Virginia Beach...Day 3 Busch Gardens

Today we opted for a trip to Busch Gardens and a break from the beach. We all packed up into two vehicles and made our way west towards Williamsburg. When we got there I realized I had gathered the directions and park info but managed to leave the discount tickets I had purchased and printed for the three of us on-line behind. Fortunately with my confirmation number they were able to pull them up and reprint them for me. I was afraid I was going to have to pay twice and try and sell the on-line tickets on ebay to get my money back. Lesson learned was to paper clip it all together and pay better attention when looking through the papers to be sure I have everything.

Mr. Social barely made it through the entrance before stopping to chat with someone. The officer was very nice. He told Lukas all about the Pirate show. We actually saw him again when we went to the show. Lukas loved the 4D Pirate show. Can't say the same for the 4D Air Europe ride. He screamed the whole time and squeezed my hand.

We had to convince him to go on the Escape from Pompeii water ride. The Simmons crew had just gotten off when we got there. Kira wanted to go again so she went with us. Lukas was a little unnerved. I think the two big rides at Hershey Park the two week before had an affect on him.

Here we are chilling at Pet Shennanigan's. It was a cute little show with all dogs, cats, birds and pigs that had been rescued from animal shelters in the area. The did all kinds of tricks.

Part of the crew in Germany...Aunt Becca, Kira, Aunt Ro, Lukas and Daddy

Lukas had been bugging us from the time we arrived to get his face painted. I don't know what the fascination is with kids this age and face painting. We managed to hold him off until we stopped for lunch. He picked Voo Doo Man. She had a hard time getting him to sit still because he kept saying it tickled when she sprayed it on.

The finished product...very fitting for Lukas with his two sided personality. One side good/one side devilish.

Aunt Becca, Aunt Ro, Kira and Daddy wanted to do the Curse of DarKastle ride and Sean and Lukas didn't so Uncle Rob and I did some other rides with them. On the Der Autobahn Bumper Car ride with mommy.

Riding the Kinder Karrussel. He insisted I ride it with him and we got to go twice in a row.

Daddy caught up with us in the Land of the Dragons. The others had headed to a different part of the park. Aunt Ro couldn't get anyone to ride Apollo's Chariot with her so daddy volunteered and we told him we would meet him at Sesame Street Forest of Fun.

RIDING IN THE FLYING DRAGON

RIDING ON THE DINO EGG FERRIS WHEEL RIDING THE LADY BUGS
RIDING IN THE DRAGON BOATS

PLAYING IN THE WATER PARK AT DRAGON LAND

CLIMBING IN THE DRAGON TREE HOUSE

When Lukas had done everything in Dragon Land we took the Sky Ride over to Sesame Street Forest. Lukas wasn't to sure about the Sky Ride until we were on our way. He kept asking if it was going to be scary. He made mommy ride with him on the Whirly Worms. When he wanted to go again I told him he would have to go it alone. It was like a combination of a tilt-a-whirl and the boats that swing back and forth like a pendulum. I'm fine with the pendulum motion but start spinning me around at the same time...once was enough for my stomach.

WHIRLY WORM

YET ANOTHER DINO BOAT RIDE

GIVING PRINCE ELMO A BIG HUG

RIDING PRINCE ELMO'S SPIRE

I was a little surprised he decided to go on this ride. It goes slowly up and then bounces them up and down before coming back down. As you'll see below Lukas enjoyed the ride.

GOING UP WAITING FOR THE DROP...ALL SERIOUS

COMING DOWN...YEAH!!!

We departed Sesame Street Forest and headed over to Italy. We bumped into Skyler and Ben while we were there.

ON DAVINCI'S LITTLE BALLOONS

DAVINCI'S LITTLE GLIDERS

We checked in with the others and headed to the train to take it back over to France to meet up with them. While waiting for the train Lukas wanted to do Elephants Run. He was all set to go by himself and then insisted that I ride with him. Once on the train the others told us they were headed to Ireland instead and would meet up with us there. Mommy and Daddy wanted to do the flume ride but Lukas wasn't so sure. It took some prodding and convincing that it wasn't like the one in Hershey Park and a promise that mommy would sit in the back with him and daddy would sit in front. At the end he agreed that it wasn't so bad. Then it was a short stroll over to Ireland to find everyone else.

LUKAS CHECKING OUT THE TALKING TREE

NOW THAT IS ONE UGLY BOOGER!!
LUKAS DOING HIS VERSION OF AN IRISH JIG...

The last stop before leaving was to the shops. Daddy wanted to get a hat and mug and we promised Lukas he could get something on the way out. He was very good about not asking for things throughout the day. He also had $10 from "Grandma" Mason to spend while on vacation.
So, first he bought with his money, a light up double sabre, go figure! Then he found a dragon slayer outfit. He loves to dress up and play these days and it will make a good potential Halloween costume so I agreed. It was actually pretty cheap considering where we were buying it. Naturally he wanted to open it right away. I told him he had to wait until we got to the car. This was at about 7pm after a long day at the park. Major meltdown! We did manage to get him on the tram and back to the car without opening it up. Aunt Ro tried to contain the sword during the ride home.