We went to Busch Gardens with some friends of ours this week. It was a beautiful day so we stayed a lot longer than we initially had planned. Hence the reason Payton was literally snoring on the way home.
The entire day was really fun from riding the sky ride across the park, to the splash area in Land of the Dragons, to the kiddie rides and everything in between. But one of the more interesting things was our wild train ride. We always take the big steam locomotive around the park when we go (I know, shocker). The train goes through all sorts of animal habitats and one of the park employees always points out which animals are which, where their native habitat is, etc. But this train ride, we had two very close encounters with the animals.
First, there was a mother and baby rhinoceros in the African safari area. Somehow, the baby wandered off from its mother and got caught on the opposite side of the trainc.jpg)
tracks when we came through. So, the mother was on one side, and the baby was on the other. The baby took off running - (I had no idea how fast rhinos could run!) - right along side of the train (see picture). After the train passed, the baby leaped over the tracks and ran to it's mother's side. I have a feeling he was going straight into "time out" for that one!
The second encounter was funnier. My friend Jen was on the opposite side of the train from me, and we were sitting backwards on the train since we were in the last row of the train car. I started seeing all these people grab their camera and point and laugh and then I heard over the loud speaker, "Please do not attempt to pet the ostrich!" And just about that time my friend looked over her shoulder and - I'm not exaggerating - the ostrich was about 10 inches from her face! It was hysterical! I wish I had my camera rolling for that one.
And one other close encounter we had was in "Jungala" where they have these beautiful tigers in this amazing habitat..jpg)
There are several viewing areas where there is nothing but a few inches of plate glass standing between you and these amazing creatures. This particular tiger seemed quite interested in our two boys and stared long and hard at them... but in a curious way, not in an "I want to eat you" kind of way. It was very interesting!
The entire day was really fun from riding the sky ride across the park, to the splash area in Land of the Dragons, to the kiddie rides and everything in between. But one of the more interesting things was our wild train ride. We always take the big steam locomotive around the park when we go (I know, shocker). The train goes through all sorts of animal habitats and one of the park employees always points out which animals are which, where their native habitat is, etc. But this train ride, we had two very close encounters with the animals.
First, there was a mother and baby rhinoceros in the African safari area. Somehow, the baby wandered off from its mother and got caught on the opposite side of the train
c.jpg)
tracks when we came through. So, the mother was on one side, and the baby was on the other. The baby took off running - (I had no idea how fast rhinos could run!) - right along side of the train (see picture). After the train passed, the baby leaped over the tracks and ran to it's mother's side. I have a feeling he was going straight into "time out" for that one!The second encounter was funnier. My friend Jen was on the opposite side of the train from me, and we were sitting backwards on the train since we were in the last row of the train car. I started seeing all these people grab their camera and point and laugh and then I heard over the loud speaker, "Please do not attempt to pet the ostrich!" And just about that time my friend looked over her shoulder and - I'm not exaggerating - the ostrich was about 10 inches from her face! It was hysterical! I wish I had my camera rolling for that one.
And one other close encounter we had was in "Jungala" where they have these beautiful tigers in this amazing habitat.
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There are several viewing areas where there is nothing but a few inches of plate glass standing between you and these amazing creatures. This particular tiger seemed quite interested in our two boys and stared long and hard at them... but in a curious way, not in an "I want to eat you" kind of way. It was very interesting! Here are some more photos from the day:
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