When a nature-freak marries a city-girl, where_to_go for vacations can be a
real problem. For our first vacation (1992), we decided on Virginia,
including 2 days at Busch Gardens. Neither of us had been there, but my
wife had heard that the coasters were pretty big and reminded me that my
fear(mild?) of heights might be a problem (I can't climb more than 1 story up
a ladder). No problem, I said, I'll just sit out the coaster rides.
So there I was, standing outside the entrance to the Loch Ness Monster,
staring in disbelief at the height of the thing and the drop over the "Rhine
River", all the while knowing in my churning gut that I was actually going
to get on it, thanks to my eager wife and my male pride. My knees were
literally shaking as I waited for our turn to get on. The last thing I
remember about that ride was approaching the first drop, at which point I
either shut my eyes, or my brain just plain shut down. That was it for coaster
riding that day, but next day I rode all the coasters at least once, and left
the park with a new addiction. That was in September, and we had such a
great time we went back for a long weekend in October.
If there are other parks in the country (wouldn't it be great if they were
close to Massachusetts) that can match the total experience (great coasters,
food, woodsy atmosphere) of Busch Gardens, I sure would like to hear about it. The atmosphere is very important. For example, we stopped at Hershey Park on
the way back to Massachusetts, and it was quite a letdown after BG. Too much
asphalt, not enough botany, too many "real world" buildings visible around the
park.
BTW, we both thought the Loch Ness Monster was the best ride at BG.
