Saturday, August 9, 2008

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!

10 comments:

Filetti Family said...

Yay, you got passes. Let us know next time you go and we will ditch the kids and meet you there. It's great to go when it cools off and when the kids are in school. There are NO lines and you can just walk right on the rides.

colin and brooke thompson said...

enjoy all the rollercoasters you can because once you start having kids... they are never the same. I get so motion sick now. It makes me so sad because I love a good, fun ride!
I heard you just got a job. congrats!

J Fo said...

I get butterflies in my stomach just looking at those rides! Looks like a fun day though. :)

Kelsey K. Hartley said...

Sounds like good times in FL. Congratulations on finding a job! That was my number one goal once I moved to Portland, then I got pregnant and the accompanying sickness, so I'm procrastinating this for a bit. Thank goodness Mike has a job!

Good luck managing the office!

Cynthia Lovell said...

I can't wait to come out and go to Busch Gardens!!! I LOVE the roller coasters, especially when I can SCREAM!!! ha ha ha

Jaren said...

First of all, why didn't you get a picture of that hot pink bikini? Just kidding. I wanted to say hi because Kristin and I just got back to the mail room today. It's our first day back and there's no Scott. What's up with that ya know? Anyway, so "hi" it is and I hope life treats you well in Florida!

cameron said...

WE LOVE RIDING ON THE Sheikra AT NIGHT - AND IN THE FRONT ROW...WELL NOT BEN BUT MY FAMILY...BEN GETS SICK ON RIDES..THOUGH I DIDN'T KNOW THIS UNTIL AFTER A TRIP TO BUSCH AND DISNEY WORLD....AND NOT UNTIL THE SECOND TIME AROUND...

SO GLAD ABOUT THE JOB AND THE THAT YOU LIKE THE AREA...TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR JOB AND WHAT KIND OF COMPANY IT IS AND WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING...

Shannon said...

oh my gosh, just looking at the pictures makes my stomach all anxious. I love rollercoasters...but man...I don't know if I could do that one. You guys are so brave!!! Sounds like you're having tons of fun in Florida. Miss you around here!!

Gary Foley said...

How come you didn't say anything about the cell phone incident?

Also, looks like the storm passed you by.

Dad

Boquinha said...

So that's why I can't handle swinging on swings like I used to? Motion sickness from having kids? That's new to me but explains it!

You guys are insane. When you come up, we can get cheap tickets to Hershey Park--they have 11 roller coasters I can barely handle looking at.