This weekend we went to Busch Gardens’ member preview day.  Joe and Jack had been looking forward to it for weeks.

We knew that it would take a bit of time to get into the park.  Opening day is always crazy.  Even though we live less than 5 miles from the park entrance, it still took us 2 hours to get inside.

Yeah.  Didn’t expect that.

Still, I have to (begrudgingly) admit that it was worth it in the end.

Chris and Joe were able to ride two roller coasters (Apollo’s Chariot and Tempesto) with only about a 10 minute wait in line.  I was so impressed with Joe – I’m terrified of roller coasters.  Here are Chris and Joe in their seats for Apollo’s Chariot:

Chris said that after Tempesto, he looked over and Joe’s little legs were shaking from adrenaline.  Joe said that he did not want to do that ride again.  Poor buddy!  But still proud of him for giving it a try.

While Chris and Joe did their big, scary rides, Jack and I did some more tame ones.  Like the spinning teacups in Turkish Delight and riding Tradewinds:

And after the big guys got done with their scary rides, Joe and Jack did several rides on their own.  They had fun on the balloons, Da Vinci’s airplanes, the elephant ride, and yes – they both had to do the spinning teacups again:

I’ve been sticking with a low-carb diet, which let me tell you can be tough when you’re at an amusement park.  Nevertheless, we were able to find a giant turkey drumstick for me to sample while everyone else in the family ate cotton candy and pretzels and General Tso’s chicken, lol.  And when I got tired of the drumstick, there were 2 little boys who were more than happy to experience the novely of carrying around a monster turkey leg and chewing on it.  Seriously, that thing looked like a dinosaur leg – it was huge.  I’d hate to meet the turkey it was attached to.  That thing must have been a behemoth.

Because we live so close to Busch Gardens, we’ve adopted a one on, one off strategy.  We take one year off from Busch Gardens and then renew our memberships the next year.  At first we did memberships 2 years in a row and we (Chris and I) found that we got sick of it and didn’t take advantage of it as much the 2nd year around.  Having time off makes us appreciate it that much more.

Williamsburg is a great place to live 🙂