Thursday, July 17 — We decided to celebrate Keith finishing 7th grade with a trip to a nearby amusement park called Busch Gardens. We’d booked the tickets online a day before. Apparently, ticket prices were variable based on day of the week/season. Ours were $55 each for one-day general admission. Busch Gardens offered a food package, where for $30 you can get a meal every 90-minutes. We knew from Sea World, which was owned by Busch Gardens, that this was a smoking deal as one meal generally costs $30 by itself. Eric and Keith both got the food package, but Christi had a food allergy that Sea World couldn’t accommodate and we figured that Busch Gardens wouldn’t be able to accommodate it, either. Eric was horrified to find that there was a $21 service fee for booking tickets online.

Busch Gardens opened at 1000, and we pulled into the line to enter the parking lot right at 1000. We knew parking would be expensive, but $34 was even more than we’d anticipated. We found parking close to the entrance and there wasn’t much of a line to get in. It was another hot day, but it was quite windy, and the cool wind kept us from getting too overheated (for the most part).

The sign at the entrance said that this park was voted The World’s Most Beautiful Theme Park. The map of the park indicated that the theme for each of the different areas of the park were European countries. The entrance was in England, and it was adorable.

Eric had determined that we needed to eat $115 worth of meal plan food to recoup the $60 for the plan + $55 in junk fees. Our first stop was at a restaurant near the entrance so he could eat. His meal would have been $28 had it been a la carte. It was early and, while people were pouring in, it still wasn’t crowded yet. Our plan was to get to the rides that would likely have the longest lines as the day progressed. We quickly walked Ireland, which was even more adorable than England.

Then through a small zoo area.

Which took us to France.

The first ride that Keith and Eric went on was in France, called Griffith. Eric was sick for about a half-hour afterwards.

We walked through New France (Canada)

And crossed a covered bridge that took us into the Alps.

Christi and Keith went on a ride called Alpengeist.

While Christi liked it and didn’t get sick, her instincts told her that she’d get sick if she went on it a second time, so Keith went again alone. Then we back tracked back to New France. We went on Le Scoot, which was a nice, calm, mellow water ride where we barely got wet.

Then we went on Invadr, which was a wooden roller coaster. We all had kind of forgotten that wooden roller coasters tended to be uncomfortable.

It was now noon. Keith was getting hungry and Eric was eager to eat again. We went to the nearest restaurant, which served barbecue… to be continued…