Road Trip 2010: Day 7 of 17 (Williamsburg - Busch Gardens)

View Larger Map

Adam has the breakfast routine down at Hampton Inn

Since we always get in so late that the pool is closed we decided to do a morning swim


We spent the day at Busch Gardens. It's a beautiful park, in fact, it is supposedly the "World's Most Beautiful Theme Park" for 20 straight years.

The theme is a European Village

Too bad you can't really put your kids in the stockade for these offenses

I love the sky buckets to get a feel for the park

The kids always want to do stupid stuff like this that costs extra. Usually I say no on principle, but it must have been a weak moment.

Soaked after the log ride

Derek and I rode the Griffon with its 90 degree let you hang there for a while and think about it drop

All smiles after the Griffon - and to think Derek used to be scared to go on roller coasters

I loved that there was more to the park than just the rides

Adam wanted to see all the animals

The kids always ran to see what kind of frightened expression Helen had in the photo after every ride. She's notorious for looking scared out of her mind while everyone else in the picture looks normal.

Loch Ness Monster coaster was a favorite

Adam played and played in this kid's area for a long time. We sent Derek to find him a couple times but Adam wouldn't leave until he had his fill.

We ate a Bavarian lunch while we watched a show

Adam was still a couple inches short of being able to ride many of the thrill rides, but he still likes to ride the little kid rides

We had some good bumper car grudge matches

Adam got stung on one of the last rides. He felt better when a medical person bandaged him up and gave him a fast pass to a ride of his choice, the Loch Ness Monster coaster.

After the park we drove to the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center. Most of the areas were closed but there were still some displays open so you could get a feel for things.

They even have a shop where you can rent colonial costumes to wear around Williamsburg

I liked how they marketed the Historic Triangle (Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown) towns together. They are all connected by the Colonial Parkway, which is a national scenic byway.

We had to stop by the exercise room each day so the kids could try to beat their record

Thursday June 3, 2010

It was a nice feeling to know that we were going to be staying in one place for a few days. Packing up each day was wearing on us.

We felt bad that each night we would return so late that the pool would be closed so we decided to let the kids go swimming in the morning before heading out.

Derek has been psyched about going to Busch Gardens since I told him that there was one in Williamsburg before the trip. We thought Derek might not be as into Colonial Williamsburg if he was wishing he was at Busch Gardens the whole time, so we decided to go to Busch Gardens first.

While we're on our road trips we make an effort to "unplug". We don't watch any TV or read any newspapers, although sometimes the TV is on in the breakfast area or we'll catch a headline on a newspaper. It's a little strange but very liberating. We usually don't even look at the weather forecasts, but happened to see that the expected highs were going to be approaching 100 degrees. We were in shock. One of the reasons we go on our trip so early in the Summer is to avoid the hottest days.

Thankfully there were plenty of trees and water in Busch Gardens so it didn't feel too bad, but you could definitely tell that someone turned up the heat. We found Busch Gardens to be very nice - maybe as close to the Disney World feeling as you can get for a non Disney Park, but it still falls pretty short of Disney. Derek says Busch Gardens in better because there are more thrill rides and shorter lines. Adam was still a couple inches short of being able to ride all the thrill rides, but he seemed content to ride the kid rides.

After Busch Gardens we drove to the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center to get a feel for the place. Most of the displays were closed, but you could tell from the scale of the place and the parking lot that the place is a popular destination.

For dinner we went to a local restaurant called Food For Thought, which seemed to get good reviews. It was a neat place with lots of thought provoking puzzles and high brow displays that fit in with the "have fun while you learn something" feel of the area.