Chocolatetown, USA

This weekend Dale and I traveled to Hershey, PA, the self-proclaimed "Sweetest Town on Earth", for the 136th annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Medical Society. We stayed at the huge and very child friendly Hershey Lodge where families celebrating Halloween Hershey style numbered almost as many as the physicians and their families from all over this large state.

As is to be expected, chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate is all pervasive in Hershey, and it is hard not to be tempted at absolutely every turn. Chocoholics, beware!

Hershey Bars are distributed at check-in!

This tour tells the story of how the Hershey Company turns out all of their scrumptious confections. I have to admit that I was dismayed and amazed when visiting the gift shop where all are funneled following the tour to see how many horizontally challenged families were buying enormous quantities of candy, cookies, hot chocolate mix, and more. That is one retail store that does not reflect the "belt tightening" of these tough economic times.

I just had to substitute a White Chocolate Martini for the blue cocktail this trip. Dale is ready to savor his Chocolate Extravaganza Martini. They were both decadently delicious.

The silos above collectively hold over 45,000 tons of cocoa beans, and every light post in the city of Hershey is topped with either a wrapped or an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss.

The weekend culminated in the Presidential Gala honoring the new president of the society, Dr. Daniel J. Glunk, MD of Williamsport, PA. We had fun sitting at the International Medical Graduates table. We walked away from the silent auction portion of the event with wine made by Dr. Mark Piasio, one of Dale's fellow residents at Washington Hospital Center many moons ago. Dr. Piasio was president of the PMS in 2007.

After the gala, we joined the crowd in the hotel sports bar, The Bear's Den, to watch the first innings of the Phillies game on Saturday night. Due to Dale's Sunday meeting schedule, we had to go to bed before that late, late game happily ended with a 5-4 victory at 1:47 AM on Sunday!