Cacao and Caves

We stayed at home all day on Tuesday. Nadia's director had asked for people to meet her at a park on Tuesday night, but I asked if I could meet her Wednesday afternoon instead. I didn't want to drive 40 minutes round trip just to pick up a script. I knew that I'd be on the road for a long time on Wednesday, which is why I wanted to stay home all day on Tuesday and today. Yesterday morning the kids and I left around 7:40 to drive to Hershey. We spent two hours at the Hershey Story Museum. It was our second time at this museum as we attended another Homeschool Day there almost exactly four years ago. Our first hour was in the Chocolate Lab where the focus was on the sense of taste. We dipped marshmallows into chocolate and ate a variety of other things. None of us were fans of cacao nibs - too bitter! We tasted chocolates from around the world. My favorite was from Ghana. The instructor's favorite was from Java. For years I've had the opinion that milk chocolate is my favorite and white chocolate is my least favorite. I have always thought white chocolate was too sweet. It turns out white chocolate does contain much more sugar than milk or dark chocolate. I didn't know that there is actually a fourth kind of chocolate - ruby chocolate. Milk chocolate is still my favorite and white chocolate is still my least favorite. I'm not sure which I prefer between ruby and dark chocolate. After we finished our time in the chocolate lab, we spent one hour doing a scavenger hunt in the museum - both the permanent exhibits and the temporary exhibit. This year the temporary exhibit was about what Milton Hershey had built in Cuba a hundred years ago; in 2016 the temporary exhibit was about the different jobs in the factory. 

Our second stop was the ride at Chocolate World. Due to COVID-19, we had to request a free timed reservation. Thankfully I was able to do that on my phone in the parking lot right before we had our temperatures taken prior to entering the building. The last time we rode that ride was in the fall of 2019 when we attended a Homeschool Day at Hershey Gardens. At the end of the ride we were each given a small Hershey bar. Nadia purchased a cookie dough cup for $5, and I purchased a magnet for our refrigerator. It was the first time I bought a magnet this year. 

After we left Chocolate World we drove to Indian Echo Caverns which is very close to Hershey. It was the third time the kids had toured a cave. Their first experience was at Penn's Cave, which is rather unique in that the entire tour is taken by boat. Their second was at Luray Caverns last November in Virginia, which was definitely the most impressive of the three. There are seven different caves you can tour in Pennsylvania. Two down and five to go! I think Luray, Carlsbad, and Mammoth are probably the most impressive ones in the US. We shall see if the kids ever go to Carlsbad or Mammoth. We brought jackets to wear while touring the cave. I thought that wearing a mask in 90+ degree heat was the most annoying, but I was wrong. It was much worse in the cave. My glasses were so fogged up it was hard to see anything in the cave. And our tour guide was VERY particular about everyone's mask being worn properly at all times. Sometimes it felt like he talked about masks more than the cave. 

On our way home I planned to stop at Aldi for some groceries because it's rare that I drive past an Aldi, and it's my favorite grocery store. I did stop at Aldi, but it was a very quick trip because Nadia requested that we also stop at the very large thrift store. Most of their merchandise is 50% off on Wednesdays. Nadia picked out four long sleeve tops and a pair of boots. I got water shoes and a pair of dress shoes for Ian. After Aldi we met the director of the play Nadia is currently in at the parking lot at CVS to pick up her script, made a quick stop at the library, and then came home. I made blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage for dinner, and then I took four kids to the local rollerskating rink. It's always free to skate there the first Wednesday of the month. Usually we can't go during the school year because we're at church on Wednesday nights. I had thought we'd go roller skating once a month from May through August, but that business wasn't open in May or early June due to the COVID-19 regulations, the kids were at camp the first Wednesday in July, and we were at my Aunt's home the first Wednesday in August. Nadia was hoping to go to the radio station's skate night (at a different skating rink) this evening, but she has a rehearsal on Zoom at 6pm for the play. Oliver had been playing with Karyss while I was making dinner last night, and I suggested inviting her to join us. I took four kids to the skating rink last night. Because all four own roller skates or roller blades, the only money that was spent was what Nadia, Oliver, and Karyss spent buying slushies. We stayed at the skating rink for two hours. I brought my camera but forgot it's really helpful to bring my flash to the roller skating rink. I'm planning to take the kids to a roller skating outing for homeschoolers later this month. Hopefully I'll remember to bring my flash that time! We wore masks at the the cave, museum, and Chocolate World, but not at the roller skating rink. There was a sign on the door saying masks were to be worn. We had our masks on, but when we walked in and saw that no one - customers or employees were wearing masks, we took ours off as well.

I had to wake the boys up yesterday morning so that we could be out the door on time. This morning I let them sleep in. Oliver has been sleeping in quite often lately, but it's still a rarity for Ian to sleep until 8:00. Because Oliver has been sleeping later most mornings, I have occasionally been letting him stay up past his bedtime to watch a movie. Recently the kids saw Fiddler on the Roof, Spider-Man (the movies with Tobey Maguire), and Hidden Figures for the first time. Nadia usually doesn't want to watch superhero type movies, but she did like Spider-Man. Nadia was a bit horrified when she realized that I know the words to many of the songs in Fiddler and the Roof. Paul was rather impressed by the performance of the man who played the father in that movie. It was also his first time seeing that movie. I chose Hidden Figures because the boys are studying astronomy this semester.