What a breakfast it was! They made cinnamon rolls for us on request and served them with croissant french toast. There were berries in the croissants and everything was delicious. The day was off to a great start. When we explained what was going on with the dogs to the owner of the inn, she offered to let us keep the dogs in their own stall in the barn. We were hesitant but she told us we were welcome to put them in there for a bit and see how they liked it. We walked around to find a private stall where they wouldn't be bothered much throughout the day and we put them in. We walked around and fed the horses a bag of carrots. We didn't hear much whining coming from them and they seemed to be okay in the stall. The other dogs at the barn came over to check them out but didn't cause much of a commotion.
We headed back to the inn to move to another room since we were now blacklisted from Motel 6 and we were both really exciting about extending our stay one more night. We went back to the barn after about 10/15 minutes to make sure the dogs were still doing alright. True to their nickname, the escape artists, one attempt had already been made. When we got to the barn, a few people told us that Jane had jumped through the feed hole and George had tried to follow. The people were nice enough to grab them and put them back in the stall. We started to cover the feedhole with a wheelbarrow but the owner came out and offered to put them in another stall where he could cover the feedhole with some plywood he would cut out for us. Everyone was so very nice and helpful. We were constantly blown away.
Once we were sure they were secured in the other stall, we headed to Hershey Park for the day.
I had very fond memories from going there as a child and couldn't wait to go back. It didn't take very long in the park to realize why my memories were so great. It really was an amazing park... for kids. Most of the rides were intended for children and very few of them were of interest to us (especially Daniel and his motion-sickness!!). We went on a few rides such as the classic Kissing Tower and the Reese's X-treme Cup Challenge. One of the highlights for us was the sea lion show.
I was also looking forward to reuniting with a friend from high school that I hadn't seen in 15 years. We were planning on meeting her and her family in the park sometime after 4pm. It didn't take us long to figure out that we should find something else to do for a few hours if we didn't want to walk the entire park twice. We decided to go across the street to the Chocolate World.
Over there we felt as though we were transported to a different world. We were completely surrounded by chocolate and it took much of our willpower to avoid eating everything in the store. Instead, we took the 12 minute tour of the chocolate factory which was a Disney style ride explaining the process of making Hershey's Chocolate.
We left with our free sample of chocolate and a little knick knack for our travel tree. Around that time it started to rain and we decided we should go back to the inn to check on the dogs. They were a little nervous being in the barn and Jane always freaks out during thunderstorms.
When we arrived back at the inn, we could hear George barking from outside the barn. We rushed to their stall to find Jane up on her hind legs and nose to nose with their neighboring horse. I wish we were able to get that on camera!! We also found this note written on a dry erase board attached to the outside of their stall:
The rain quickly passed and we let the dogs run in the corral. It was hot and humid outside and the dogs were clearly still tired from their previous walk. We put them back in their stall and took a quick nap in the room until Danielle sent us a text message that they were at the park.
We headed back to Hershey and I was thrilled to see Danielle and her mom after 15 years! It's moments like that which make me appreciative of Facebook and all the technology that allows us to keep in touch with people regardless of distance. We also met her husband and their 3 kids. It was fun experiencing Hershey through the eyes of the children. It didn't take long before everyone was hungry and tired. All of us headed to dinner at Red Robin.
We finished dinner later than expected and were nervous about trying to walk the dogs. The night before we had taken a walk to the barn to try to feed the horses at night and found the barn in a state of total darkness. We were trying to figure out how we would get the dogs in and out of their stall to walk them. Our fears were quickly quelled as we approached the barn and saw the lights had been left on.
New fears quickly took their place when we realized that the horse who used to be in the neighboring stall was gone. The entire hallways were empty as though the dogs were being quarantined. Even the growling barn dog wasn't coming over into that part of the hall. We quickly assumed the worst and began hypothesizing all the things that could have gone wrong. The dogs may have escaped again. Maybe all the dogs were constantly barking at one another. Maybe the dogs were harassing the neighboring horse until all the horses in the barn became agitated.
I approached the owner of the inn who was working on his computer located conveniently across from the entrance to our room. I told him my fears and he laughed. He explained to me that on the nice nights, the horses stay outside. We didn't know that because it was raining the previous night and all the horses were in the barn. He told us that everyone loved George and Jane. People had been stopping by throughout the day to play with them, give them treats, etc. Apparently they were a hit. Again, we were relieved! We put them back in the stall and went back to sleep in our big comfy bed.
We awoke the next morning in time for breakfast which was fantastic again. This time we started with strawberries and bananas floating in pina colada mix. This was followed with blueberry crumb muffins, sausage, and waffles. Delicious! After breakfast we used the hose outside the barn to wash the dogs then walked them around the farm until they were dry. Jane even got to meet a couple of mules:
We figured this was perfect timing since they were already mad at us for making them sleep on the floor. Neither one of us wanted to leave and we spent as much time lingering around the farm as we could before it was time to hit the road again. We sat on the front porch swing. We sat in front of the waterfall. We wandered the barn. Then, we were back in the car and on the way to go meet my mom near DC.
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