Hawk and handler

Jennifer from Virginia holds a red-tailed hawk for her admiring public in a scene from a recent family trip to Busch Gardens (Europe), which is actually next to Williamsburg, VA.

Our two-day visit was a study in contrasts: pouring rain one day, and cold spring sunshine the next.

We're keen to keep Jane from experiencing any further head trauma, so she was only able to ride the tamest of the rides in the theme park. She loved the Clydesdales and the wolves, though.

Cathleen used a motorized scooter to relieve the pressure on her broken foot, but had great fun driving that around.

Meanwhile, Thomas talked me into going with him on the "Loch Ness Monster," the "Alpengeist," and "Apollo's Chariot." The Alpengeist has too many corkscrew turns for my comfort, but the Loch Ness Monster and Apollo's Chariot lived up to their respective billings (Nessie dates back to the early Seventies, but is still going strong).

Apollo's Chariot was simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating (as one roller coaster reviewer noted, "A single, unobtrusive T lap bar ratchets passengers into place and contributes to their sense of vulnerability.")

Frankly, I was more scared on Apollo's Chariot than I was while rolling off the wing strut on a Cessna and into a tandem sky dive from 10,000 feet. Open sky with a parachute strapped to your back feels safer than the "face-melting 210-foot drop" into a ravine that Apollo's Chariot opens with (the phrase comes from the aforementioned ride reviewer, one Arthur Levine, who has a gift for describing this sort of thing).

After riding the Chariot, I decided to pass on "The Griffon," which is almost as imposing, albeit with a smaller steel footprint.

We all enjoyed the Irish dancing in the "Celtic Fyre" show, although acoustics in the theater were such that Jane complained about the volume of the music after we left. She still suffers frequently from post-concussive headaches.

A parting note: The German sampler plate sold in the "Festhaus" has tasty sausages, but you should probably avoid that dish if you're gluten-intolerant. No telling what's in those things!