Vacation - Part I

We're back from vacation. What a trip. Seven days in a car and a hotel room with an 11 yr. old! Thank heavens for hotel pools! It's the first thing Alexa does when we go anywhere - check out the pool. Heck, she checks out the whole hotel! She has her standards of excellence, so far the pinnacle is the Cleveland City Center Marriott. We stay there each fall when we attend a Browns game. It's within walking distance to the stadium and the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame and most everything downtown.


Anyway, we left for Hershey in a downpour and it stayed that way almost all the way there. The hotel was mobbed! I think there was some kind of cheerleader or dance competition in town because besides all the families there was an inordinate number of young pre and teen girls. Some were even dancing in one of the meeting rooms. Very crowded - glad we stayed only one night! But the chocolate, the CHOCOLATE!!!!

We went straight to Chocolate World. Hershey's combination retail center, tour center and activity center. They take you on a simulated factory tour to show you how chocolate is made and have a movie you can watch and what Alexa wanted to do more than anything - make chocolate 'stuff''! So, needless to say, we bought a lot of chocolate, shipped some home, because idiot that I am I did not connect Chocolate + July + Virginia + 90 degree heat!! I also went out the first night a bought a little cooler and we refilled freezer bags with ice cubes from our hotels the whole trip so that the chocolate we didn't ship would survive our trip.

The next day was Hershey Park! Alexa is a roller coaster freak of nature! She is totally and completely fearless. She never hesitates, questions or even considers if a coaster might be too much. Scare doesn't enter her vocabulary - just "Hurry Up!!" and "It's not THAT bad Mom, really!" I used to love roller coasters when I was her age. I just never had the opportunity to go on many and they simply didn't have the amusement parks they have today. But all I have to do is look at some of these monsters and nope, not happening, not today, NOT EVER!!

The biggie at Hershey Park was something called "Fahrenheit", 90 degrees straight up and 97 degrees straight back down...No way Jose! Alexa, however, was determined to go on it, and she did - alone! Norm couldn't go on the rides because of his kidney stone situation so it fell to me to go on as many as I could handle, just not this one!

I did manage a few other ones and to be honest I could have handled this ride if not for the top photo. The rest seemed pretty harmless as shown directly above. But that straight up and straight down, FUGETABOUTIT!!!

Part II of Vacation 2008 to come soon - along with my new BFF!!