Tampa Bay Busch Gardens

Scott and I decided to splurge just a little bit and head over to Tampa Bay Busch Gardens. It is a huge amusement park with tons of different rides (although we only hit three of them, explain later) and awesome animals. We got there around 11:00AM and left at 8:00PM.We both crashed when we got home, Scott on the couch while watching TV and me in our bed while reading. 3:30AM came around and the light was on in our room and TV on in the other. We had so much fun...even with the smoldering heat. I don't think I have ever seen Scott sweat that bad, even during a basketball game. It was interesting to see how little clothing people wore. I think the most disturbing image was the 50+year old lady prancing around in a hot pink bikini. YIKES.

The first of two roller coasters that we went on. This is Gwazi. I had to convince Scott that riding in the front is the only way to go and I forgot something. Wooden rollercoasters are not too forgiving on the brain. I swear I could feel my brain bouncing around in my head during the crazy and jagged turns. Needless to say, that ride was a one timer for me. No need for repeats on that one (Oh, and these are all google images. My camera battery was dead...).

The funnest of them all...Sheikra. Sheikra is the fastest ride in the park (70 MPH) and it drops you around 120 feet at a 90 degree angle. The most nerve wrecking, exciting part is right before the drop. You get to the very top of the ride and right before the drop, you are facing straight down, and there is a pause! You are suspended there for added affect! Once again, I convinced Scott that the only way to ride is in the front row! This time though, you were not able to choose which line to go to, they had a worker there telling you where to go. So, without Scotts knowledge, I asked the worker if we could sit in the front. It worked! He sent us to the front row and Scott could not figure out how that happened. I told him that I asked and he didnt believe me. There was a family sitting in our row and as we were loading, these little girls darted for the second row, causing a litte chaos. Their dad was trying to convince them to stay with him. I tapped one of them (who was totally panicked) on the arm and said that it was really fun, that she would love it! I had to continue prepping her on the way up. Then, as we were hanging, I started screaming, probably ruining all of the progress I had made with the little hispanic girl. Whoops!

Intense isn't it?
We waited in line for two water rides. They had to stop running the first one because the weather was bad (If there is lighting within 5 miles of the park, they will shut everything down until it is gone). The other ride we waited in line for over an hour (The Congo River...remember that family??? You get totally soaked). We were even IN the boat. It was taking a long time to get going then I noticed the water was draining. Hmmm...that couldn't be good. Everything stopped and people were stuck in the water in their boats. We sat there for a couple of minutes until the worker had to get us out. There was a power outage. So, we waited another 45 minutes or so (we were determined to go on this ride) and finally made it on to a 4 minute not-so-much thrill ride. Oh well, we bonded with the group on our boat, so it was still fun! Instead of hitting more rides, we went around and looked at all of the animals. They were pretty amazing!

The cool thing about this park is now that we have bought tickets, we can go as much as we want until December 31st. I might have to go by myself once school starts for Scott!