Favorite Places in my Hometown of Hershey

Hersheypark

Growing up in Hershey, Pennsylvania, my family and I always bought season passes for Hersheypark at the beginning of each Summer. My friends and I would always wait until later in the day when most of the tourists cleared out to hit the park.

The Hill Outside of Hershey Gardens

The hill right outside of the Hershey Gardens is to the right of it's parking lot. On the nights of big concerts at Hersheypark Stadium my friends and I would always go up to the hill and sit and listen and have a good time. Then we would do the same thing when the fireworks display went up for the 4th of July. When I first got my driver's license I would always make my way up to the hill outside Hershey Gardens in the mornings before I would work in the Summer. I would get a coffee and just sit on the grass and admire the beautiful view from this hill. From the top you can see a bird's eye view of Hersheypark, downtown Hershey, my old grade schools, and the towns around the area. It was just wonderful to sit up there and remember all the great times I had growing up in Chocolatetown.

Derry Township Recreation Center

Outlets At Hershey

The reason I picked the Outlets as one of my favorite places is not because I enjoy shopping, its because this spot was one of my favorite hangouts during my teenage years. Whenever my friends would ask the question, "Where should I meet you?" The answer that undoubtedly came out of all of our mouths was "Starbucks parking lot in the Outlets." After meeting up there we would sit around in the back of my pickup truck just hanging out, brainstorming possibilities of what mischief we could get into that night. There's no doubt it often made older shoppers nervous to see a group of hoodlums shooting the breeze in the parking lot of a nice outlet complex. We would revel in the atmosphere the outlets provided as they were located so close to Hersheypark and the convenience of the Turkey Hill and Wendy's that were located a stone's throw away.

Cocoa Grill

The Cocoa Grill (or maybe it's Cocoa Diner as the huge sign out front indicates although all of the menus say "Cocoa Grill"), was another one of the infamous Hershey hangout spots. No doubt we made one too many of the waitresses mad as we would hangout for hours and only order coffee. The Cocoa Grill's major appeal to young people when it first replaced the Denny's was that it allowed smoking inside. This was awesome considering not many places (besides bars) allowed this sort of thing. But then, once they stopped allowing smoking inside my crew and I decided to transfer our allegiances to the Colonial Park Diner (about 15 minutes away). But now that Pennsylvania passed the statewide smoking ban and the Colonial Park Diner no longer allows smoking we decided to shift back to the good ol' Cocoa Grill. Many a grilled cheese, mozzarella stick, and coffee have been consumed at the Coca Grill on my part. Mmmmm...