Over the past couple of months, whenever I would tell people that we were planning on going to a family trip to Hershey, PA, I was always met with the response of: “WHY?”

The TL:DR answer is that my mother-in-law wanted to go there for her birthday. Since, it was her birthday wish, I knew better than to provide any pushback on the idea. My wife convinced her mother to include New York as part of the trip, and our expectations were to enjoy New York, and then hope for the best.

The New York leg of the trip also introduced a lot of firsts for me. It was the first time that I’d be visiting with my wife, the first time I’d be in New York with my kids, and the first time where I wouldn’t be able to see my best friend, who was out of town. To add to all of these firsts was the fact that I hadn’t been to New York in almost 15 years, so it was all a lot to take in.

Luckily, as much as New York has changed, it has stayed the same, if that makes any sense. Sure, Times Square now has an area of dedicated video space for K-Pop videos that definitely wasn’t there 15 years ago, but Times Square is still very much Times Square, complete with some guy getting arrested and taken away by the police from the Times Square stairs.

Hershey was a pleasant surprise, the biggest drawback is that it’s not near a major city. It’s 2 plus hours from Philadelphia and 90 minutes from Baltimore, so you really have to go out of your way if you want to visit. Here are some quick highlights of our trip:

Fresh in-house pasta, wood fired pizza, and somehow an Other Half IPA is cheaper than a Guinness. Sign me right up. Their ancient grains salad was also excellent.

NY bagels hit different. I’ve never had Russ and Daughters, and while I know they ship nationwide, I’ve never pulled the trigger. We had bagels and lox for lunch and we were very satisfied with our meal. They’re legends for a reason.

Manhattan has no shortage of Gelato shops, and many of them are very good. Anitas is sold but I think it’s a tad overpriced. Sundae’s best has Asian inspired gelato flavors such as toasted rice and ube Oreo cookie. I wish we could’ve gone a 2nd time to try more flavors.

So, we entered with low expectations when it came to the food in Hershey. If you look at any sort of travel/food website, Chocolate Avenue Grill is always near the top of the list of restaurants to try in Hershey, and for good reason. Luckily, I made a reservation for our large party, because that place gets busy fast. I’m guessing it’s popular with both tourists and the locals. (Josh Groban and Jennifer Hudson were playing a show in Hershey that night.)

We didn’t stay at The Hotel Hershey, we were there for lunch, but it’s definitely a nice spot. The food was good, especially the charcuterie board that had a freshly baked pretzel instead of crackers/bread. I also had a whiskey based peanut butter cup martini! It was actually good - not a sweet syrupy mess like I had feared.

Hershey World and the Hershey Park were the headliners of the trip, and they were surprisingly charming. Obviously, you can’t avoid camp when you have people dressed up in candy bar costumes, but Hershey Park is a legitimate theme park. I thought it would be more akin to a dusty carnival but the park is pretty clean and the rides looked well maintained. It doesn’t hurt that you can get Rita’s Italian Ice, acai bowls, or a Nathan’s corn dog opposed to regular amusement park fare.

Hershey World is literally a huge candy store with classic and rare Hershey candy. While we didn’t go too crazy, my mother-in-law did buy a 5 pound Hershey bar that she planned to share with friends. The milkshakes were great. Like the cocktails, I was pleasantly surprised that they were well balanced and not over the top sweet.

In NYC, I met up with past podcast guest and friend of the podcast, Tamar Herman of Notes on K-Pop. While I didn’t get to see Moulin Rouge, I did see past guest, Kelsey Watts, plastered all over Times Square, since she is Satine during the current run of Moulin Rouge.

I did see the Aladdin show with my family and it was a lot of fun. I did an episode on this back on the early days of the podcast.

K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025) w/ Tamar Herman

The Greatest Showman (2017) w/ Kelsie Watts

Aladdin: The Musical (2014) w/ Kaytie Ohashi

Moulin Rouge (2001) w/ Nicole Barlow and Brandice Wilson