Scott really did not do anything terribly special for Spring Break. Tom and I both had to work-so did Scott. We had to run him into work while school was out on Tues and Thurs. Tom and I both took turns leaving work to drive him there and pick him up in the afternoon. So since Scott had Friday and Saturday off, we decided a trip to Busch Gardens was in order. And Allison had a break from frisbee, so we thought it would be a good idea to have her come with us. Tom also got his homework done early to give him some free time. He was worn out from spending last week in Alexandria at class and then trying to catch up with his work load. He was even more dumbfounded to find out that one of his classmates was dropped from the program after plagiarizing his paper! Apparently some of the students complain that they just don't have enough time to work and go to school at the same time and they get desperate. This student copied multiple paragraphs from fellow student's papers and put together her own paper. They all have access to each other's paper's online before turning them into the professor. Tom said she did not even bother changing the wording. Oh well.
Tom had to work on Friday, so Scott and I picked him up from work when he got off after dropping Cookie off to our neighbors and we headed to Salisbury U to pick up Allison. Since Tom worked so late, we arrived rather late and decided to spend the night at a local hotel. We also thought it was a good idea to start celebrating Tom's birthday with dinner out. Allison and her roommate Jen joined us at Texas Roadhouse for steak dinners. I mentioned something about Tom's birthday and the wait staff brought out a saddle on a sawhorse for Tom to ride on while they gave him a big Texas Yeeha! Tom skipped the horsey ride, but got stuck with the big Yeeha anyway. (Too bad we weren't celebrating Mark Seitz's Bday. I am sure Mark would have enjoyed the horsey ride!). We did enjoy the dinner and Allison went home with lots of leftovers(we also filled up on fried pickles and all you can eat peanuts in the shell). I am just sorry I don't have a photo of Tom on the saddle!
On Saturday morning we headed down to Busch Gardens in Virginia. Tom prefers the drive along the Eastern shore to Williamsburg as there is a lot less traffic than driving around DC. But it still takes a bit longer(about 3 hrs from Salisbury). And the drive from our house to Salisbury is about 2.5 hrs. So we did not get to Busch Gardens until noon. We also stopped to have lunch before hand. We were not in a huge rush since the weather was cold and rainy. The bad weather turned out to be a good thing since the park was not crowded when we arrived. And it also started to clear up very quickly and the sun came out. Just in time to catch a few rides until we stopped in to see Jack Hanna. He has been the spokesperson for the conservation movement at Busch Gardens and Seaworld for the past 17 yrs. He has his own Saturday morning nature show on tv and used to host Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. He also makes lots of appearances with crazy animals on tv shows like The Tonight Show(all the way back to Johnny Carson), Ellen Degeneres, and the Today show. His appearance was on an outside stage so it was great that the weather cleared up. He came out early to pass out autographed photos. We have seen him at Busch Gardens before and he always has very interesting stories to tell and brings out amazing animals. This time he was quite fired up about the recent news concerning Seaworld and their plans for the future of their Killer Whales. Seaworld will no longer be breeding the whales, and will eliminate their Shamu shows. They are even planning on cutting out the merchandise. They can't set their whales free into the ocean since they were all born in captivity and would die. This was decided recently due to all the pressure from animal rights activists like the PETA group(and maybe the fact that one particular killer whale has actually killed a few of it's trainers). Jack was rather upset since he feels they are not taking into consideration all the good that places like Seaworld or Busch Gardens does to help protect animals and nature. His point was that animal rights activists want all the animals to return to the wild, but he pointed out that we really don't have much 'wild' left in the world. And most of the animals in captivity were either bred in captivity or injured. Man has had an effect on pretty much all of the world's environment and it will probably not get better. (Here in our own county they keep building houses, townhouses and apt complexes on every little bit of available land. We are currently fighting an extension of our neighborhood with a 300 unit townhouse and single family homes development on a small strip of land along I-70. Houses we can deal with, but townhomes cram in too many people(which leads to too much traffic on narrow farm roads and overcrowding in the schools). Our local schools are already over capacity. They just keep putting up trailers in the back of the schools to accommodate extra kids.) And the wildlife in the area just keeps running out of places to live-our neighborhood is already over run with deer and fox, bunnies, hawks, eagles and squirrels(although it is cool to see all these things in your own backyard).
In regards to the animals, zoos and parks like Busch Gardens or Seaworld are trying to help by assisting with wildlife rescues or breeding programs for endangered species. Anyway, Jack was a bit wound up this visit, but he still brought out some amazing animals with some amazing information about each one. Including a cheetah that we saw many years ago in Busch Gardens Tampa . The cheetah was a young orphan and they raised it with a puppy so both would grow up together. The dog keeps the cheetah calm so they can use it during educational presentations. I am sure PETA will eventually complain about this too. Just remember, PETA stands for People Eat Tasty Animals!
Well, the weather turned out so nice that the park began to fill up with college kids on Spring Break by Saturday afternoon. We decided to stay a little longer and then stopped into dinner at a favorite mexican restaurant on the way back to Salsibury to drop off Allison. Again it was quite late when we got to her place, so we decided to spend the night again. That way we enjoyed sleeping in and having breakfast with Allison before driving home. And Scott had to work on Sunday, but not until late in the afternoon. While he was at work, I had time to package up all of Tom's birthday gifts. We decided to enjoy his birthday dinner on Sunday night(another great steak dinner cooked by Scott this time). We topped it off with a new favorite dessert of Tom's, Tiramisu. We also opened his presents early. Mainly he wanted a new laser computer printer. He took a sneak peak at the one Scott and I had already bought him and decided to return it for a model that printed more pages with cheaper cartridges. So he spent Sunday afternoon out shopping and then set up the printer before dinner. I also surprised him with a custom made Star Wars bowling shirt(he is looking forward to wearing it at the Video Game convention that he will be attending with Scott at the end of the month in Boston). And we needed new steak knives to go with our steak dinner. Plus I picked up a remake of the Atari gaming system-plug and play on our existing tv. Should be interesting.
So I think that was a great way to end Scott's Spring break and to celebrate Tom's 53rd birthday. Scott did not get off so easy on his time off school as he still had to organize the boy scout meeting. Even though his guitar lesson was cancelled, boy scouts never take time off. Scott managed to set up one of the new parent's to come speak about the Sports merit badge. The adult brought in lots of sports equipment and kept the boys busy playing sports all night, like golf, soccer and even rugby! Scott was just happy to hit golf balls during most of the meeting while I was busy with a few other parents running board reviews for advancements. Scott is happy to hand off his job to another scout, but they still wanted him to assist in finding presenters for one more month until the new scout could settle into the job. Scott will be taking time off leadership positions for now to concentrate on his Eagle project and merit badges. He also enjoyed taking time off his video club meeting as well as classwork during Spring Break. However, the Biology teacher gave out homework over break, and I had Scott work on his paper for his National Honor Society application that is due at the end of the month. No rest for the weary.
Jack Hanna-Up Close and Personal with Wild Animals(or are they?)
No comments:
Post a Comment