What a long weekend, everybody.

Did you have a good long weekend?

I had a good long weekend.

It was, of course, Thanksgiving, and it was, of course, my birthday, and as you may recall, I was in Hershey, Pennsylvania, home of chocolate.

If you want chocolate, you gotta go to Hershey.

That’s the way it works.

It’s just the rules.

I don’t make the rules, I follow them.

♪ Your Daily Lex ♪ So what do you do in Hershey on Thanksgiving?

Well, on Thanksgiving Day, it was when we drove, and the drive was easy, I got to charge my Rivian at a Tesla supercharger, my first time doing that.

It went well.

I didn’t get accosted by any Tesla drivers, who sometimes, apparently, are rude to Rivian owners, but that was good.

We were in Wawa to charge, a Wawa in Pennsylvania, and man, that Wawa was hopping on Thanksgiving Day.

I don’t know if you would expect a Wawa in Pennsylvania to be hopping on Thanksgiving Day, but it was.

We got to Hershey, we get all checked in, we get settled in, and then we had our buffet dinner seating at 3.30, which is a little early for dinner, but it went great.

And a good meal, a peanut butter pie for dessert that I’m still thinking about, a Reese’s peanut butter pie, specifically.

Lauren had thought ahead and brought a electric tea kettle and ramen, so the kids did each choose to have a ramen bowl later that day, around seven or eight, when they finally got hungry again, but I was all set, I did not need that.

Then Friday, we went to Hershey Park.

It was cold, we were prepared for it to be cold.

We had hats and gloves and whatever else.

We got there an hour early, because they let you when you were staying at the lodge, and then you’re just in line.

We thought it was, initially we thought maybe you get there an hour early and you can go an hour early, but you cannot go in.

You can just get in line.

So we were some of the first people in the park, and then the first roller coaster Liam wanted to do was close, but we go on a different one.

We actually had a fun experience where when we get on, he can’t do a seatbelt, because Liam always takes off his glasses, and then he can’t see anything.

So I’m doing a seatbelt, but I can’t tighten it.

And we’re the only people on the train for this roller coaster.

And as the person is coming to check, I’m like, hey, I can’t get this thing buckled, or I can’t get any tighter than this.

He’s like, don’t worry about it.

I’m not gonna tighten it at all.

The seatbelt does nothing.

It’s just the safety bar.

And Liam, of course, is hearing this on a roller coaster.

It’s gonna go upside down seven times, and he’s like, uh.

And the guy’s like, trust me.

The bar is what keeps you in.

The seatbelt is just there because people like seatbelts.

It was true.

Liam did not fall out.

He ended up going on that one three times.

I only went on it twice.

We went on it the second time right away, because there were lockers where you could put the stuff from your pockets, and then you would claim them at the end.

You could set a pin, and it was free, but it was confusing to me.

And I’m a text-heavy person, but the system was not that well-established.

So I saw a locker that had its door slightly open, so I put his stuff in there.

I thought we would go by those lockers again on the way out.

We do, but only from the back of them.

So, of course, the back wasn’t already open, and I didn’t know what pin to use to open it, because I hadn’t set a pin.

So then I was like, let’s just go through the ride again, and we can get the stuff, which we did.

It was pretty fun.

Anyway, so that was good, although it was just so cold.

It just got colder and colder.

While we were waiting for the park to open, it started snowing.

There was no snow even in the forecast, and it was like a hail snow, where you could feel it and hear it hitting you in the ground.

But that stopped.

We did a whole bunch of rides, a whole bunch of roller coasters.

Liam would have loved to do even more, but at some point we were at peak cold.

We did that night go to the Hershey’s Chocolate World, where you can do the tour about how they make their chocolate and do other things.

We were going there the next day as well, but we went that night, because why not?

And we did the Hershey’s Chocolate Tour.

Fun.

The next day, Liam was like, let’s go back to Hershey Park, but nobody else wanted to.

And even though it was included in our stay, we were like, it was even colder on Saturday, so we were like, let’s not do this.

But we did go back to Hershey’s Chocolate World, where we were doing Build Your Own Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

We have in the past done Build Your Own Hershey Bar, where you can choose various things to put into your Hershey Bar.

Here, it’s a lot like Cold Stone Creamery, or one of those places.

They have a shell of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

You pick your four mix-ins.

They scoop out the globs of Reese’s Peanut Butter.

They mix them all together with your mix-ins.

My mix-ins included brownies and Oreos, although they didn’t call them Oreos, because that’s not a Hershey brand, and something I don’t remember, and chopped up Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

I thought it was very funny to put chopped up Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Two other members of my family did the same with theirs.

Then they put that in, and then you can also add two sauces.

I added both chocolate sauce and peanut butter sauce to the inside, and then they put the chocolate lid on, and then they seal it up, and now you have a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup to eat.

I will eat one bite of it a day for a month.

It’s huge.

Anyway, it was fun.

And then we went home, stopping at the same Wawa on the way back.

But yeah, it was a good long weekend all the way around, and I was happy to be home when we got home Saturday, and we even saw friends.

We hosted some friends Saturday night, so it felt very nice to be able to go on a trip and then still host people that evening.

Sunday, yesterday.

That was mostly about shuffling kids to various places, and of course, watching the Eagles continue to be great.

Sierra had an early birthday gift where she and Lauren went into Manhattan to see the musical, The Notebook, which is closing soon, but which they both enjoyed, and Sierra really wanted to see and now has.

So happy birthday, Sierra, who doesn’t listen to this podcast and will thus never hear this message.

Lex.