Happy 4th of July!

The July 4th weekend turned out to be such a fantastic, fun weekend. Since George and I hadn't really celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary, and he had no weekend church assignments for the first time in I don't remember when, we took off for Tampa for the weekend.

We got to go to a Tampa Bay Rays vs. Kansas City Royals game. We were given box seat tickets inside an air-conditioned stadium with all the food, Diet-Coke/Mr. Pibb drinks anyone could ever want. The Rays won--all in all, you couldn't beat the whole experience!

The view from our box seats.
Raymond, the Rays' mascot, was all decked out for the 4th.


They actually have a tank where you can go touch and feed the real sting rays!After the game, we went out and watched the Fourth of July Fireworks by a beautiful lake where you could see double with the reflection on the lake. It was beautiful! There were so many families there--it was a real party, but made us homesick for all the grandkids. We thought how last year we had done all the sparklers together in Orlando. What fun!

We stayed the night at the Marriott and the next day went to Bush Gardens. What a fun day! That place is really a great place with so many shows to watch and animals to see.

This was one of the best animal shows I've ever seen. It was a musical play with almost every animal you could think of in it--including a kangaroo. He hopped off so quickly, however, that I didn't get his picture!
We rode all the mild rides like the skyride and train.

Then what were we thinking when George said we needed to ride a wild ride! We chose what we thought was the mildest! I should have bought the picture where George's eyes are so tightly closed, his hair going in all directions, and his hands shaking at every bump, jolt, and curve we went through! And this was the oldest roller coaster they had--supposedly not nearly as wild as those fast upside down, 90 degree angle drop rides. Nevertheless, we definitely realized we aren't as young as we think we are! We both had huge headaches afterward!

We stayed the night again in Tampa and returned Sunday after lunch. Except for the wild roller coaster ride, it was certainly a Happy 4th of July!