Busch Gardens

Today we headed to Busch Gardens. Chris and Aribi went to the waterpark while Dustin, Sarah, Thom and I went to Busch Gardens. It was a day full of adventure.  We went on a lot of rollercoasters.  The first one we went on was Sheikra.  You go up a big hill and then it levels out. After it levels off you are taken to a 90 degree "cliff" drop.  Just as you are about to go over the edge the coaster stops and you hang there for about 5 seconds before it drops.  It was awesome.  We decided to spend the extra money for the "Quick Passes", which turned out to be really worth it.  We were able to skip some long lines.  We then went to a rollercoaster which was a little more rough. I am too short (in my opinion) for some seats because my head fits right between the shoulder  bars, thus slams my head back and forth between the bars.  This one rattled me a bit, so I didn't ride it a second time when Sarah, Dustin and Thom went back.  Along the way, there were tons of animals you could stop and see. Then we rode the pirate ship (it goes back and forth and then all the way around). I had to close my eyes because after the last rollercoaster, I wasn't feeling the hottest.

Then we headed to lunch. We went to this nice restaurant on the second floor of the colony club.  Our view was of the "safari" so we enjoyed watching zebra and giraffe at lunch. I enjoyed some coconut shrimp with coleslaw, french fries, and hushpuppies.  It was the BEST coconut shrimp I have EVER had.

After lunch, we found out that the rides closed due to lightning (12 miles away). There cannot be weather within 12 miles for the rides to go.  So we went and looked at more animals.  It was a bummer because the weather was perfect out! Overcast, perfect temp, no rain--just lightning-12 miles away! Once the weather started to get worse  (over an hour later) we went to Iceploration. It was really cheesy. It was a story of a little girl and her grandfather who traveled around the world to look at animals.  The animals were portrayed by ice skaters who skated around the stage. The costumes were amazing, but the story was a little lame.

After the show, (it's now been close to 3 hours since they closed the ride) we walked around until the rides were open.  The first ride we rode was the Cheetah Hunt. It was awesome! We did a few more rollercoasters, a train ride, a water ride, and looked at some more animals before picking Chris and Aribi up.

We then came back to the condo for some frozen pizzas, Cards Against Humanity, and walking to the fishing pier.  At the condo's fishing pier we had a herron join us. We named him Claude.  Now it is to bed for a day full of the beach.