Pottsville and Hershey, PA

We started today by driving to Pottsville, PA for a visit to the Yuengling & Son Brewing Company - founded in 1829 making it America's oldest brewing company. The town was so cool, lots of interesting buildings built within feet of the roadway and obviously a very old town. We just missed the 10:00 tour and the next tour wasn't until 1:30 so we opted to move on to our next destination. Oh yeah, no tasting available either...pooh!

Next we went to Hershey, PA where we visited Hershey's Chocolate World. This place is both enormous and very crowded (especially considering that this is a Monday). We took the tour in a carnival-like ride that showed the process of making chocolate without actually showing us the real factory. It was still interesting but seeing the real thing would have been better. There were areas there where you could see a 3D movie or make your own chocolate (for $$) and, of course, the largest chocolate gift shop in the state was all around you. Right next door was a gigantic amusement park but we didn't go there.

Our next stop was the AACA Museum (AACA is the Antique Automobile Club of America) which has one of the largest and nicest collection of antique cars we have ever seen. Out in front they had the Hershey Kissmobile on display. Inside, they had an awesome collection of antique cars, some unique racing cars and specialty cars plus there was a wide variety of old motorcycles and busses - all nicely restored. One of the busses was used in the movie "Forrest Gump." There were even some nice reproductions of an old service station (back when gas was 17 and 6/10 cents/gallon) and an 1950's soda shoppe. It was like stepping back in time. A very nice museum indeed.