The very last stop on our big summer road trip was Hershey Park in good old Hershey, Pennsylvania. The girls were excited and we were hoping for a great day but weren't sure how the girls would react to an amusement park. And we were really hoping the weather would hold because the forecast called for rain. Well we are here to report that the best time to go to Hershey Park is on a weekday when the forecast calls for rain. It wasn't crowded and we had a blast. The park opened at 10am, and at 9:30 we were getting the girls sized up so we knew what rides they could go on. Although Reese was a Hershey's Kiss, she jumped at the chance to take a picture with the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.
Callie just made it to the Hershey Bar level, which certainly opened up quite a few options when it came to roller coasters. She was geared up and talked a big game about what she wanted to ride, but we weren't sure whether or not she would be able to walk the walk. We had already scoped out quite a few of the rides ahead of time, so when the gates opened we knew where we wanted to start.
The first stop was the Trailblazer roller coaster, which was open to both Hershey Kisses and Hershey Bars. As you can see from this picture, the girls were excited and the ride was far from packed. Indeed throughout the whole day we never had to wait in line for any of the rides longer than 3 minutes. John could not have asked for anything better than that, because waiting in lines is almost as enjoyable as being in an amusement park packed with people. In any case, this Trailblazer proved to be a ton of fun and the girls loved it. We probably went on this coaster about six times throughout the day.
There were a lot of rides geared for Reese's size, but she wanted nothing to do with them. The closest we got was the Fun Dip slide. Reese rode this several times while Callie went on two different coasters, the Wild Cat and the Wild Mouse. She was not a fan of the Cat, but she loved the Mouse. Meanwhile, her parents were not thrilled with the Mouse, which involved sharp turns at high heights that made one think they might be thrown off the track. Good times.
Reese did find a couple of rides that she liked. The common elements were speed and heights. She lives up to her reputation as a risk taker, that's for sure. John, on the other hand, could do without both speed and heights, as well as anything that spins. He was happy to have Sarah jump into a supportive role for these particular adventures.
From our research we knew that Hershey Park included a substantial water park alongside all of the coasters. So we came prepared with our bathing suits. After grabbing a bite to eat for lunch we prepared to hit the water slides and whatever else it had to offer. Well it was beyond anything we might have anticipated. Overall we spent three hours playing in all the various water attractions.
There were water slides of all shapes and sizes. The girls loved this little one that was part of a water park extravaganza. There were far bigger water slides as well, and Callie had a blast going on the big water slides that required a tube and the presence of one of her parents. Both John and Sarah were more than happy to go down the big slides with her. And that says a lot, because the water slides had the longest lines in the whole park.
Hershey Park just does it right, because there were so many different ways to have fun in the water, and in the small wave pools they had life jackets for the little ones ready to go. Reese could have spent days and days in this part of the park, and she and John went down this particular slide at least ten times. When we finally decided we had had enough of the water, we spotted the Lazy River attraction, where you just float on inner tubes on a three-quarter mile loop around the water park. We all grabbed a tube and ended up floating around three times and enjoyed every second of it.
We headed back to the main part of the park and proceeded to spend another 5-6 hours going from ride to ride, eating dinner and having ice cream, and generally enjoying ourselves until we had finally had enough. And we walked out of the gates at 9:30pm, only 30 minutes before the park closed. This meant that we spent 12 hours at the park. And incredibly enough, no one, not even John, complained about it. It was an absolutely phenomenal day and a great way to end a phenomenal family vacation. This one is going to be tough to top, but we are certainly willing to try.
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