So here's my general review of Busch Gardens, where we spent a day and a half this past weekend. The thing I liked the best about the park was its theme. It seems every other amusement park I've been to has been themed after some entertainment property, like cartoon characters or movies. Even Knott's Berry Farm is inexplicably sponsored by the Peanuts gang.

But Busch Gardens' theme is simply: Europe. The park is divided into different sections, but instead of calling them Adventureland or Superheroes' Corner or something, they're simply called things like Germany, England, or France. And an effort was made to make the various areas look, feel, and sound at least like a commercialized amusement park's attempt to resemble those various places (though I thought Italy focused a little too much on Ancient Rome -- no gondolas? What the heck?).

They even piped in theme music for each country, though their choices made me wonder who it was who decided on the music. Italy has traditional Italian cafe music with accordians and stuff, Scotland has bagpipes, Ireland has Celtic dance music, and so forth. But Germany is blanketed in polka music. It's kind of funny at first, but we actually ended up spending most of one afternoon in Germany, because a lot of the stuff we wanted to do was there, and by the end of it I wasn't the only person who was answering the question "What do you want to do next?" with "Get the heck away from these polkas!"

Even stranger, although parts of England had British Invasion '60s rock bands playing, other parts had classical music playing. German classical music, specifically. I recognized Bach and Beethoven easily. Oh how I longed for a prelude and fugue when those tubas were oompah-ing my brains to death.

The park, I thought, was poorly designed, in that it was difficult to get from any given Point A to any given Point B. You'd think it would be in the park's interest to allow people to easily get where they want to go. That way, they're happy and they recommend the place to their friends and their legs don't fall off. But I guess Busch Gardens has opted instead for trying to keep lines shorter by making everyone walk for 20 minutes before they can even get to the line they want to stand in. It didn't work for me.

One thing I will say for the park, though: surprisingly good food. When you go to an amusement park, you expect outrageously overpriced food, and in that regard, Busch Gardens did not disappoint. But you also expect the outrageously overpriced food to be of only mediocre quality. But we ate in Italy the first night and the outrageously overpriced chicken parmesan and canneloni platter I got was actually really good. I mean, restaurant quality. I know Anheuser-Busch is a food company, but I didn't know they made chicken parmesan. Bravo.

My only complaint with the food is that, in trying to keep with the European theme, they offer European ethnic food. That meant that when we ate in Germany (where we actually were entertained by a live polka band and dancers), they were actually offering boiled red cabbage! (I didn't check to see if haggis was on the menu of the restaurant in Scotland.) Even weirder: people were paying outrageous prices for it and eating it! (I got a bratwurst on a bun; Shelly got a pizza.)

We took a couple of days off at the end of the week to head down to Williamsburg with some friends. We spent a day and a half at Busch Gardens (a big amusement park) and a day at Water Country USA (a big water park). It was one of those vacations that isn't really relaxing. We came home feeling a bit more tired than we felt when we left, but we also felt happier. It was great to spend so much continuous time with my girls.

Rather than a big long travel-log, I think I'll make a series of short posts over the next few days about a few of the more interesting events and thoughts related to the trip.

The first thought is my admission that I am not a big fan of big roller coasters. I'm quite fine with medium-sized roller coasters and even medium-big-sized roller coasters. But the ones that advertise themselves as the most death defying things ever just aren't for me.

There was one ride at Busch Gardens that I categorically refused to go on, even though the other adults in the party wanted nothing more than to ride it time and time again: the Griffon. I took one look at the 90-degree drop and knew I didn't need to have anything to do with this ride.

I'm not scared of big big roller coasters. I don't think I'm going to die or anything. I just know that they're going to make me feel feelings that I don't like. Once, back in my single days, when I was interning in L.A., I was trying to impress a girl and took her to Knott's Berry Farm. She wanted to go on the big free-fall ride they have, and I acquiesced, hoping that some relationship-related good would come out of it. Well, things never really worked out with her, and I've been regretting the decision to follow her on that ride ever since. I'm not so sure the few dates we went on after that point were worth the gut-wrenching feeling I felt at that moment as I hurtled downward and left my stomach at the top of the ride.

So not going on the Griffon was an easy choice for me. The girl I'm in now love with is already impressed with me, and I can still be assured of payoff in this relationship whether I do it or not. Shelly loved the Griffon. More power to her. I helped watch all the kids, and pointed up at the screaming people and told Ellie that "Those people are crazy."

And, for the record, I went on every other roller coaster they had there, and loved them all. I even loved the twisty, loopy, flingy Alpengeist more than Shelly did.

I realized something this weekend.

On Saturday morning, we went to a local state park on the Potomac, where they were opening a new pirate-themed water park by hosting a live pirate attack at the shore. They had a little schooner, and there was musket and cannon fire back and forth till the pirates made a landing and the swordplay started. Ellie thought the cannonfire was "too loud," but she enjoyed the nearby playground when the pirates got a little boring.

Then we went to a birthday party for Ellie's friend Jasmine, where there was a moon bounce, a wading pool, princess crafts, and other 3-year-old fun.

As I was sitting quietly in a chair, watching Ellie lean into the pool to splash herself (before we got her swimsuit on her), a thought hit me. We've passed the point in life where we now start doing things not because we think they will be fun, but because we think Ellie will think they are fun. We're living vicariously through our children. Already.

Don't get me wrong - I think I was the person who most enjoyed the pirate attack, and I certainly had a good time at the party (and later that very full day we went to a more adult-oriented party where Ellie just ran around the house giggling). But when we think of fun things to do, we think of fun things for our little girl to do. And the fun of it for us is showing her and sharing the fun with her. Until the cannon fired, I held Ellie on my shoulders and was overjoyed as I showed her the pirate ship out in the water. At the party, the fact that she was having the time of her life bouncing in the moon bounce with her boyfriend Ryan gave me more joy than a lot of the things I actually do for fun for myself.

I guess that's part of being a parent: the thing that makes me happiest is making my girls happy.

1. Ellie has started saying prayers on her own, and she's surprisingly good at it. When we used to help her say her prayers, we tended to do somewhat repetitious prayers on purpose, so that she would understand what kinds of things she's supposed to say in a prayer and how she's supposed to say them. Now she's doing it by herself. She's not so good at asking for blessings (though what more could that girl possibly want?), but she's really good at thanking Heavenly Father for things. She thanks him for Baby Annie, for Mama, for Daddy, for the banana she ate earlier today, for the park, for toys, for the party she attended two weeks ago, for Little Einsteins, and (my favorite) for jumping - complete with a little hop while she says it. Her childlike innocence is amazing.

2. But we need to be careful if we want to keep her innocence intact. The other day I was with her near the front door, where we generally keep our shoes on the linoleum entry area. She noticed that one of Shelly's tennis shoes had been carelessly knocked off the linoleum and onto the carpet. She picked it up and said, "Daddy, Mama's shoe is not in the shoe place! What the heck?" Note to parents: she's listening to you.

3. Finally, today she demonstrated the kindness of her heart. Shelly was talking to me about some bad news, and she was getting pretty emotional about it. Ellie was playing in the room and looked over to see her Mama crying. She came over with a very concerned look on her face, and as the two of us continued talking, somewhat ignoring Ellie, she said over and over, "It's OK, Mama. It's OK, Mama. It's OK, Mama. Mama, do you want me to kiss your owie? Daddy, Mama is very sad. It's OK, Mama." She gave Shelly several hugs and kisses, and hung around till the emotions calmed down a little even when her toys were still beckoning. I call her a sweetie all the time, but today her actions when her Mama was sad were particularly sweet.