Back from Vacation

We took a family vacation to Busch Gardens last week and I can’t believe it’s already over. My mom and her fiance, 2 brothers, brother’s girlfriend Mallory, Rachelle, and Layla spent a long weekend in a cottage in Williamsburg. The cottage was in a development called Kings Creek Plantation. Our favorite part about it was the fact that it was by itself at the end of a street, and had 3.5 bathrooms. Leave it to my IBS family to get excited about the amount of bathrooms.

Rachelle, Layla and I began our journey on Thursday morning. We were concerned about what a 5 hour drive with an 8 month old baby would be like so we braced ourselves for the worst. From the NJ/Delaware border until the Virgina state line, she was unconscious. There is a god. When she woke up in Virginia she was mildly pissed off about still being stuffed in a car seat, and she let us know. Since we still had over two hours left, Rachelle climbed into the back seat and hit her with everything she had. Fruit, a bottle, juice, clown tricks, magic, a puppet show…Rachelle did whatever she could to keep the baby entertained. And thanks to a performance that would have made Cirque du Soleil jealous, we made it to Williamsburg without one stop.

The cottage was a small, two-story single home with a small “in-law suite” type thing attached to it. It had 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms so the couples got their own bedrooms and full bathrooms while Patrick got a couch and a toilet. Since he’s only 13 years old, he didn’t mind.

We unloaded our luggage, stocked the fridge, hooked up the Nintendo Wii and relaxed. It was my brother Patrick’s birthday so we sang Happy Birthday to him. Layla seemed to enjoy the festivities.

Since people were tired from driving, we decided to relax at night instead of going to Busch Gardens. After some Sonic fast-food, and playing Wii tennis and bowling, we hit the sack to prepare for our first full day.

I woke up Friday morning to the feeling of my eye being torn off. I opened my (one) eye and got a face full of Layla’s toothless smile. Evidently her way of waking somebody up is to squeeze their face in her nails. I walked downstairs and found Jason and Patrick cooking breakfast for everybody.

We spent Friday afternoon at a water park, Water Country USA. Unfortunately it was tough to go on many water rides since we had to make sure Layla was entertained. I got on just one water ride but it was a good one. I spent some time relaxing by the wave pool, and took Layla to the kiddie area. The water came up to her thighs and she loved trudging though it while I held her hands.

On Friday night we went to Busch Gardens. Rachelle was a nervous wreck because she psyches herself out when it comes to roller coasters. She’s rode every coaster at Six Flag’s Great Adventure, Disney, and Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure yet she was swearing that she wasn’t getting on any roller coasters at Busch Gardens.

That lasted about 20 minutes.

The first ride we did was The Loch Ness Monster. Rachelle had a stone-faced look while we waited in line. While on the ride, Rachelle kept making these weird screaming noises. I’ve heard them before. I can never tell if they are coaster screams, or legitimate cries of fear. These ones were just coaster screams.

We rushed around the park and knocked out most of the rides we wanted to do: DarkKastle, Alpengeist, Big Bad Wolf, and Griffon (thanks, Pat). We had to wait until Sunday for Apollo’s Chariot.

On Sunday we did breakfast at The Cracker Barrel. In standard Layla fashion, she was extremely well behaved up until the time the food made it to the table. When we started eating she started grunting, and crying, and straightening up. We had to eat in shifts.

Later on in the evening we went back to Busch Gardens and hit up a smokehouse for dinner, then followed up the greasy meal with some intense thrill rides; always a good idea. After riding some coasters, going into some stores, and drinking some beer, we called it a night and said goodbye to Busch Gardens.

We got back to the cottage and played a board game while drinking more beer and eating some pizza. This was one of the most fun times on the trip and a great way to close it out.

There are a ton of pictures. You can view them here on my Flickr page.