30 Day Challenge – Day 23

Day 23 – Amusement Parks – I don’t know that they are all that amusing.

Erica and I took the girls to Busch Gardens today. I’m not sure I have the energy to talk about the experience in much depth. Suffice it to say, I think the days of me enjoying schlepping around several acres of concrete, through twisty-turny streets, carrying a map that makes no sense to stand in line for rides that last 2 minutes may have passed.

Actually I’m not sure amusement parks really ever held much of an attraction to me – I am not a huge fan of crowds, I don’t like to be hot and I don’t care for waiting – oh and I have all my teeth. So I am probably not the key demographic for the amusement park industry. But I try to be a good sport for my family who by in large love them an amusement park.

I will say, the nice thing about Busch Gardens is that they have other things to do rather than stand in line for rides – you can stand in line and look at animals, so that makes a break in the monotony. Arden is an animal nut, so we (she and I – Erica and Grace went their own way) spent a lot of time walking around the park looking at animals that looked as miserably hot as I felt.

Busch Gardens is also the home to the Wild Life Docs – an animal care group that has a tv show on Saturday mornings (Arden is a big fan!). They have open-viewing procedure rooms where you can watch the vets work on one of the thousands of animals who have their home on the grounds.  Last time we were in Florida, we went to Busch Gardens and got to see a surgery on an owl.  It was actually pretty cool.  Today, however, we missed the procedures by just a little while each time we stopped by – so there was much disappointment – Arden was disappointed because she is totally into that; I was disappointed because there wasn’t a reason to linger in the air conditioned building for a significant period of time.

We ended the day with her riding the Grover roller coaster in the Sesame Street section of the park.  I think she and Grace rode that ride about 15 times today – while Erica and I grabbed a bench in what shade we could find and prayed for a breeze.

So as you can see, a good time was had by all – well by 3 out of the 4 of us – I will say  definitely hit my step goal for the day AND sweated so much I probably dropped a couple pounds.  So all upside right?

See ya tomorrow.

30 Day Challenge Count Down

Days Complete – 23

Days to Go – 7