We just returned from visiting Busch Gardens in Williamsburg.
It. Was. Awesome.
Once again this year, Sea World/Busch Gardens is offering free entry to Active Duty and Reservist military and their families. For our family, this is a wonderful gift. We have a large family, and this makes it possible for us to have a truly excellent vacation within our financial reach. When we can, we make every effort to take advantage of Anheuser-Busch's generosity to military families.
We started our visit at the kiosks built especially for military families. They were painted red, white, and blue and emblazoned with "Here's to the Heroes".
The rules state that the military member and three family members are to be gifted with free tickets. When we showed up in line (and it was a very short line), the wonderful Tiphani saw that we had four dependents with us that day rather than three, and promptly and without being asked gave us an extra admission without us even asking! We were fully prepared and ready to pay for the last ticket in, and considered ourselves very lucky that a company is even offering such an amazing deal. That Tiphani would simply offer us the final ticket free also almost sent me into tears. She even thanked us for hubby's service! I just HAD to get a picture of Tiphani.
Isn't she just lovely?
Once we went through the entry line, my kids demanded that we try to beat the heat and humidity by going straight to the splash ride at Escape from Pompeii. I sat in the back of the boat, and I should probably warn you now... don't sit in the back of the boat. Geometric theories do not state that the water will come straight into the boat and hit the people in front first, they state that the water will woosh up and the triangular action of the water in the air and the forward motion of the boat will cause all the soaking to occur in the last seat. Directly on me.
All the products that I had coated my hair with to try and avoid the humidity frizzies was immediately washed out. I looked like a wet shih-tzu. Later, when my hair dried and all the gel and hairspray kicked in again, I looked like I had tried to form my frizz into a sort of helmet.
But I was having fun, and that was all that mattered.
My kids absolutely LOVED the 4-D rides. We watched the Pirate Adventure movie, and our mouths dropped open when we watched the opening takes. It was almost like the National Anthem we see before movies play at AAFES. Busch Gardens had developed a military salute short movie clip.
We had to commemorate the moment.
Notice the awesome SpouseBuzz bag? I love that thing.
While it was so wonderful to have the free entry into Busch Gardens, I have to say that I would choose to spend my vacation money there even if there was no discount. The park is literally crammed with thanks to military members; before some shows, on one dedicated bridge, at the designated military kiosks. It was so overwhelming to see those thanks, to see that someone was still thinking of us and our families and what we are going through. The free tickets are WONDERFUL, and a blessing for us. But the thanks... just hearing "thank you" when it is truly meant put me on cloud 9 for weeks.
