HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA

On a cold winter's day, I went to church to sing with the choir at Market Square Church at the 11:00 a.m. service, followed by a lunch and the annual congrega-tional meeting.

I got home just in time to greet friends for a little afternoon jaunt. Four of us piled -- rather comfortably, I must say -- into the Box for a trip to the Sweetest Place on Earth, our neighboring town of Hershey. Susanne and I and friends Guy Kehler and Lindsay Mills had planned this little outing a few weeks ago.

We took Rt. 22 out to Rt. 39 and then cruised south to Hershey. Skirting the famous amusement park, we ended up on Chocolate Avenue and the shiny new building housing "The Hershey Story," a museum recounting the life and times of chocolate magnate Milton S. Hershey.

A trompe l'œil painting of Mr. Hershey with school age children dominated the lobby and recalled Hershey's founding of a school for children.

We had gone mainly to see the "Apostolic Clock," a 19th century mechanical wonder owned by Mr. Hershey. A crowd was assembling, and finally at a quarter of the hour, the clock chimed and the clock came to life, with apostles passing before Christ himself under the watchful eyes of the three Marys. See a video here.

A video described the action. In two minutes it was all over. The crowd disbursed, perhaps to check out the museum's café or the "Chocolate Lab," where one could make one's own Hershey bar. Our next stop was the museum shop, where there were a few nice decorative items, some books, and lots of Hershey products! After a brief discussion, we decided not to tour the museum that day but instead to adjourn to Hoolihan's, a relatively new restaurant next door.

We spent time eating and yacking and drinking iced tea, then headed for home with a stop at Winslett, the housing development where I "greeted" in the model home yesterday. Guy and Lindsay enjoyed seeing the stylishly-decorated mini-mansion.

l. to r. -- Lindsay, Susanne, Guy

Back at our place, we enjoyed dessert, showed off our new bedroom furniture, and got ideas for some renovation projects we have in mind. All in all, it was a very pleasant day with friends we don't see often enough.