Wednesday morning started off promising freezing rain and snow.  That did not excite us very much as we had mountains to cross later!  We had thought about staying the night in NYC so we could let Laura get a closer look at the Statue of Liberty, but after seeing the weather report we took off. 

We began our Wednesday morning trip and not more than an hour or two in, I saw a sign for Hershey, PA.  Seriously…how could we possibly be 7 miles from Hershey and not stop?  Laura wondered what could possibly be there and I told her there was bound to be something!  So once again I convinced Laura to stop and see the sights.  What FUN!

Laura and I outside Chocolate World!

We took the free tour at the Hershey’s Chocolate World visitor center, ate a little chocolate, bought some more souveniers and marveled at how every worker acted as though it was the greatest place on earth.  I was so happy to visit Hershey, PA for my husband and son, two of the biggest chocoholics you’ll ever meet.  They smell chocolate from 3 blocks away and my son’s favorite snack is a “spoonful of ganache please!”.  I’m pretty sure he learned that word years before he should have.  We also arrived at Chocolate World at the time they were just opening so there were not many people there.  I highly recommend it!

Candy represented-I don't know why I liked this shot-colorful I guess

My favorite part of the tour were the singing cows!

They were everywhere teaching us about how chocolate is made

And not the same cows! These are pretty girl cows! LOL

Hershey was a lot of fun but when we started traveling again we realized just how far we still were from home.  Laura’s husband Jim called right after we left Chocolate World and when he found out where we were he exclaimed, “You still have 3 days of driving!” It felt like he was right!  You know at the end of a long trip when you’ve had such a great time but have to travel hours back home just to work??  That is so not the fun part of vacation and I was feeling it!  I had some big birthday cakes for the weekend and was stressing if we were not going to make it home until Thursday evening.  That doesn’t give a lot of time for custom designed cakes.  I didn’t want to push Laura at all-she was tired and I was too.  It’s just a LONG way from that part of the country.

I don’t remember where we made it to when Laura said, “7 more hours?  We can do that tonight!”  This is after she had already driven about 9.  We went just a little farther and a little farther and by the time we made it to Lexington, KY, Laura decided we should just grab some coffee and get home.  At that time it was 10pm.  We talked more in the last 2 or 3 hours of the trip about our lives and memories than we had the whole week.  The last hours flew by and I couldn’t believe it when we were pulling into Hville!  I knew Laura had a ways to go home but she was wide awake by then.  She wanted to spend the night in her own bed as I did.

We're STILL driving!

I'm good-we can do it!

This was one of the most fun trips and most memorable I have ever taken.  We are still talking about events and interesting things we saw while we were on our cake trip across the country.  I love to get places fast, but sometimes flying is just overrated.  We would have missed out on seeing my brother, visiting the Natural Bridge, going to Chocolate World and having hours and hours of great converstation and sing-a-long time!  I’m so thankful to have such a great friend willing to go the distance to cross things off our bucket lists!

Love you Lady!

Laura, my dear friend, you are a bright light in my life, woven from gold thread.  (you used that line last week and I could not resist-it fits you completely!) You say we were brought together for a reason but I am positive I got the better end of the deal.  You are way sweeter than I am!   Thank you forever for sharing such an amazing vacation with me!  I can’t wait to do it again!