Friday in Busch Gardens

Thursday, we fueled up with pancakes and headed out to Busch Gardens. But before I get to that part, I must reveal how we redeemed our passes.

We originally were going to go to Busch Gardens on Thursday, our first full day. But alas, they were closed. Our "Bounce Passes" let us into Colonial Williamsburg, but you could only get them activated by going first to Busch Gardens. Since they were closed, I called the 800 number to get it straightened out. The lady on the phone said to go through the bus/employee entrance to the park and go to the Call Center where she works. She would then get us squared away.

So Jason pulled into the separate lot and I went into an office filled with Busch Gardens people on the phone talking to tourists like me. I was a little weirded out by this 'behind the scenes' situation, but asked the only woman not on the phone to help me out. She waved me over to a chair and said I would be helped in a moment. One of the supervisors came over to me and asked if I had been talking to Ann, as she pointed to a lady in the middle. I said yes. Ann then looked up, saw me, and waved a big, full arm wave at me and smiled. The supervisor activated my tickets and I was done interuppting these people. Some of you may remember I worked at Hy-line for many years and to have a tourist come into your office would have been very strange!

So back to our day at Busch Gardens - we started with a 4-D simulated ride in Ireland, Corkscrew Hill. Very cool! In Germany, we did the Curse of the Dark Castle, and I agreed to do the Big Bad Wolf - a roller coaster that I thought would be pretty tame. I asked Jason in line if there would be a big drop, and he said no. They were selling T-shirts outside the ride entrance that said, 'my first coaster'. I figured, if a kid's first coaster was this one, how bad could it be? Ha ha, famous last words. We got on the ride and I braced myself. Jason was very excited. We started, and oh no - there was a good size drop. I took it ok. Then a couple seconds later, Jason looked at me and said, "I am so sorry." I looked at him, confused. Then I looked over his shoulder and all I saw was water. Uh oh. The coaster started to plunge. If I could have let go of the handle, I would have given him a good punch on the arm. Below is the second drop:




This is in France.


We caught a cool wolf show. You couldn't pay me to get onto that stage with a grey wolf. They were all alpha females.

Bald Eagle.

Below is still in Germany, with a collection of some scary dolls with old lady faces. Jason is showing me the exact poses.




Close-up of the freaky doll.


We meandered through all the countries, did more 4-D rides, rode some water rides and got SOAKED!! It took hours to dry. They did have a body drier, but it was $5 per person. No thanks! We saw a pet show, the wolf show, and saw several endangered animals on the way.

When we could not move another step, we went back to the hotel to refresh and changed for dinner. This time, I chose a fish place, The Bone Fish. Absolutely fantastic. Best salmon I ever had. Then we walked around the outdoor mall, again with ice cream later. (Yeah, I am totally working out all week!!)