Busch Gardens 07/04/11

Today while other people spend their Independence Day on the beach or at a park having a picnic, we spent the day at Busch Gardens! lol This year we decided to get the Fun Cards, where you pay for a day and then can go back the rest of the year for free (an annual pass of sorts). I purchased the annual pass for myself because then we get free parking (so if we only go 3 times over the next year it will have paid for itself in the money we saved in parking!) Today was the first day we have actually had an opportunity to go.

Here we are at the entrance. The sun was in Tye's eyes so we couldn't really get him to put them down for the picture. :-( lol

As soon as we got inside they had this group of flamingos right out in the open. We could walk up to them, but we weren't really allowed to touch them, although Tye tried before the keeper told him not too.
But the one flamingo liked Tye so much he came right up to him and nudged him anyway! lol
Then we headed over to catch a show. Cirque Dreams, a cirque de solei show, but it wasn't for another half hour, so we went and saw the gorillas instead.

These two were right up against the glass and Tye wasn't sure what to do with them so close!

He was tired and hot! lol

Kevin decided to be King Tut! Tye refused!

Me by one of the mummies

Tye loved digging in the sand, we finally had to tell him he could come back and dig in the sand another day because we didn't want to spend all the time we were able to be there just digging in a sand hole! lol
Tye was the safari driver! hehehe Foreshadowing what was to come, I think! lol
This hyena was totally laying on his back taking a snooze. There were a couple of people that were being rude and trying to wake him up by tapping on the glass, but he was ignoring them! lol Serves them right!
Then we went over to the safari ride. They asked Tye if he wanted to be the navigator and he was ALL over it! He thought he was the bomb! lol

I thought this was a great shot of him and the driver. (You might want to click on it to see it larger and better.)

He was so interested in everything we were passing and seeing.

So serious! lol

Then Kevin and Tye went on the scorpion. I was going to go but they wanted a dollar to put our stuff in the lockers! Uhhhhh no! lol If you can't tell, Kevin is the one waving, they are in the back row!

And here they go upside down! Tye told Kevin after that he never wanted to ride it again! ROFL!

Then we saw the 4D Muppet movie! I picked the non-wet seats and found out half way through the show that Tye WANTED to get wet and ended up mad at me because we weren't getting wet! lol Ooops!

Tye wanted to ride the gondola car things. But first Kevin wanted to ride the log ride. So that mad Tye mad, but we were able to defer it. That was the longest wait for anything we did today. And let me tell you...it was NOT worth it! lol I got SOAKED!!!! I HATE being wet in my regular clothes. That is NOT my idea of fun and I paid the price. I will remember for next time for sure. I was miserable the rest of the day. I should have had Kevin take a picture of me, but I was in such a cruddy mood I didn't even think about taking a picture, all I wanted was to get dry! lol And guess what?!?! They don't have a stinking hand dryer in their bathroom!!! lol I was dripping all over my shoes and probably looked like a drowned rat!!! lol Next time I will not be going on the water ride! lol

After that we ate lunch, which was really yummy! And then rode the gondola. Now if we could just hit the train Tye would really be happy! lol

We saw this acrobat guys. They were really good...but aren't most acrobats good?! lol

Tye kept wanting to go on the train but every time we were at a location that was not a train stop, just a crossing. When we finally got there they had already closed and were not letting anyone else on. So we had to wait for 10 mins for the next one. Tye was not happy and did NOT want to go do something else in the meantime. We finally convinced him to go see the giant turtles next to the train station. Look at this big boy!

Tye thought this turtle statue was really cool and hopped right up on it! lol

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?!

The guys on the train, FINALLY! LOL Look at his HUGE beautiful eyes!

Tye thought this was pretty cool...a HUGE treetop play area. We walked across these net bridges and then he hit the play area.

He was loving it!

Then he saw Big Bird!!!

By this time we were tired and ready to go. Thankfully we decided to leave when we did because just as we were leaving the clouds rolled in and it started pouring. We made it to the tram and were under the cover waiting. Then we got to the parking lot side and waited there long enough for it to let up and I ran to get the car. Kevin would have done it, but we would still be waiting there now for him to find the car! (Poor guy gets lost in a paper bag if he doesn't have his GPS! lol)

On the way home we asked Tye what his favorite part was and he said, "the train, the sky thingy (the gondola) and the tram"! lol I bet her would have been happy riding the tram back and forth! ROFL! We would have liked to stay for the fireworks but were just too tired. It was a great day! We are glad we have the fun card so we can go back again soon! :-)