Vacation Day Two

We were up at 7 on Friday morning. This was the only day we actually slept until the alarm went off. We showered and went down to breakfast. Like most places these days there were the waffle machines. They also had eggs and sausage. I opted for a bowl of frosted flakes. The apple juice was gross so I threw most of it out. While we packed things back up we kicked around some ideas as to what we should do for the morning. We weren't due at my aunt's house until lunch. We decided to go to the Pittsburgh Zoo for a few hours. I found it on Jill, our GPS, and we headed to the car.

When we hooked Jill back into her mount in the car she died. Again. We'd previously had some trouble with her, but last time we could just hit the "reset" button and she'd recover. This time I held the "reset" button and tried to turn it back on a dozen times while Adam got gas. No beans. So, change of plans. Instead of lions and tigers and bears, we'd have Walmart and Target and Best Buy. (Oh my.) We found a new unit at Best Buy and bit the bullet. It's a widescreen model with traffic updates. Yeah, whatever. This one's named "Samantha" and she sounds kind of uptight. I know, I know, it's a voice on the GPS, but we talk to her. A lot. It's only natural to project human characteristics on her.

Anywho, after all that hullabalu we headed over to see my grandma and grandpa. We arrived just before my aunt Marilyn departed in a flurry of "I'm so late and will see you later." We chatted with my grandparents until Marilyn returned with my cousin Lori and her daughter Harley. My uncle Paul showed up a little while later. We had a nice lunch, caught up a bit. I neglected to take any pictures though. Bad Martha.

After lunch we headed back on the road - destination: Hershey. It was more than a hop, skip, and a jump - about 3 1/2 hours. We stopped by the hotel we were staying in in Camp Hill (ie Harrisburg) first. We hit a little traffic and then a lot of waiting to check in at the Radisson. Apparently there was a math teacher conference at the hotel over the weekend. We got checked in, unloaded some stuff to the room and headed to Hershey.

We got to Chocolate World, parked, and headed inside. It was busy. The tours and tasting were so crowded we decided to skip them. We wandered around the souvenir/chocolate area for a bit, picked up some t-shirts, chocolate and the like and high-tailed it out of there.





Too many people, not enough A/C. We were there for less than an hour. So parking was free! Yay. Then it was back to the hotel. We had no idea what to do for dinner so we played some GPS roulette. I told it to find restaurants along our route and I randomly picked one. It was the West Shore Plaza Restaurant. It's a diner in a strip mall. With outstanding food. I had a Sicilian panini (turkey, provolone, tomato) and chicken orzo soup. Adam had a crab-stuffed flounder and some clam chowder. Excellent little place with a staggeringly huge menu.

After dinner we went back to the hotel (which DIDN'T have a fridge) and unwound. I think we managed to stay up a little later, but I wouldn't swear on it.