PR for the Hotel that night as well. I sat next to some awesome bloggers who do product reviews for moms.
Overall the first day at Hershey’s was amazing and chocolate filled. After a long day, I took advantage of the huge soaking tub and enjoyed an hour long chocolate bubble bath. Stay tuned for a recap of day two at Hershey’s coming up next week!
Be sure to check out all the other bloggers who were there at Hershey’s:
Blissfully Domestic
Cookie Madness
Consumer Queen
Leslie Loves Veggies
She Saved
Cool Baby Kid
Moms Need to Know
Mom Knows It All
Rockin Mama
Experimental Mommy
Caffeine and a Prayer
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Thank you so much for sharing Jen! I completely understand where you’re coming from and how you feel…do nice things for yourself
beantownbaker — April 19th, 2013 @ 8:50 am
You do the same Fiona
Thank you so much for sharing. This is UNREAL. My husband Jeff ran the Boston Marathon this year, and I spent the day traveling around on the T watching the marathon with my in-laws. We ended the day just a block from the blast sites – I shared my story here: http://decoratethis.blogspot.com/2013/04/bittersweet.html; Jeff’s story here: http://iwasbornready.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-2013-boston-marathon.html.
beantownbaker — April 19th, 2013 @ 4:05 pm
Thank you so much for sharing your and Jeff’s stories. What a day you guys had. I’m glad you’re safe.
beantownbaker — April 19th, 2013 @ 4:10 pm
I added these links to the body of the post.
It definitely does help to put some words together. And I feel the same way- even though I was volunteering at the 10k, i can’t help but wonder why wasn’t i volunteering at the finish line so I could’ve helped?
beantownbaker — April 19th, 2013 @ 4:10 pm
I agree – it was therapeutic to write this up.
Thanks for sharing Jen. I haven’t lived in Boston for 4 years now, but my husband and I had a similar reaction. We both wanted to get “home” to the city we love, a city that becomes part of your being no matter where you go next.
beantownbaker — April 19th, 2013 @ 4:11 pm
I’m glad to hear I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Living in Boston leaves such a strong impression…
I’m a longtime reader, first time commenter. First I want to give you big virtual hugs regarding the events in Boston. Your feelings are no less valid, no less important. My heart goes out to you. Also, I want to say, welcome to Cincinnati! I live east of the city and am a transplant from Seattle. Cincy is growing on me, and slowly but surely I’m starting to tell people that I’m from Ohio not Washington. 🙂 Best wishes to you and thank you for sharing.
beantownbaker — April 19th, 2013 @ 4:14 pm
Jen – thanks so much for commenting. I realize that at some point I’ll say I’m from Ohio, but the events of this week just my my heart tied even tighter to Boston…
I’m so glad all of your Boston people are safe. I can completely relate to your feelings of helplessness, I felt the same way after 9/11. It’s hard to be away from family and friends and a city that you love when tragedy strikes.
Big hugs for you and your crew.
beantownbaker — April 19th, 2013 @ 4:14 pm
Thanks Jene. I’m sure it’s very similar to how you felt around 9/11.
I feel the same way–Boston was my home for four years of college. I love that city. I feel like it is MY city. I wish I was there, locked in with friends, watching the news and hugging them. I feel so helpless on the other side of the state, so far away.
As soon as I’m able I’m going to the city and having a moment in the Common before heading to all my favorite places. My heart aches for the city, I wish I was there.
beantownbaker — April 19th, 2013 @ 4:15 pm
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who feels this way. We are trying to make plans to get back to the city sometime soon as well.
Oh I so know how you feel.. I live in Michigan. I’ve been here for almost 10 years, and I still call Boston home. It’ll always be home to me. You’re not alone!
beantownbaker — April 21st, 2013 @ 6:07 pm
Glad to hear I’m not the only one. I definitely think Boston will always feel like home to both me and Hubby.
I know exactly how you feel – I am a 2004 graduate of Virginia Tech. I was at work when the April 16th incident happened in Blacksburg, and I felt SO far away, and SO hopeless – the only place I wanted to be was in my beloved Blacksburg.
To make matters worse, I flew to Missouri the next day (for work) for 3.5 weeks. It seemed that the people out there had ALREADY moved on from the tragedy – it just made NO sense to me. I cried most of those 3 weeks, and since I was out there by myself it was a struggle.
I have always loved Boston, and I know that that community will love and support one another, just as Blacksburg did (and still does). It was the sixth anniversary this past Tuesday, and with everything happening in Boston, and the thoughts of VT and Blacksburg, it was an extremely long and tiring week.
Stay strong.
beantownbaker — April 22nd, 2013 @ 11:46 am
That sounds like a horrible situation for you in the aftermath of the VTech tragedy. Thanks for the kind words and for sharing your story.