Team Toppall takes a tour

Spring Break 2014 found us staying local.  So local in fact, that 3 of the 5 days the kids had playdates at our house, from either 9:00am - 2:00pm or 10:00am - 3:00pm.  Now, that's a playdate!  We did go to Baltimore on Monday evening for the first night of Passover, which by the way, was super yummy!  I love celebrating Passover with Jeff's family.  The Haggadah we follow is highly entertaining and keeps even the shortest attention spans engaged until the end -- mine! 

We stayed overnight at my in-laws house and planned a day trip for Tuesday.  For one full day during Spring Break, we made it out of our zip code (and my in-laws) and drove to Pennsylvania.  As an added bonus, we got to take Matthew (Jeff's sister's son) with us.  It was his Spring Break too and he had the day off.

Our plan had us touring the Snyder's of Hanover Factory, the Utz Potato Chip Factory and finish the day at Hershey's Chocolate World.  Could this day be any Crunchier?  Saltier?  Sweeter? Yummier?   I don't think so. 

Tuesday it rained, poured for a good part of the day, and even snowed on the drive home.  It was a perfect day to be driving around, staying dry and making a run for it from car to tour.  I had originally planned a much more ambitious itinerary, hitting two additional snack food factories to tour, but Jeff (ever the voice of reason) didn't think it was a good use of our time to make the kids sit in the car for as long as it would've taken to get to these additional places.  I'll go ahead and put it down in writing, given the non-stop rain, it was best that we didn't add on the additional 2 hours of driving.  Again, Jeff was right!

Unfortunately both factory tours do not allow you take photos.  And to make it even more challenging, Matthew doesn't like getting his picture taken.  Oy!  So in most of the photos I was able to take, he isn't smiling.  But I think he had a good time hanging with us anyway, despite me having a camera in his face as much as I was able to.


Snyder's of Hanover:
Great tour!  They give you a guide who tells you all sorts of really cool facts as you are walking through the factory.  We saw the pretzels go through the ovens, watched the pretzels travel on the conveyor belts, get weighed and fill the bags. It was really fascinating and mind-blowing how much flour and salt is delivered each month to make their pretzels; like 340,000 tons of a flour a DAY!!  And the ginormous warehouse that stores all the raw materials gets completely turned over every 6 days.   It was awesome getting to see the gluten-free part of the factory where the GF pretzels and tortilla chips are made.  One of my favorite parts of the tour was starting in the factory store.  It was a treasure-trove of GF pretzels for sale (all flavors).  I am pretty sure the price (and selection) was infinitely better than anything I could find at my local Wegman's.  I very much look forward to breaking into my pretzels as soon as Passover is over.


Utz Potato Chip Factory:
This tour is self-guided.  Similar to Snyder's, you get to see the product being made, but you can take as much time as you want walking through the factory.  We saw the potatoes go from the raw form all the way to getting bagged and put in a box to get shipped.  Four different flavored chips were getting made at the same time.  The people who were working were very friendly and would stop and wave to us.  There are buttons you can press along the way that explain what you are seeing and give more details, but we did not listen very well to all the buttons Sam kept pressing.  Being a crazy-big potato chip lover (any kind of potato really), I was fascinated watching a potato go through the process.


Hershey's Chocolate World:
We've been a few times before and always enjoy getting to make our own chocolate bars.  There is only one thing better than making your own chocolate bar and that's eating it.  Matthew hadn't been yet and it was fun showing him one of our favorite activities to do when we are in the area.  A big portion of Chocolate World is under renovation.  It will be interesting to go back and visit once they are done remodeling.


Our day in pictures:

First picture of the day; riding in the car. 
Sam didn't want her picture taken and Matthew not smiling.

Only picture allowed at Snyder's.

Made it to Utz.  Sam is their newest spokesperson

Utz: Before the tour.

 

Utz:  After the tour.  Notice we are all eating our sample bag of chips.

 

Hershey:  A very sweet place to visit.  Matthew - still not smiling.

 

Enjoying a milkshake after making our candy bars.

Even when drinking, the kid still tries to smile for the picture.

I got Matthew to smile!!  Yay!

 

On the drive home:  I think we were too much fun for Matthew.

 

My original plan for Spring break had us spending the week somewhere a little more exotic -- like the beach, or NYC, or taking a cruise, going to Maine, or spending a few days in Williamsburg.  I had many ideas ready to put into action once I got the green light from my other half.  However, for one reason or another, doing something much more in depth than a day trip wasn't going to happen.  Despite the pouring rain, it was not a bad way to spend the day.  It was educational, yummy, and entertaining.  I'd say a win-win-win-win on all 4 stops (if you include the stop we made for lunch too).