Day One  Day Two

Day Two

On our second day in Hershey we visited the picturesque Hershey Gardens.  These are beautiful and feature everything from roses to rock gardens.  We spent quite a while strolling among the greenery and visited the butterfly enclosure, which was packed with both people and colorful insects.

The Hershey Gardens, one of the nicest flower gardens I've seen.

The author in the Hershey Gardens, with Hershey Park and the Hershey
factory silos (the yellow cylinders) visible in the background (left).

The gardens feature a few examples of statuary.

I've always been fond of red maples and trees of this type.

The Hershey Gardens feature a butterfly enclosure
(inset) – and a photo opportunity I couldn't resist.

These zebra-striped butterflies are particularly attractive.

The butterflies were not very active at this time of the day...

...which meant they obligingly posed for photos.

I thought this one was especially nice, so I took a close-up.

If you were bird, would these look like eyes to you?

After our visit to the gardens we drove to Lancaster, PA, where there is an elaborate visitor's center containing everything you'd ever need to know to tour the Pennsylvania Dutch Country.  A taciturn man behind the information counter played a fifteen minute movie for us (we had a private screening) that explained the wonder and delights of the area.  It was dated from the late 1990s but looked like something filmed in the 1970s.  The taciturn man disappeared after we entered the theatre and was gone when we exited.  We never saw him again.

This amusing (if somewhat garish) display of Giant Amish People is
across the street from the visitor's center in Lancaster.

I could not resist the thought of getting my
picture hiding behind the leg of a giant Amish person.

The interior of this Amish buggy bosted a dash panel with switches and knobs.
I could not imagine to what they might be connected.  Do the Amish have stereos?

We visited the Lancaster County History Museum that afternoon.  The exhibits, most of which feature wax or wax-like statues that move just a little bit and are kind of creepy, was both interesting and informative.  We absorbed the history of the area and got to see a recreation of an Amish barn-raising.  I even got to play with rifles.

The display behind me is of period muskets.  Lancaster figured
prominently in the making of rifles used in the Revolution, apparently.

A large map above the entrance to the museum exhibits in Lancaster.

That evening, much to my delight, we returned to Hershey and discovered Panera Bread, a progressive eatery that is part coffee shop, part sandwich shop, and part bread bakery.  The soups were delicious.  All told, despite various failures of infrastructure, we did fairly well as dining goes.  At some point during the weekend we at Red Robin, a restaurant of which I'd never heard before.  They have a digital display outside the restaurant telling you how long you can expect to wait to be seated, which I thought was a very good idea.

Day Three

On our final day in Hershey, we rounded out our trip by visiting the outlet mall in town.  It was a pleasant way to spend the morning.  We had great weather for most of the weekend, but by Monday it was gray and raining.  The rain became heavy as we drove back, but we made it.  We learned one thing:  New York is much better at building rest stops than is Pennsylvania.  The rest stops in Pennsylvania are miserable and cramped compared the stops in New York.

The Outlets at Hershey, which was a good destination for a rainy day.

This was one of the nicer Memorial Day Weekends I've had.  My wife and I enjoyed our trip and have many happy memories of the time we spent there.  If you're looking for a vacation within driving distance of New York, Pennsylvania, or neighboring states, Hershey has a lot to offer.