It's time to start sending out information and getting things ready for the Bliss Family Reunion 2010. The dates are July 23rd, 24th and 25th. These are the official days that we will gather as a group. Friday the 23rd will be an informal dinner gathering and chat time. Saturday the 24th will be fun games and visiting all day and dinner at night. Then we could get together for breakfast on Saturday morning to say goodbyes, if that's where we part. This, again, will be informal and easy.
I know that many of you will be travelling from great distances to get here if you're able to come. You may want to take extra time to see the sights. There are many things to see right here in Hershey. If you are interested in staying longer and doing more activities, there are many places where you can get group rates to visit and I can look into arranging some things for us to do as a larger group. There is also a fun amusement park if that's something you are interested in. There are town tours and a Hershey Museum. Milton Hershey also started a school for underprivilaged children and you can visit the campus and learn about the great things he did there.
If you would like to just go on your own or with your family, I will try to post reviews of attractions in the area so that you could plan your trip with things in which your group is interested.
There have also been suggestions of trying to charter a bus to tour the different states as a group. I've looked a little into this, but it may be something that I would delegate to somebody since it is something that could be set up on the internet or over the phone and can be done from anywhere. I do think it sounds like a fun idea if you've got the time. There are some tours that take off from the rec center here in town. There are day bus tours to New York or Philadelphia and I think even Washington D.C. So I would be happy to check into that. Sometimes there are overnight packages as well. I will be happy to share any information that I gather.
As far as places to stay, I thought it might be easiest to have everybody check out where they could get the best deals. I could try to reserve a chunk of rooms somewhere, but I wouldn't want people to feel obligated to fill those if they were able to find better deals on Hotels.com or one of the many other websites there are. There is certainly no shortage of hotels here since it is a tourist spot. If you choose to stay in Harrisburg, it's only about a 15 minute drive to get to Hershey. Be aware that from 10 - 11, the traffic gets really bad since all the Hershey Park goers are coming in at about that time.
The Hershey Highmeadow campground is really nice and they have shuttles to many of the tourist sites included with the cost of your campsite. The Hotel Hershey and the Hershey Lodge have shuttles as well.
I am really excited for you to come and see this town. It's a small town with big ideas. There are just lots of things to do for a small, family oriented, tourist community. I hope you all consider coming out and checking it out for yourselves.
