Beer-Themed Theme Parks

It's Monday morning, and my exhaustion is proof of the very packed weekend. Here in DC it was the first weekend of wonderful spring weather - high 70s to low 80s, and sunny (no humidity yet). Our plan was to head south to Williamburg and ride roller coasters all day at Busch Gardens, conveniently owned by Anheuser Busch and more conveniently located next to a Budweiser brewery. They have a deal for Virginia residents - $60 for a pass good though the beginning of September. We were all over that.

But first: officially obtain proof of our Virginia residency! With the early-morning line out the door, we waited at the DMV for about an hour after getting our licenses. There were some problems with mine, so I ended up not being able to get mine, but Richard and Jillian are now bonafide Virginians (to celebrate this fact, we had fried chicken for lunch).

After the DMV we headed out of town, 90 miles to Richmond then another 60 miles east to Williamsburg. After a morning at the DMV, you'd think we'd be seasoned veterans of waiting-in-line... oh so wrong. Here's an approxmiate play-by-play once we finally parked at Busch Gardens:
1:30pm - Parked
1:40pm - Stood in line for the shuttle and rode to the main gate
1:50pm - Arrive at the main gate and stand in line for a ticket
3:20pm - After three or four changes in line (due to inept people's slowness and ghetto people cutting with problems with their tickets) finally purchase our passes and get into the park.

Yea, the DMV was quicker than getting into Busch Gardens!

Perhaps the greatest thing about the park (besides some of the coasters) was the fact that it was a beer-theme park. As such, they sell beer all over the place, you can walk around with your beer, and they even have a giant Bavarian-themed beer hall. It was delightful.



After the park we headed back to Richmond to catch a band, The Duhks, at a beer hall. The band is from Winnipeg but plays a wide style of music and has a numerous influences including country, cajun, and bluegrass, and a few songs were even in French. We got to hang out with the band a bit after the show and talk with them about their music, their history, and their tour.

And that was only Saturday. Sunday we were pretty beat (we got to bed at 3am the night before). Richard and I headed out for brunch at an overly kitchy gay bar/restaurant (imagine if a pride float exploded in a bar) where we were lucky enough to be personally welcomed to the DC area by Freddie, the proprietor. Brunch included four mimosas which, on top of already being tired, made me almost fall asleep. But instead of taking midday naps we met up with Anna Kim who was in town with her mom to visit her sister (who is in med school at GWU). We went out to an area called Eastern Market, a giant outdoor market about two or three blocks long. They had a lot of the standards (jewelry, photographs, paintings) and it was fun to be out in the open air with some of the locals. Anna's mom took us to lunch a fancy French restaurant (though I didn't eat because I was still stuffed from Freddie's). When we finished we bode them adieu and walked around the eastern captiol for a few hours, checking out the Library of Congress, Supreme Court, and Union Station.

In all it was an excellent weekend with even better weather. The sun has since turned to rain (expecting about an inch today) but we're already planning next weekend's adventures when the temperatures are again supposed to climb into the sunny 80s.