Busch Gardens Tampa - Pappa and Mamma style

The Edge of Africa has many different species of animals indigenous to Africa. The gorilla, lion and hyena's can be viewed at the beginning on a walk (with windows in between). For the rest of the tour you had to be on one of their tours or on the train.

The gorilla's were fantastic. This is a momma gorilla looking on after her baby (below) had just gone off to play.

The Majestic Lion sunbathing.

The hyena is a much larger animal that I had expected. Larger than a dog and closer to the size of the female lion.

We just missed a picture of the hippo with his mouth wide open, but this was a pretty good shot.

You can walk right in to the Bird Garden where there are over 500 species of African Birds. Dave got a picture of two of them that lighted on my hand, but unfortunately the camera focused on the person behind me.

There is a sign over these birds warning that they ARE NOT TAME birds, so we didnt' try to get up close and personal with these guys.

Busch Gardens Tampa - Excitement

The highlight of the day for the Speers was all of the great rides. Al, Christy, Kaitlyn and Keeley did all of them, and I mean all of them! Kaitlyn and Keeley are natural born daredevils. There were some the Kee wasn't quite tall enough to get on, but she was game for them all. I think these were going about 60 miles per hour.

This is Gwazi and would you believe that we all did this one? This prt looks pretty tame, but it did have some pretty hairy moments and you felt like your head had been scrambled by the time you get off. In fact, Christy and the girls took one last spin on it before we left and they all came off with headaches.

This is the infamous Sheirka! and let me tell you, it is every bit as frightening as it looks. This is just one of the dives... 200 feet in the air, and they bring you up this far and hold you there for a few seconds and then it drops at a 90 degree angle, 70 mph! I think the Speer family did it 3 times.

Al, Kaitlyn in the middle and Christy are on the back row right side.

There is another big fall like this one that goes down in to a tunnel and when you come out, it hits the water and makes a great rooster tail.

Conflicting Emotions

Our last view of Florida, and the sunshine I'm sorry to say!

It was difficult to leave yesterday knowing that I wouldn't see them all for another year or longer. I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that two of my kids live so very far away. We had a wonderful time visiting with Christy and Al and playing with and lovin on the girls. But the inevitable always happens, you have to come home! I was dreading it so bad yesterday and it made the flight even more miserable than it was. I usually enjoy flying but I got a slight... well, maybe not so slight... attack of caustrophobia which I've never experienced. We were in the later boarding group and got a seat with no window. Well there was a small portion of one window that Dave could crink his neck and peek out of, but that was it. I sat on the outside and was hoping that nobody needed the seat but lo and behold someone did, so I took the middle seat. The last leg of the trip was 5 hours too long and I thought I was going to go nuts before I could get up and move. My legs twitched and everytime I tried to sleep I would feel like there wasn't enough oxygen in the place and I'd be gasping for breath. But eventually we made it home and even though the weather is crappy and I have to go back to work in less than an hour, I'm glad to be home. I'll be posting pics later of our trip to Busch Gardens and the Speer's daredevil activities! Oh yes, the Millers did the Gwazi! Shocking, but Dave did a roller coaster, can you believe it?!

Another Round with Kait and Kee

Kaitlyn and Keeley love to try and get the best of Papa.

After about 15 minutes of this I think they finally got the bet of him.

Arabian Nights

As a animal care professional, Christy got a special deal to this great performance at Arabian Nights Dinner Theater in Orlando. The horses were outstanding, and even though our seats were not stage front, we had a nice view of the show. It was a wonderful way to kick off the Holiday Season with all the music and colors of Christmas.

Super Seven!

The most important event of the week was Keeley's birthday. She loves Tinkerbell, so that was her theme. Papa surprised her with a big balloon of Tink.

We also went to Arabian Nights for a dinner theater and I will post about that later.

Tuesday

We went to Michaels today and found some really pretty Christmas papers, then this evening the girls made a couple Christmas cards.