Hershey Park

   I haven't been on here in a while but between vacation and getting ready for back to school its been busy.  We recently took a trip to Hershey,PA and Hershey Park.  We took our 10 year old niece V with us so M would have someone besides Mom and Dad to ride on rides with.  As I approach a certain milestone birthday, I find I can't handle spinning rides anymore.

 We stayed in Harrisburg, a short drive to the park, and got 2 day tickets to the park.  The tickets include Hershey Park (which also has a water park inside it) and the Zoo.  Chocolate world is next to the park.  There you pay for the individual attractions that you want to do.  We did the 4D movie and Chocolate tasting.  When you buy your park tickets ahead of time you also get what they call a preview night.  You can go to the park the night before for about 3 or 4 hours.  This was great in letting us get to know the layout of the park so we could be ready to tackle the park and T1D the next two days.  We also got to do a few rides and M discovered her favorite roller coaster the Wild Mouse.

  I think I packed enough D supplies and insulin for a month for this 4 day trip. But when you take a 7 year old with T1d to the "sweetest place on earth" you never know!  We had a great time in the park and also enjoyed the water park at temps were in the upper 80's.  I did not ask about anything like a guest assistance card for M and we did OK without it.  The do offer a fast pass that you can buy for $50 but is just for roller coasters.  M isn't a big coaster fan, so for us this wasn't worth it.  Most of the rides she and my niece chose to do had shorter lines.  I think the longest wait was around 30 minutes.

  The hardest part to manage was the food.  Simply put the food at Hersheypark is terrible.  Basically bad fast food.  Chicken strips, hot dogs, hamburgers, mac and cheese...  They do have one sit down restaurant where we did eat dinner one night and I was never happier to eat a salad!  After our first day we learned not to eat lunch in the waterpark area.  There are very few choices with long lines and once you are in your bathing suit you are not allowed in other areas of the park unless you change.   We waited in line for over 30 min for a hot dog and fries only to have M tell us she didn't like the fries..  of course after I had given her insulin for them.  It was hard to find her something else to eat where I wouldn't have to wait in line for a half an hour.  I did carry glucose quick sticks with me for lows but I really did not want her to eat them for her lunch!   The second day we were there we learned our lesson and had lunch before going into the water park area.  Minimal lines for food and more choices.  M and V were happy to find pasta.

  We had a great time and I think all the walking helped keep M's blood sugars in check and what better way for a girl to treat a low than with some cotton candy!