For many years, Pennsylvania was one of the highlights of my Summer.
Hershey Park.
Hershey Freaking Park.
The daycare center I attended in Virginia had a different theme for each week of the summer. Each week featured a related special event. During Magic Week, a magician would come. During Safety Week a fire truck would come and we’d get to try on their helmets. During Chocolate Week (yes, really), they would bus us all up to Hershey, Pennsylvania for a day of roller coasters and chocolate.
There were other daycare trips to Pennsylvania. We saw a mini horse show somewhere in the south of the state (during Farm Animal Week?). I remember being able to reach through the fence to touch a horse who was my size! His face and my face were on the same level.
We also went to the wax museum at Gettysburg. I have no idea what the theme was that week. It may well have been “Things You Don’t Quite Understand Yet Week” because I left the museum thinking the two sides in the Civil War were fighting over what the flag should look like. In the parking lot of the museum I got in trouble for picking up a wounded chipmunk I’d found in the street. I was instructed to leave him by a bush so “his mother can come take care of him.” I understood that well enough, though, and cried on the bus ride home.