busch gardens.

This weekend was my first time I have ever been to Busch Gardens! For some reason, people here are always really shocked when I say that and it makes me laugh. :)

My cousin was in town for the weekend so we were heading in their general direction to see if maybe we could get together at some point during the day. [Sadly, that wasn't able to happen] My in-laws had got both of us season passes to Busch Gardens as a combined birthday/graduation gift and we were getting antsy to use them. So we decided to just get up and go on Saturday, early enough to miss the crowds.

However, I am realizing that the older I get, the more motion sick I get. :( Granted, we were in the heat all day with no food or water (we didn't want to take anything in!) but it's pretty sad to see that clearly, I can no longer ride with the big dogs. After the third roller coaster, I thought for sure I was going to be sick. I was dizzy, nauseous, and I had started to black out  But I tried to make sure that James couldn't see how gross I felt because I knew how excited he was to take me on all the roller coasters and show me around. What kind of wife would I be to rain on his parade? But thank goodness that James was a little woozy too because it saved me from a grisly experience in the bathroom, I know it!

Besides roller coasters, Busch Gardens is basically half zoo. We came on a really lucky day because we got to see the alligators fed raw, frozen chicken breasts and that only happens twice a week! We got to hear a cute story about how good a little young elephant did as she had her blood taken that morning. :) Elephants are so stinkin cute.

These little guys decided to get a little posy. Look at that crocodile smile! ;)

They may be pretty, but we could smell them a mile away!

Legitimate Egyptian statues.

Riding the SkyTram to the other side of the park!

We ended up leaving after about four hours. We had made our way around the entire park and ridden almost every ride we wanted to hit (James missed out on one, I missed out on two--I had to let him go alone on the last one) and we did have season passes, so we will come back and can do anything we miss. We finished our little adventure with a pretty cool show that released real birds to fly around the audience! But ten minutes in, James said "Ok, forget the last ride. After this, we are leaving. I'm STARVING." "Me too!"

So then we ate a nice, yummy, well-deserved lunch at Carrabba's, did a little shopping at the outlets (I FINALLY got new shoes for my workouts!), and cooled off with a Frosty. By then, we were just so exhausted & hot & smelly that we decided it was time to head home.

I'm sorry, I'm just SO excited to have shoes that won't kill my
feet! Aren't the pretty!? :)

But all in all, I think I'd give the park an A! I hope when we come back with our kids someday that I will be able to ride with them, but it's nice to know that the animals are always a nice back-up for old ladies like me. :)