Day 8 Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Yankee Candle Store
Busch Gardens, Michael W. Smith Pictures

    Last day at the park. Last day at the pool. It was a bit of a sad day, but a good one overall. We started with some breakfast and a trip to the huge Yankee Candle store. It was broken up in to several large sections with different themes. The kids of course loved the Christmas area. Santa was wandering around in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts greeting the kids. It snowed now and then and there were plenty of things to see. In the main lobby area there was a clock that would open up and put on a show with mechanical animals which kept the kids enthralled for a while. They loved the fountain and Ari loved smelling the candles. We bought a couple of clearance candles (Orange-cicle and Hawaiian Melon) and headed out.
  We were not going to the park until late. We had tickets so see Michael W. Smith at 7:00 in the park and we didn't want to wear out the kids before the show. We headed over to the pool and the kids found a friend with a lot of pool toys. This kept them occupied for quite a while and we relaxed as best we could. If we didn't have the concert that night, we probably would have ended up back at the pool. They were showing Rio poolside that night and the kids love that movie.
   We didn't get to the park until almost 3:00. We told the kids to pick a few rides they really wanted to ride one last time. They rode the boats, lady bugs, Bert and Ernie's Lock Adventure (I know I keep switching their names. Of course Ari calls them Ernie and Bernie so I could keep doing that), the Little Clydes (kiddie horses) and the little balloons which had become a favorite at this point as well. We also hit the Lorikeet Glen again as the kids really were getting a kick out of seeing the birds close up. I did have one land on my shoulder this time. The photographer there said it was funny, but that one bird only ever seemed to land on redheads. The bird had a red tuft on its head as well which I though was funny. She took a few pics and we headed out.
   It was getting close to showtime and the line was huge to get in. Luckily we had reserved seating and decided to go get some dinner. We were going to get food at Trappers but the bugs were horrible so it was back to the Festhaus. I got a corned beef sandwich which was great once I took off the Swiss cheese. Luckily I noticed it or we wouldn't have been going to the concert. It makes me sick. After seeing part of "This is Oktoberfest" we headed for the show.
   The show was great. We ended up sitting next to another family who also had a daughter names Ariana (even spelled the same way). The mother kept Ari occupied with various tasks throughout the time we were there which we were extremely thankful for. I only know a small number of Michael W. Smith songs so I could only sing along to so many of them, but it was a wonderful concert. It was a wonderful crowd and everyone was cheering and singing. I was glad we ended up making this. It was a great experience and a fun time. We left around 8:30 before the concert was over (we missed the encores, if there were any) and the kids were starting to get really tired.
  The one sky ride from France to Germany was right outside the concert. We took that and walked to the exit from there. While passing through Italy we let the kids ride one more ride. The Little Balloons. This was the last ride for the trip. We headed out and back to the room. We finished packing up and went off to bed.