Day 28: Bring on the rides...fast ones, swinging ones, wet ones

Day 28
Thursday, June 23rd

Today we made a return trip to Busch Gardens.  Not returning?  The rain.  Oh no, it was hot and humid, of course!  Today was a day to enjoy some rides, capture some smiles and laughs and a whole bunch of kids loving the rides!  Not too many words (or as many as some past posts I should say) for this post, but a whole lotta pictures-

After riding a very short and what I would consider, rather lame, water ride, we made our way to a roller coaster, followed shortly thereafter by Gregory convincing us to drop $5 (his $5) on an arcade type basketball game.  Oh, he swore up and down it looked SOOO easy and he would win a Pikachu.  Well, umm, the game won and we left without a Pikachu!  We were hot and decided to ride the rapids ride...a ride that was designed to DRENCH its riders.  Do I look ready or what?  How about thrilled? Bill and Laurel opted out, so that left me as the get wet chaperon......

 I made sure to get the 'dry' seat.  Whatever that means!

It pretty much meant nothin'!  We all got soooooo wet. 

 Like standing underneath a water fall wet.........

Can't say it kept us cool with all the humidity, but it was pretty funny.  Despite trying to save the shoes from getting wet, I think we all ended up with drenched shoes.  Little feet were sore at the end of the day!

Next stop was the pirate ship ride.  You know, the boat goes back and forth until you feel like you're either going to get tossed out or the darn thing is going to do a complete revolution.  Bill and I, well, we both feel the same way about these type rides.  We take the 'thanks, but no thanks' approach.  Happy to photograph it though!  I love this series just because the kids are so alive with their expressions.  The first one is funny....if you look at Jacob, he's about ready to clobber Eric because Eric was screaming this high pitch screech that was horribly annoying.  Nope, surely not our kid.

 On to yet another 'I'd rather keep my lunch with me than in the trash can' ride-the round and round swing ride.  Barf-O.  They all rode it twice by the end of the day.  Bill read the map and I took pictures!

 Bumper cars..always sure to bring a smile despite how frustratingly uncooperative those things are!! 

 While the big kids enjoyed the big area, the little shorties enjoyed their own pint sized arena of frustratingly uncooperative cars......

"Scuse me Miss, do you have a license to drive this here car?"

 I think Nolan moved his car about 5 feet and that was about it, but he sure didn't seem to mind!!

Now this ride?  It was all we could do but stand outside the gate and chuckle.  It literally took the ride operator 3 times as long to buckle all the kids in AND then unbuckle them as it did for the ride to start and stop! 

They were still smiling in anticipation!!

 Nolan and Jacob decided to just converse and pay no attention to the slower than molasses ride.

To escape the extreme afternoon heat, we went to a huge indoor eating area and enjoyed an Umpah band/German dancing show.  The kids were restless, but there was NO WAY we were leaving that air conditioned building.  It was heavenly........

Laurel, Luke, Sophia and Eric got picked to go do the Chicken Dance with all the dancers (other kids too) and that concluded our cool down period.  It was a fun day despite some logistical bantering back and forth between Bill and I, bound to happen with 2 hard headed people! 

Just to document so we can recall years down the road....after nearly 4 weeks of constant company with your spouse, things are bound to get a little testy and you'll be wishing you went home at week 3!!  Week 4 is kind of like Wednesday, if you just get over that hump, you'll make it to the end of the week.  And so it goes with vacationing....