Virginia Adrenaline

Luke, you have been to Colonial Williamsburg, Washington D.C., Virginia Beach, the swamp, the dunes, and Trader Joe's. You must be bored of Virginia by now!

NOPE!

We went to Busch Gardens! Since our hosts already had passes and the park was so close by, we got passes too. There was so much to do there that we went five times in two weeks! At first I was reluctant to get a pass to Busch Gardens. Once upon a time I was an employee at Six Flags. I have tainted memories from going there as a kid and as an employee. It always seemed hot,crowded, and the food/water was expensive. If you know anything about me, I do not like lines (or queues). I did not think the passes would be worth it for the simple matter of time wasted in line. After a few hours, I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice wooded park with plenty of shade, flowers, and extremely short lines. The park was clean and relatively quiet. There was also free ice water at all the vending stations. We had so much fun!

Tab and I on the sky tram with GRIFFON in the background.

Busch Gardens has a wildlife center with many different animals on display, including an aviary where you can feed birds. This is an albino Python that they let me and the little girl touch. We loved touching it. I was surprised when I touched it, it was so smooth and soft. It felt like gooey porcelain.

Here is our host family finishing the log flume. It was fun because you get all wet.

This is the great GRIFFON! This was our favorite ride in the park. The ride takes you up to the topand holds you on the edge for a random length of time then drops you down a near vertical drop. It was great.

Here we are at the Battering Ram. The young sir with red hair liked calling it the "battling ram". I personally think this was one of the best rides in the park. You can ride it over and over without it inducing nausea.

Our poor iPhone! On our last day at Busch Gardens we were getting off said Battering Ram when I looked at my wife's pocket. There, perched precariously out of her pocket was the iPhone. I reached for it, but was too late. It fell from the pocket and flipped and flopped like perch on a dock right through the gap and into the abyss below the ride. It was far beyond arm's reach. After the park closed a maintenance person came and retrieved it. We picked it up from the lost and found the next day. It looked like this. All the park employees were super nice and helpful. From the guys operating the ride to the men in the lost and found. Lucky for us, the phone still works. The screen is cracked and is hard to read, but I will fix it soon.

All in all we had so much fun. I was impressed by Tab's desire and courage to ride all the rides in the park with me. I was pretty scared to ride Mach Tower, the tallest ride in the park, it drops you in free fall for about 200 feet in 3 seconds. It takes 90 seconds to ride from the ground to the top. The anticipation is stressful but the view was magnificent. I screamed like a little girl the first time.  Apollo's Chariot was the second best ride in the park. I recommend it. Verbolten was very unique and unexpected, it definitely had the best theme of any coaster in the park. The decorations in the autobahn "garage" were very cool. So, if any of you are interested in Busch Gardens, I recommend.