RTF 7

Wednesday~
Final full day and a rainy one at that. Perfect for Hershey and Chocolate World.

In the back there you can see the trolley that we took a tour of the town on. Now this is not your average boring trolley ride. No, this was a singing, lame skit trolley ride. But it actually was fun and you learn a lot about Mr. Hershey. Now I will be the first to admit that I am not a fan of Hershey chocolate. It's waxy, it's not even close to that melt in your mouth european chocolate. But I will say that after you learn more about the guy behind it, it actually changed my mind about the chocolate. Now I will tend to lean toward the Reeses line and their higher end stuff that is around now, but I'm happy to be contributing towards the Hershey stock.

Just a few highlights that we learned about Mr. Hershey:
~After failing 4 times in chocolate he actually first made money in caramels.
~Because of the financial problems he had in the past when he first started making money he bought his own sugar plantation in Cuba.
~He built his home across the street from the factory so that he could walk home to eat with his wife every day.
~He built homes for all of his execs up the hill from the factory so that they could do the same.
~Mr. Hershey built a town for his sugar plantation workers so that they all had homes, schools and a nice living environment.
~During the Great Depression Mr. Hershey used the money he was making in sugar to fund several large construction projects in the area so that people would have jobs. Not one person in the town lost their job during that time.
~Mrs. Hershey was unable to have kids and so the two started a trade school for orphaned boys. The school continues today as the largest privately funded of its kind in the world. Today the school accepts boys and girls from underprivileged backgrounds. The Hershey stock is signed over to the school trust, so they control all of the profits from the Hershey empire.

During the whole week little Sophie was being carried around in a sling. If you want to get random people pointing and coming up to you to take a look at that most adorable thing, walk around with these little guys poking out.

Will got to pick out a toy at Chocolate World, and I know big surprise, he went for the cars. On this trip home their was no nap to be had. Too important to guard the new treasure from little cousin who wanted to touch.

Before going to bed that night we had to make sure to get in a snack of wonderful Pennsylvania pretzels and contribute to their record breaking consumption.