Diva of Dare - Day 7

Once again, please read this as if it was written last Friday.

This morning started very early for us. You would have thought we all would have been rested after our lazy day yesterday. Apparently that wasn't the case for everyone.

Our destination today was Busch Gardens.

As soon as we arrived we laid the law down for the kids. Don't worry, we eventually let them out to enjoy some ride time of their own.

What is a visit to Busch Gardens without a meet and greet with a Clydesdale?

Something tells me this little group is ready to enjoy the rides.

We did in fact enjoy the rides. There are 5 big roller coasters at the park along with the other typical amusements. Tony, Sis, and I rode all of the coasters except the Loch Ness Monster twice. Nessy was actually our first coaster of the day and quite frankly the mildest. She just didn't sound all that thrilling to wait in line for again at the end of the day.

We had lunch in the German area of the park. They were celebrating Oktoberfest a bit early. I enjoyed watching the show while we ate. I had a delicious lunch consisting of 3 different sausages (a brat, kielbasa, and something else), sauerkraut, red cabbage, warm German potato salad, and side dish of slight heartburn the rest of the day. This would have been a prime time for me to sample a nice cold draft fresh from the brewery next door. Alas, it was too hot and I had too much heartburn to consider it at that time. In fact, I didn't even sample at all while we were there.

Today Sis and I were the Divas of Dare. We enjoyed the coasters and even managed to coax Bug onto one. He didn't like this one though because the hill was too steep for his liking. Now he has decided that we forced him on it. Funny, I seem to remember more bargaining than forcing. I did promise him that I would ride anything of his choosing with him if he rode with us. My bad. I really thought he would enjoy it as much as the coasters earlier in the week.

My favorite coaster of the day was the Griffin. It is made up of three tiered rows of nine seats each. Every row is like sitting in the front row. The car stops 250 feet up in the air and pauses for almost 30 seconds before plunging 205 feet down catapulting it into two loops. I couldn't look down, of course, with my fear of heights, but my second time on I was able to look out to my left and see the beautiful bay a mile away teaming with sailboats and fishing vessels.

Two wolves in the Jack Hanna nature preserve. This was a beautiful area of Busch Gardens.

It was right after this photo that I realized my camera was acting up again. I sure hope it straightens out again before the beach tomorrow.