It’s very early in the morning, and we are just about to board our plane to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Turquoise sea, here we come. I cannot wait to do nothing for a week. Well, almost nothing. Swimming, tennis, gym…
Category Archives: Wanderlust
Texas Underground
We visited our third cavern in less than two years today. First, it was Luray Caverns in the Shenandoah Valley in September 2010, then it was La Grotte de Seythenex in France in June 2011. Today’s underground exploration was at the Inner Space Cavern in Georgetown, Texas. We have visited more caves in the past 18 months than I’d visited during my first 42 years on this planet.
Chocolate for a Good Cause
During a trolley tour of the town of Hershey today, we learned that Milton Hershey, the founder of the eponymous chocolate company, did not have children – so no heirs to his vast fortune. Instead, at the turn of the 20th century, he and his wife founded the Milton Hershey School to serve orphaned boys. After his wife died, he seeded the Milton Hershey School Trust with $63 million to ensure the future of the school; today, the trust is worth more than $7 billion and is the controlling owner of the privately held Hershey company. Needless to say, the school is now one of the wealthiest private schools in the world, serving 1,900 underprivileged boys and girls in grades K-12.
Can We Have Dessert?
Seriously? We are in America’s chocolate capital, and we’ve been eating dessert since this morning. At a place where they serve chocolate butter, chocolate chip pancakes (duh), chocolate muffins and hot chocolate for breakfast. Indeed, we are in a place where they hand out free chocolate at almost every corner.
1260 Calories
That’s the number of calories in the six (yes, count ’em) full-size Hershey Bars we received when we checked in at Hershey Lodge about 40 minutes ago. Four because we are a family of four, plus two more attached to a cute birthday card addressed to Sophie and signed by 10 employees of the hotel.
When the front desk receptionist told us that she was going to give us a little welcome chocolate, I expected a Hershey’s Kiss or maybe a mini-package of Kisses. Clearly, they are not particularly concerned with the climbing obesity rates in the U.S. Welcome to the Chocolate Capital of America.
Hershey Park, Here We Come
We leave tomorrow evening for a weekend getaway in Hershey, PA. We convinced Sophie to forego a birthday party and instead celebrate her 6th candle with her loving Mommy, Papa and sister in America’s chocolate capital.
Au Revoir, Paris
Not to be outdone by yesterday’s adventure, I was determined to make our last day in Paris count. We were out and about for 10 hours. Below is the route we took today. Again, click on the link below to see the entire map. We walked about five miles.
The “Grands Magasins”…Ad Nauseum
How many people do you think would spend an entire day shopping in Paris, only to come home with absolutely nothing? If you answered “none,” you’re wrong. The correct response is actually two, now that Chloe and I have returned home from a day of failing to find things to buy – for her in particular. I saw a bag that I almost bought, but got cold feet. I may have to rectify that tomorrow.
Parc Asterix
In a continued effort to expose Chloe and Sophie to as much French culture (both popular and otherwise) as possible, we took the girls to the epitome of French amusement parks, Parc Asterix, today. We made a concerted effort to stay away from the amusement park that shall remain nameless, because when in Rome…or more accurately as far as the comic strip on which the park is based goes, when in Gaul, do as the Gauls do.
Why I Love Paris
Street jazz in the Marais, with hot sax and trumpet solos, and an 80-year old groupie.