The Crayola Experience™ at Two Rivers Landing

A couple of years ago I read about the the Crayola Factory on my friend Kim's blog 4 Crazy Kings.  It wasn't possible to visit it the first time we were in the Philly area but it's been in the back of my mind to try to make it there eventually.  The Reviewer's Retreat got us a little closer to Easton, PA and even though it would make for a very long day we decided to squeeze a visit in on our way home.

Like Hershey's Chocolate World, it's not really at the factory, but still attempts to give you a factory like experience by showing you how Crayola crayons and markers and made through a demonstration and talk. I'm sure it's quite informative, unfortunately our speaker was nearly unintelligible.  I don't know if he was just mumbling or if his microphone wasn't loud enough but we weren't the only one who couldn't understand most of what he said.  The video monitors helped show us the process, and it was nice to get a cool macaroni and cheese colored crayon.

The Crayola Factory has several exhibits, each set up as a station for visitors to explore or create with a hand-on activity using their great products.  We had never used some of them before and it was a great introduction.  There were so many choices and many were open ended so depending on how involved your child got with the project you would spend hours and hours there.  Admission is around $10 a person, but you do get to use their supplies and get silver coins redeemable for crayons, makers, and clay so that does off set the cost.

Two of ER's favorite activities are best seen through video clips, the first is in After Dark, with as you can imagine, glow in the dark fun.  It's really fun to draw with the light wands.

The second was the Cool Moves exhibit, where you use your whole body to create a picture on the screen.  It was a very popular activity and actually looks cooler the more people you have.

Surprisingly the gift shop is not on location, but nearby on the same block.  You can't miss it as you leave, but it was kind of nice how you didn't have to stop in, although you know we did!  The world's largest crayon is there, all 1500 pounds of it! 

There are some exclusive products but these are mainly Crayola themed items like t-shirts and other clothing items, and things like mugs, plush, and licensed products and not creativity products or supplies.  The extensive collection of every Crayola supply imaginable is worth the stop alone, along with the displays of crayons and markers you can use to make your own customized collection.  We picked out some glitter crayons, Color Wonder sets, and yet another stuffed friend...this time a purple crayon.  If given the choice ER always seems to pick a new stuffed lovey.

After getting our creative groove on, we stopped at Chick-fil-A on our way to the highway.  I love me some yummy chicken from there, it's only the second time I've ever eaten at one.  The first was on our way home from Disney World.  There are some in Albuquerque but we never went and I'm still waiting for more to show up Michigan.  There's one on a university campus, but that's hardly convenient!

The stop at Crayola did mean that we didn't get home until very, very, late.  I don't think we were even out of Pennsylvania until after seven at night.  We also had to contend with driving through a heavy rain storm but seeing how much fun ER had made it worth it.  The entire trip was just jammed packed with fun, it was so busy Brad said he needed more time off to recover from his vacation!