Day 3: Our Wild Adventure...

We were up early for breakfast and then checked out of the B&B so we could hit the road. This day was our actual anniversary and what better way to celebrate than to play with wild animals and ride crazy roller coasters. There has to be some symbolism there...

The plans for this whole day were a last minute addition to our itinerary. I was researching other things for our trip when I saw that Busch Gardens was only 15 minutes from our B&B. We couldn't pass this up since it was so close. As I looked further into Busch Gardens, I discovered all sorts of "behind the scenes" tours you could book. By booking all three tours in a package, you became an “Ultimate Animal Insider”. So we arrived at Busch Gardens with a morning of back-to-back animal interaction tours booked and the title of Insider! It was so fun!!

Our first tour was “Animals Up-Close”. We followed our tour guide behind the gates of the amusement park and into the animal training and treatments area. We were told about how they train and about all of the different animals they had at the park. Then we got to meet some of them! It was a small tour group, so we got a lot of time with the animals and got to pet them all.

This is "Hook".

This is "Digger", an Armadillo from South America.

This is Penelope... I know she is a Possum but OH MY she was cute!!!

Baby Alligator named Fred.

Immediately after our first tour, we headed to the meeting spot for our second tour -  “Wolf Training Up-Close”. This ended up being one of the most interesting things we did all day! And as a bonus, we were the only people on the tour, so it was like our own private time with the trainers and the wolves. The wolves are still very much wild animals and are treated as predators. The training tactics they use with the beautiful animals was fascinating. They only use positive re-enforcement and never use the word “No”. We watched them interact (from a distance) and were amazed. The wolves still had their own agendas and sometimes they would stand their ground. However, eventually they would all follow the commands as given by the trainer. Then Brad and I were each given a command and hand gesture to instruct the wolves ourselves! We were taken up into the Trainer’s Box… this is a safe distance and separated by a canyon, but you are still eye-to-eye with these hauntingly beautiful animals! My command was “Up Stairs” and Brad’s command was “Ball”.

"Up stairs!"

Following my command!

"Ball!" The Wolf jumped up and touched his nose to the ball seen by him.

Posing for pictures

 We must be good Trainers because they obeyed and we threw them a treat! It was SO COOL!

 

Our final tour was “Clydesdales & Collies Up-Close”. Since this is Busch Gardens (as in Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co), they must have Clydesdales!! It was just an added bonus that they also had Border Collies! The Collie we met was named Katie and she was still a young trainee. She would do some tricks and follow commands… that was until the Frisbee came out! Then it was all about showing off. She was very cute. We learned a lot about the incredible (and huge) horses. We met Eddie who was beautiful and gentle. He loved to nuzzled with the trainer as she talked and was very patient as we all petted him and took pictures.

Katie chasing the frisbee.

Eddie wanting to nuzzle the trainer.

Then they let some sheep out so we could feed them. Usually they are practice subjects for the Border Collie to learn herding. So, I am sure they enjoyed a little loving... and the lettuce leaves didn't hurt our cause either!

Once our “Animal Insider” morning was over, we took some time to grab lunch and explore the rest of the park. We went to several animal shows and rode the train around the entire park.

"Yay for trains!!"

We got to see Bald Eagles!

They have 3 of them - all rescues. Sadly their injuries are such that they can't return to the outside world. However, it means they are well taken care of there and we got to enjoy them!

Eagles are a favorite animal of Brad's. So this was very exciting!

A beautiful Spotted Owl at a show.

 

Can you see the wolves?

A cute show called "Pet Shenanigans". Cats and dogs did tricks, even mice and pigs too!

We also stopped by the Aviary which we thoroughly enjoyed!! You can buy a small cup of nectar to feed the birds and they are NOT shy!! Within seconds, we were covered by eager and BEAUTIFUL birds. At one point I even had one on my head!!

Before we knew it, the day was coming to an end. However, we couldn’t leave without riding a few rides. It was late enough that we were sure our lunch had settled… so I set my sight on the craziest ride we had seen all day. It is called the Griffon. It caught our eye earlier in the day because there is one point in the ride that it is a straight drop down and just to torture you a bit, the ride stops at the top of the drop and just leaves you hanging there for a few seconds, then it releases you to plunge to your death! IT.WAS.AWESOME. For two old folks, we screamed our heads off with all the kids next to us and had a blast. If the line hadn’t been so long, I would have done it again and again. We did one more ride called the Alpengeist. We had a blast.
 

Exhausted and hungry, we left the park so we could get on the road. It was already 7PM and we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us to get to Brad’s Uncle and Aunt’s house in Ashburn, VA. It was such a great day and for a couple that enjoys adventure, it was a very fitting way to celebrate our first anniversary!!