Busch Gardens & De Soto National Memorial

 

On Friday, we spent some time at Busch Gardens. Susan and I visited this park early in our marriage, and took the kids here on their first trip to Florida. While the Williamsburg park is themed to countries in Europe, Tampa’s park has areas based on regions of Africa, plus both have a kid area called Land of Dragons. We looked at some of the animals and rode some of the roller coasters.

We really enjoyed the Rhino Rally ride. The kids rode the new wild mouse coaster, Cheetah Chase, a couple of times, as well as Scorpion. There are no family style dark rides at Busch Gardens, and the theming is light, but it’s a nice park. 

We also drove down to the De Soto National Memorial, which commemorates the 1539 landing of Hernando de Soto and the first extensive organized exploration by Europeans of what is now the southern U.S.

Bryan enjoyed trying on the chain mail at the visitor center. Both kids earned Junior Ranger badges there. Yesterday we flew back home.