Last April, I had to drive to Harrisburg, PA to go to the PA Real Estate Commission office in order to pick up my real estate license. If you want to start practicing real estate immediately after passing your exam, then I recommend driving to Harrisburg to get your license information in person rather than waiting for them to mail it to you.
Hershey, PA is very close to Harrisburg and how could I just drive out to Harrisburg and not bring the family along to stop at the sweetest place on earth.
So, that’s what we decided.
Stopped for Gas and BG Check
Harrisburg is about 2 hours away, depending on traffic, but we were planning on about 2 hours. As I mentioned in my post about going to the aquarium, anytime we go on a drive, our daughter’s blood glucose levels just start an upward trend.
We had breakfast at home before heading on the road. We were making good time and we were only about 30 minutes outside of Harrisburg when our daughter….and myself… had to go potty. We stopped off at a Sheetz.
We utilized this time to check her blood sugar. And of course, she was high. Well into the 300s. Once again, a long ride = elevated blood sugars.
Pre Dexcom and Omnipod
We could have suspected this was going to happen, which we did, but this was pre-Dexcom and also pre-Omnipod, so everything was being done manually.
We had to give a correction shot while she sat in her car seat, which is never fun having to give an additional shot. This is exactly why we wanted to go on an Omnipod as soon as possible. We did what we had to do, gave a shot, got back in the car and headed off to Harrisburg.
One Last Pit Stop before Hershey
We arrived at where I needed to go in order to get my real estate license, but we had no clue how long it was going to take and I knew she was going to have to use the potty again soon due to the elevated blood sugar levels.
My wife stayed in the car with her to check her BG again. Luckily, it was coming down.
I ran into where I needed to go and found out I would be in and out in about 5-10 minutes so they just stayed in the car waiting for me. About 15 minutes later, I was back in the car and we were going to make it to Hershey, PA in about 30 minutes, so we buckled up and got back on the road.
Hershey World
We were not going to Hershey Park, in fact, I don’t even think it was open. It was freezing cold and it didn’t seem like the park itself was open. Just outside of the actual park is Hershey World, which is an indoor attraction that includes a ride to tour how the Hershey Kiss is made and a few other rides and activities.
Test Before Getting on Ride
I had gone through Hershey World a few times before in my life, but I couldn’t remember how long the factory tour ride took, but we wanted to check her blood sugar before we went on the road, because if she was going low, there was nowhere for us to simply get off and give juice or snack.
Her blood sugar level was in a decent range, so we got in line for the ride. If you have never experienced Hershey World and you are anyway near PA, I highly recommend it. The ride is pretty cool too.
Injection for Chocolate Sample of Course
At the end when you exit the ride, you are given a Hershey Kiss sample. This is one of the best parts of the ride to me! Kidding aside, you can never go wrong with a free Hershey Kiss.
At the end when you exit the ride, you are given a Hershey Kiss sample. This is one of the best parts of the ride to me! Kidding aside, you can never go wrong with a free Hershey Kiss. Click To TweetWe knew that our daughter was going to want her Hershey Kiss right away and not wait, but we weren’t going to give a bolus injection for just that, so we decided to give a snack / lunch as well so that we were getting our money’s worth with the injection.
Injections were always easier when you can bribe with a Hershey Kiss (which we did for a while after that as well, because we obviously bought a ton of Hershey Kisses!)
We spent the rest of the time at Hershey World shopping through the store. They have more flavors of Twizzlers than I even thought was possible. I loaded up on Twizzlers and flavor mixes of Hershey Kiss that you can’t buy in a regular store.
Primanti Bros. = Bolus-worthy!
After we left Hershey World, it was time to go to Primanti Bros. I have never been there before, but I have heard amazing things about it from people that I know who live in Pittsburgh. We wanted to eat somewhere that is unique to the Hershey area, and when I saw they had a Primanti Bros. it was a no-brainer from there.
I’m talking about a pastrami on rye with french fries on it, gravy, cheese, and kraut. It was everything that I thought it would be. It was bolus-worthy as they call it.
Luckily, Primanti Bros. has carb counts on their website, so we were able to get an estimated carb count for our daughter’s meal. This required taking her to the restroom to take her insulin shot. We sometimes gave a shot at the table, but at other times we would do it in the bathroom.
This was a fun and exciting day trip. It started out as just me needing to do something for work and turned into a memory-filled family day.
How do you handle amusement parks? I’d love to hear. Please comment on this post or head on over to Facebook or Instagram to continue the conversation.