Busch Gardens

Who could go to Williamsburg without visiting Busch Gardens? While this is the finale of the vacation posts, we didn't just go to the park for one day. My family had 7-day bounce passes that allowed us to visit Busch Gardens, Water Country USA, and Colonial Williamsburg as many times as we wanted. So we ended up spending one full day at the park, as well at eating dinner there a few nights.

Busch Gardens in Virginia is a European themed amusement park. The park is divided into countries: Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and New France. (New France is actually western-themed. It's based on the French colonies in North America's Old West.) The rides mostly match up with their country's theme. For example, Escape from Pompeii, a thrilling boat ride, is in Italy while Alpengeist, a ski lift themed roller coaster, is in Germany. The food vendors also line up with the appropriate country. Ireland has stew and pork loin, but New France has wood-smoked chicken and ribs. The park, as a whole, is a delight to wander through.

During this trip, we decided that my daughter would try her first roller coaster. Since she loved Water Country, she agreed to try it out. (Our family rule is "You have to try it before you say you don't like it.") We picked Apollo's Chariot, the only coaster in the park that does not have loops. (The idea of loops freaked her out.) While my husband and I loved it, my daughter, unfortunately, did not. Ah well. Instead, she liked the more "classic" rides - bumper cars, Roman Rapids (a white water rapid ride), and Turkish Delight (that ride in almost every park that spins in a circle, forcing you to squash your ride partner). There were a few others that she enjoyed but these were the main ones.

I think my daughter's favorite part of the park was the nightly fireworks display. Called IllumiNights, the main fireworks are launched from the train bridge between Italy and Germany. (The best spot to watch them is on the pedestrian bridge between those countries. Just make sure you are on the train bridge side and not the Loch Ness Monster side.) Smaller side fireworks are occasionally launched from both Italy and Germany as well. Of course, there is a soundtrack to go along with them. My daughter loved the display. It was a nice way to end the day.

Amazingly, Busch Gardens is one of those amusement parks that you can enjoy even if you don't like rides. The various European stores and restaurants are enough to keep someone interested for most of the day. However, I'd really recommend giving the Loch Ness Monster a try. It's one of my favorite roller coasters and I only hope that I can convince my daughter to ride it one day.

Water Country USA

On Wednesday, we left our hp netbooks at the hotel and went over to Water Country USA. It is a pretty typical water park. There are something like 12 different slides plus a pool, a wave pool, a lazy river and another lazy river-type attraction that doesn't use inner tubes. (I scraped my knee on that last one.) And, of course, there is a water-based acrobatics show, though we didn't stick around to watch it.

This was my daughter's favorite part of our vacation. This is also the first year she's actually enjoyed going on water slides. We hit every slide, except for two. Vanish Point is a brand new slide that basically drops the floor out from under you, which didn't sound very fun to us. (Well, I think my husband wanted to try it but neither my daughter nor I had the guts for it.) Rampage is a water toboggan that looked interesting but we were getting pretty tired by the time we got to that area of the park.

The rides that we did go on were awesome. I normally don't like slides that go through tunnels. (I have this fear of getting stuck in them.) However, I sucked it up and went on all of them for my daughter's sake. I tried my best to keep my eyes open the entire time and managed to have a lot of fun. I think, if we had a few more days to spend in Virginia, we would have gone back to the park for another day. It was definitely a great time.

Virginia Living Museum

The Virginia Living Museum was a few blocks down the street from our hotel. While we mainly went to see their Laser iPop show in the planetarium, my family also enjoys zoos and aquariums. (As a side note, I would totally love to have a laser show on the ceiling in my house with the booming 5.1 home theatre system for the soundtrack. Ah, dreams.)

The VLM is basically a little bit of everything thrown into one place. There is an outdoor zoo-type area with beavers, raccoons, red wolves, bobcats, and other animals. Along the outdoor path, there are a variety of plants and trees nicely pointed out with orange circles accompanying their information blurbs. Through September 5, a butterfly house compliments the outdoor attractions. Inside, you'll find the other half of the butterfly exhibit, which features activities for the kids. Also inside is the aquarium/aviary section of the museum. The various fish and birds of Virginia can be found in habitats similar to where they would be found in nature. Each section has two stories. The first floor features the fish, while the second floor highlights the birds.

While the VLM was nice, it was rather small. We were able to visit every section of the museum, including spending time in the butterfly play area, in a couple of hours. Luckily, we were allowed to leave the museum and return for the laser show. I must admit that the laser show was excellent. The music selection kept us quietly singing along while the lasers entertained our eyes. I thought it was much better than the Laser Floyd shows I've seen.

If you are in the Newport News area and need to fill a few hours, the VLM is worth checking out. Just don't expect to spend an entire day there.

Virginia Beach, VA

I spent last week in Virginia with my family. One of the places we stopped by was Virginia Beach. It was a fairly short trip from our hotel in Newport News, even though there seemed to be a ton of traffic. Luckily, it was a nice day so we didn't mind it.

Virginia Beach doesn't rank very high on our list of favorite beaches. My husband had read that there was a boardwalk and he was really looking forward to it. In his mind, a boardwalk means shops and arcades and fun things to do. In Virginia Beach, a boardwalk means an area not covered in sand for you to walk with a few benches for old men to smoke their montecristo cigars. The shops were a block away from the beach and, while we did manage to find one arcade, there wasn't a lot to do.

We ended up only staying for about 3 hours. That included trying to find a decent parking spot that didn't cost an arm and a leg (I believe we paid $15 for 'all day' parking), eating lunch, and playing in the arcade. We did stop in a few shops but they were typical beach stores. Virginia Beach was a nice town (with an anti-bad behavior policy) but I would rather go to Ocean City, MD instead.