In Which Hitty Rachel Goes to Busch Gardens Williamsburg

On Wednesday morning, I was woken up at 4:30 in the morning and told that I would be the Hitty chosen to go with the family on a day trip!  Can you imagine the excitement I felt when our car left 95 South for 64 East, heading towards Williamsburg, Virginia?!  I love early American history.  We stopped at a rest stop on 64, and I loved the architecture of the buildings there.

   

But then, they told me that we were not going to Colonial Williamsburg, as I had hoped.  While my person loves to visit Colonial Williamsburg, the rest of her family has been there several times and would rather do something more exciting.  We were going to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg.  Well, I do like gardens, and I've heard that it has a European feeling to it.  The adventurous spirit of Ancestor Hitty in me made me believe that I could enjoy this destination, too!  Here I am, waiting to get admittance to the park:

 

This amusement park is not just about thrilling rides!  They also have some very interesting animals.  We got to speak to a man about his peregrine falcon:

Did you know that these birds are the fastest animal on earth?  They can fly faster than a cheetah can run!  This one is living at Busch Gardens because it was struck by a car in Ohio.  We also saw several of our national bird, the Bald Eagle.  This one was sunning himself so that his feathers would dry:

They also had wolves, lorikeets and other birds, border collies, sheep and clydesdale horses!  My person and her family got their picture taken with a clydesdale horse.  My, they have large feet!  Their shoes are much bigger than those of a normal horse!

Busch Gardens has some excellent entertainment, too.  We ate lunch in the German Festhaus, and saw the Oktoberfest show.  Our table was right next to the stage, and a dancer came to our table several times.  We didn't take pictures because we were too busy enjoying an excellent meal!  We also saw the Celtic Fyre show in Ireland.  It was great to see, too, but we didn't take pictures.  There are pictures on their website. 

We did go on many rides!  My person's family went on a few that we did not dare go on:  the Griffon, and Apollo's Chariot. I did ride on The Alpengeist,  the Curse of DarKastle, Da Vinci's Cradle, Escape from Pompeii, Europe in the Air, the Battering Ram, and the Loch Ness Monster!  Here are some photos near the Loch Ness Monster:

We did not leave the park until almost 6 PM.  I believe it is the first time that my person has ever been to an amusement park from the time it opened until nearly closing time.  While the park had shorter hours than later in the summer, we found that going early in the season meant very, very short waits for all the rides, and we were able to do everything that we wanted to do.
On our way home, we grabbed a quick dinner at a Scottish restaurant with the golden arches.

The trip home was eventful, too!  We had an 18 wheeler truck almost pull over on us 3 times near Washington, DC! It was near a major split of highways, and our person's husband was boxed in by other cars and had no where to go!  It was as if the truckdriver thought we should move out of his way so he could move left, but we couldn't do that.  He was carrying a full load of wood, and my person was very fearful of the truck dumping his load on us as we swerved back and forth!
Then, since the GPS app on the husband's phone had taken us on such a good route around DC, we followed it again on the way home.  This time it took us through the city, and while we were stopped at a red light, we were rear ended!  We don't think there was any damage because the other driver was going so slow, but husband will be looking underneath the car today in better light to be sure.
We pulled into our driveway just before 10 PM.  We were so glad to be home!

- Reported by Hitty Rachel Raikes