Today we had to get up very early. We drove to the Tampa Airport which is 66 miles (this is a little bit more than 100 km) from the house we rented. Mom and Dad told me that we probably have to drive for an hour. Dad was on his way to Toronto where he was giving a talk about home automation. After we dropped off dad, we went to Busch Gardens. Busch Gardens is a zoo with many, very fast roller coasters. Max and I do not have the height yet to get on these roller coasters - which is ok because they look pretty scary. You can hear the people who ride the roller coasters screaming when they race upside down through the sky.
Our first stop after entering the park were the alligators. There was a keeper there who explained different things. We learned that the easiest way to tell an alligator and a crocodile apart is to look at their nose. An alligator has a nose that looks like a “U” while a crocodile´s mouth look more like a “V”. While we were standing there a turtle used the alligator as a viewing post. This did not seem to bother the alligator.
Next we went the “Myobe Reserve”. It contains a big habitat for chimpanzees and another for gorillas. We saw some of the chimpanzees eating leaves and resting in the shade. Unfortunately, we only saw one gorilla further away sleeping in the shade (so we could not get a good picture).
Then we visited some horses. Mom told me that they were called Clydedale horses. At the house we looked at the internet to find out more about them. They were derived from very hard-working farm horses from Clydedale, Scotland. They are the mascots of the beer company Anheuser-Busch´s Budweiser.
This picture shows a beer carrige which was drawn by these horses.
After that we went on to Egypt. There was a huge pyramid that you could walk through. It was very dark and cold. And first, Max and I did not want to go, but mom told us, that this was not anything scary, so finally we agreed to go into the pyramid. A pyramid was used in ancient Egypt as a tomb for wealthy dead people. A lot of their treasure and also nice and helpful things were also put into the pyramid with the dead person.
After we walked through the pyramid we went to an archeological excavation site. We discovered stone stairs and looked at some of the hieroglyphics. This is the name of their writing system, but we were not able to decipher it.
Then we walked by some flamingos to the lions.
When we came to the lion habitat we saw an old lion who was sleeping. There was only a glas panel between us and this huge lion. The following picture shows the size of the lion compared to Max.
Another lion was sitting in a Jeep. The back of the Jeep was inside the lion cage. The front of the Jeep was on the outside and I went into the front of the Jeep to make a photo of the lioness. She was directly in front of me. This was a really strange feeling.
When we went on we saw a couple of the younger lions. They were lying the shade relaxing an watching people (maybe the discussed how we would taste).
Then we went to an underwater viewing point. There were a lot of fish. Suddlenly I discovered a hippopotamus. I asked mom to give me the camera so I could take a foto. Then there was another hippo - this time a mom with a big hippo baby.
Then we went on the Sky Ride. You entered a gondola which was high up in the sky. It went through the entire zoo and we could see all the animals beneath us. First it was a little bit scary because the gondula was a bit swinging when we started. On the way we saw some longhorn cattle with impressive horns.
On our way out we saw elephants which were playing ball. The balls had holes and inside was food for the elephants. When they were playing they would get fruit treats.
Then came the best thing of the day.
We saw the a keeper with a snake. I asked what kind of snake this is and he told us that this was a boa constrictor. I was allowed to touch the snake. It felt a bit rough but it had a nice feeling.
Then Max discovered a big flower. Mom told us this was a Hibiscus blossom.
I am sure we saw many, many more interesting things, but I don´t remember them right now. We were very exhausted and tired when we got out of the park. While Mom drove home we sleep all the way in the car.