Sweetest Place On Earth

We took a three day, two night trip to Hershey Park, which bills itself as the sweetest place on earth. The weather was perfect for water rides, roller coasters, and chocolate.

After vowing never to ride it again 2 years ago, Thing 4 reconsidered and gave the Sooper Dooper Looper another go. As the name suggests, it’s a loop coaster but tame enough to be dubbed a “family ride”.  SuburbanMommy did not ride this time.


We toured Chocolate World and made our own candy bars. Rode water slides, tubed in the lazy river, and got dizzy on the Scrambler.

Junior Golfers

We found a fun activity for the summer – Loudoun Junior Golf League. Weekly 9 hole matches as a fun introduction to golf. It’s all part of my grand plan to be able to play more golf myself, some time way in the future.

SuburbanDaddy is one of the tournament officials. Which means I get a free golf cart, keep everyone’s score, and make sure nobody is cheating.

Cherry Blossoms

I had lived in the Washington DC area for over twenty years and never experienced the most quintessential DC tourist attraction – Cherry Blossoms.

We went on a weekday during spring break to avoid the huge crowds.  March was unusually warm and the blossoms were near peak. 

We took the Metro from Reston to avoid traffic and parking. It was our first time taking the metro as family. I have to say driving, even with the traffic, is still easier, and cheaper, when you have 6 people.

Complaints were rampant as we had to do a lot of walking and standing in big crowds. But we can at least check Cherry Blossoms off the bucket list.

The most memorable part was probably right after taking this picture, when a tourist lost her phone in the water leaning over the railing trying to get a good angle for a picture.


Zoo In The Winter

It was unbelievably warm on December 27, so we took a trip drive to the National Zoo.  It was crowded and smelly, but we got to see the panda moving instead of sleeping for a change.  And I was able to log 18,000 steps in shorts in December!

  

Hershey Park

We took an overnight trip to Hershey Park this summer. There are plenty of rides, roller coasters, and a water park which means non-stop walking. I set the record for number of steps in 2 days on my pedometer.

One of the first rides we went on was the Super Duper Looper, a roller coaster that even Thing 4 was tall enough to ride. As the name suggests, but apparently nobody realized except me, looper means it goes upside down. I pretty much ensured that Thing 4 will never ride another roller coaster.

There isn’t enough chocolate syrup for Thing 3.

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We went on a fun tour of the chocolate factory and made our own bars.

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It turns out Thing 3 is the thrill seeker in the bunch.  I rode several roller coasters with him.  Even the ones where he was barely tall enough.  We waited in line for 30 minutes for this one, the Wildcat, which had an 80 foot vertical drop.  After waiting that long and getting to the front of the line, there was a long delay while the poor girl in the blue shirt cleaned out the car where the previous rider had gotten sick.  The wait was too much for Thing 3, who really really really needed to go to the bathroom.  So we climbed down without actually riding so he could use the bathroom.  I wasn’t sad to miss the 80 ft drop.

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Waiting for the 4D movie is lots of fun…unless you are Thing 3.

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Getting ready to enter the park in the morning.  Price of admission: sitting on the bench with your brothers and sister to get a picture.

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