A visit to the Pez Museum

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, and we decided to go on an adventure to celebrate instead of the usual, which is basically just going to her favorite restaurant. (we did that, too. Chen Young in Wappingers Falls NY is highly recommended!) We went to Orange, Connecticut, which hosts the Pez factory and a museum, which they call a Visitor Center. We had heard that the museum part would only take about 15 minutes to see all of...and we have learned never to trust reviews on travel sites, because it was awesome! There was so much cool stuff packed in there that we spent more than 2 hours and probably still missed a few things. I ended up taking more than 900 pictures on the day, 918 to be exact, my third most in a single day in my life. I posted 877 of them on my website, HERE, which I recommend looking at in full because there's way more than I'm going to show the highlights of here. I attempted to photo document every Pez Dispenser in the museum, but I know I failed, because I remember one very distinctive one I missed.

Even if you don't eat Pez, or don't collect Pez dispensers, it's definitely well worth the trip. And some of the houses and buildings along the ride are spectacular, if you are into architecture like I am, you will enjoy the ride as well.

The outside of the building is cool, too!

In the main lobby, there is a display of 792 Pez dispensers on the wall, including a 1 of 1 prototype that never went into production.

Here's a closeup of the prototype, it's the frog/alien looking thing dead center in the second row from the bottom

 The world's largest Pez dispenser

 This is how the majority of the displays look

 OK, I'm going to need at least one of those Zambonis.

 and the Stanley Cup

 Here's a good look at the main floor of the Museum, they have two.

 I took close-ups of every one of the displays

 I have some of these!

 Apparently Pez made trading cards at one point! I had no idea. They were some of the very, very few things in the museum to not be labeled, unfortunately.

 I had no idea that they made so many variations of the trucks. I know I have one, but no idea which one. Pretty sure I have a photo of it somewhere in my diecast collection files.

 If you go on a weekday, you can watch them making the Pez, and get a free sample, which will be warm. Since we went on a Saturday, the factory part was closed.

 I have some of the Star Wars stuff...somewhere.

 Any museum that proudly displays 1/64 diecast is a winner in my book.

 The only mistake I spotted in the museum.

 But did they make chicken flavored Pez?

 Another view into where they make them

 The motorcycle was made by Orange County Choppers

 Japan seems to favor tiny Pez

 A flag made of Pez wrappers

My mom even let me post a picture of her from the adventure!

As is my usual custom, I didn't just document the destination, I documented the trip as well.

 A lot of the drive is along the Husatonic River.

 A cool old building in Derby

 A cool old train bridge in Derby

 I was quite surprised to see a classic Mustang in the parking lot of the Pez center.

 Although slightly hard to read, that sign is for a farm we passed that was established in 1639, and is apparently still in operation!

 Driving back into Derby

 The least nice part of the ride was going over the top of the dam on Lake Zoar. A little Wikipedia-ing gave some more info on the Dam and Lake Zoar, including, as I suspected, that it's a man-made lake, and that there are parts of the town that existed in the valley before it was built under the water. That's actually really common with dams but it's the first time I've ever seen one of them in person, I believe. It was absolutely my first time driving over the top of a dam.

 Another view of Lake Zoar.

A view of the Hudson Valley, my home, taken from I-84. Unfortunately my shirt and camera reflected on the window.

The Pez Museum had some post cards for sale, and I purchased 4 of them:

 They also had advertising post cards for a Pez convention in Connecticut...we had so much fun at the museum we had talked about going to one of their conventions. I mentioned, in the car, that I had gotten a post card advertising one, but when we got home and I got a chance to read it, I was disappointed to see the date- May 4th, one of the most packed weekends for me on the year. The Rhinebeck car show is that weekend, and I won't give that up for anything, if I can help it. The last time I missed one was when I had been discharged from the hospital just days before and could barely walk...I've been there in torrential rain since then, even. And walking around a car show in the mud and torrential rain is about as little fun as a car show can be. It didn't stop me. It won't stop me again in the future. In addition, there is a model show that weekend that I probably won't be able to get to, either. I can't physically do the walking of both days on the weekend so I have to pick and choose. The car show is held Friday through Sunday, with different parts each day (Friday is swap meet, Saturday is custom cars, Sunday is factory stock) and I've always wanted to attend all three days...I just can't physically do it.

I will still count the advertising card as part of my post card collection, at least.

Thanks for reading!