Living on the East Coast makes places like Harrisburg and Hershey. Pennsylvania and easy day trip from Maryland. The sweet smell of chocolate can be smelled through Hershey!

Saturday, July 29, 2017 – Harrisburg & Hershey, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Highlights (9:15 am to 11:30 am approx.):

• Broad Street Market (Evanilla donuts)
• Midtown Scholars
• Capitol Building
• Cathedral Parish of St. Patrick
• Little Amps Coffee Roasters
• View Susequehanna River and bronze statue at Kunkel Plaza

Harrisburg is a great day trip from the DMV (DC-Maryland-Virginia) area. From Silver Spring, Maryland it was about 2 hours and 10 minutes of stress free driving on a Saturday morning in July. Once you hit I-83, this road pretty much takes you all the way to the city center. We knew we wanted to get a taste of this city before checking out Hershey (Yep! This is the chocolate mecca of the Hershey Company.). We started our morning around 9:15 a.m. at the Broad Street Market. This market is in two buildings, with one having the fun treats like coffee, donuts, breads and other delectables, while the other looked to have a lot of seating and more lunch style offerings. I have a sweet tooth, so I had to try the donuts – that’s right not one, but two. I had the yummy coconut and the coffee toffee upon recommendation from Evanilla. [Side note: As a bonus, there is a restroom here if you need one after your ride.]  On Saturdays, the parking is free all around the market too. We found a great spot with a 2 hour time limit.

In planning our trip, I came across a highly recommended bookstore called Midtown Scholars. I know, I know, a bookstore on your day trip?! The layout of this store is so cool and they even sell books by the “foot”. It’s like a bookstore labyrinth with tons of nooks and cranies with places to sit and take in the atmosphere (and for charging your phone if needed).

On the top level, you can also peer out the window and get a good look at the “Broad Street Market” sign or do like us and stand in the middle of the street for a good selfie.

We took a walk over to the Capitol building. The Capitol had lots of flowers blooming and a really different looking dome that appeared to be green and gold. We were interested in possibly taking a tour, so we walked until we found the only entrance open on a Saturday by N. 3^rd and State Street. There was a tour at 11 am that would have been great, but we opted to go through security and check out the rotunda and keep it moving. The rotunda is definitely worth a look, even if you only have a few minutes to spare. There’s also a bronze plaque on the ground marking where Teddy Roosevelt stood to dedicate it.

When we left, we walked along State Street, where you can get great shots of the Capitol from the median in the road and also spend a few minutes taking in the beauty of the Cathedral Parish of St. Patrick. The church is reminiscent of many of the beautiful churches we saw on our trip to Munich and other European cities this past March. One of my favorite things to do on any trip is to find a well-known, local coffee place to try. There were a few in Harrisburg that had good reviews, but I decided to try Little Amps Coffee Roasters diagonally located from the Cathedral. It has a cool, somewhat hipster vibe and I was recommended to try the iced nitro coffee, which was so good! I only had to add a few kernels of raw sugar and I was amped! We continued along State Street to the Susquehanna River. This part of the Capital Area Greenbelt is gorgeous and I definitely want to return to bike the full 20 miles! Make sure not to miss the bronze statue of a man sitting on a bench reading his newspaper. It’s a perfect photo op! Put your arms around him, give him a peck, go crazy! Given the two hour parking limit, we arrived back to our car, set the GPS and were on our way to Chocolate Town USA!

Hershey, Pennsylvania Highlights (12 pm – 11:45 pm approx.):

• Hersheypark
• ZooAmerica
• Chocolate World

Within about 25 minutes we were in Hershey, PA! I read online that there’s a free shuttle that picks up on Chocolate Avenue outside the Hershey Story to Chocolate World. We parked in the lot next to the Hershey Museum and left our car for the day without issue (I would recommend doing your own research before doing it yourself to make sure you feel comfortable.). We missed the shuttle, and while it comes every 15 minutes, we went ahead and walked to Hersheypark which was about a mile and saved us $15+ bucks on parking.

Thank goodness for smart phones, because I was able to book our park tickets on the phone while walking and found a buy one get one day free pass for each of us (alternatively, spend time before going to find out which retailers have coupons; I found a $12 off in July coupon per ticket at my local CVS). I was also able to download the Hersheypark app onto my phone which gives you wait times per ride (super helpful!) and will help you get from point to point using the phone’s GPS if you want this. Of course, there’s always a good old fashioned paper map you can find in the park (I picked up one for my scrapbook.). Since we didn’t arrive as soon as the park opened, we didn’t know quite where to start so we headed to the ZooAmerica entrance from within Hersheypark which is included in the admission price. It’s an easy, 1 hour loop that highlights North American animals. We particularly like the brown bears, bald eagles and the bobcat.

We were ready to find a good roller coaster (they have 13 to pick from)! Our favorites were Fahrenheit, Storm Runner and Laff Trakk. Laff Trakk also had super goofy mirrors that were great for selfies before boarding the ride.  We also really enjoyed the Reese’s Cup Xtreme Challenge and the new Hershey’s Drop Tower. One thing that was amazing is that after certain rides, they give you almost 2 ounces of free Hershey candy like Reese’s Crunchers! I tried some delicious treats this way. We stayed at the park until about 10 pm on a night where they closed at 11 pm.

Since we hadn’t stopped on the way in, we popped into Chocolate World to check out the great display of candy characters in the middle and catch the free ride that takes you through the making of Hershey chocolate. The line took about 30 or so minutes, so be prepared to wait. We jogged back to the car using our phone flashlights as our guide given there are no street lights. Luckily, the area felt safe and we didn’t have any issues getting our car back at the Hershey Story. A touch before midnight we were back on the road and into our beds by 2 a.m. Can’t wait to spending another day this summer at Hersheypark to finish riding the rest of the roller coasters and further exploring the waterpark!

Did I miss anything? I would love to hear about your favorite spots in Harrisburg and about your favorite rides at Hersheypark!