Can you believe it? It’s our last day. Already! I guess it’s true that time flies when you are having fun.
With about an hour and a half drive to Busch Gardens in Tampa, we had to get up at 5:30am. Everyone did an excellent job of getting them selves ready, packed and left their rooms nice and clean in. MK, Lexi, Hailey and Cheyenne went the extra mile and won the room competition by leaving nice personal notes for the hotel maid.
Bus Rides = nap time. Not just for Mr. Hutton (this makes #6). Mrs. Nicholas and Mrs. Rhodes decided to catch some Zzzzzzz as well. All the late nights and fun filled and active days must be catching up to us.
At Busch Gardens, the park educators – Kara, Kristin, and Megan greeted us at the entrance and very quickly began our 90 minutes educational program. First we boarded the safari trucks and drove out to visit the Giraffes. Everyone got the opportunity to feed the Giraffes, touch them and some of us even placed the lettuce on our heads and had the Giraffes eat it. Nice hair gel!
Next, we learned about hippos, crocodiles, hyenas, lions, and mere cats. We also learned how to identify animals as herbivores, carnivores or omnivores by looking at their teeth, nasal cavities, eye and ear sockets. It’s really cool how a skull can tell you if an animal is a predator or prey, if they are nocturnal or not and what they eat.
As we scattered to explore the rest of the park in small groups, all the adults got the opportunity to visit with a few other “critters” from the educational department. We fed the flamingos, petted a two-toed sloth, heard Rainbow (the parrot) talk and cough and we also got to see them operate on a wild falcon who had a wing injury.
Lunch and roller coaster followed next. Busch Garden has many really great coasters – The Cheetah Hunt, Shekra (with a 90 degree drop), Montoo, and several others. Some of us shopped and also visited some of the other animal exhibits.
4 pm rolled around and it was time to head off to the airport. Kristin reflected on our week during the bus ride by having us close our eyes and think back to each day and what we had done. This was such a nice way to end our fantastic trip.
Checking went well and after getting dinner, it was time to board the plane. Naps anyone? Surprisingly no one fell asleep during the airplane ride. The bus ride back to Broadway was a different story though. Despite the malfunctioning heating and cooling system on the bus, most of us decided it was time to rest. Mr. Hutton’s nap total – 7.
Parents met us at Hillyard as we arrived around midnight. Sunday will be a good day for us to rest up and maybe if we are lucky we will get a much anticipated and needed snow day on Monday.
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