Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Welcomes Baby Giraffe

The Busch Gardens team sent me these pics and got some video of the newest addition to the park… a baby giraffe. Park visitors won’t be able to see him quite yet, but they say the calf and mom will join the herd in a few months once “important developmental milestones” are reached.

This is 14 year old Bea’s third baby. Binty was born in 2014, Armain in 2015 and Patty arrived St. Patrick’s Day eve in 2018. Good timing too. World Giraffe Day is today. Check this video out!

Geno’s new favorite thing at Busch Gardens…

I can’t believe it took me dozens of visits to Busch Gardens to finally notice the water cannons!

• Hidden gem!

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  I never knew about the water cannons. If you don't walk the bridge to Congo River Rapids, you will never see them.

• Turn right at the end of the bridge!

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  Walk straight ahead if you want to ride the ride. But turn right if you want to join me and squirt the passengers!

• Look for the token machine.

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  Sorry, this isn't free. Nor should it be. If it was free, you'd never get to experience the sheer joy of this, as I'd never leave machine 3.
• How much fun do you wanna have?

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  Trust me. If you only buy 2 tokens, you'll be back to this machine in 3 minutes to buy more.

• You can use your credit card.

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  You can buy two tokens for a dollar. But who carries cash? I was ecstatic to learn that I could just swipe my credit card and for $5, 12 tokens dropped. My credit card statement next month should be interesting. I didn't stop at $5. Or $10. I'm curious if I'm going to get an alert from my credit card company that my card might have been charged too many times for the same item. It wasn't. And those dozens of tokens were worth every last penny.

• Time to start looking for victims!

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  Here they come! Mwuhahahahahaaha!
• You have about 5 or 6 water cannons to choose from.

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  Choose wisely. Let me help!

• Skip machine 2!

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  While machine 2 has a lot of water in the stream, it doesn't go far. So if the ride bounces to the other side, you'll miss all the passengers.

• Machine 3 is your weapon of choice!

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  Wait to use machine #3. That was the magical machine for me. The others don't squirt far enough. The best part about machine 3 is not only does it squirt far, it squirts LAST! All those riders think they are home free and the water assault is over by the time machine 3's stream nails them again!
• Your cannons are clearly marked.

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  Be sure you're using the button only when your cannon is aimed at the rafts!

• Press the button… and…

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• Soak ’em!

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  The riders all freak out! The best is when you've got all the cannons going!
• This guy!

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  The guy in the red cap pulled up on his scooter so he could squirt his wife. He got her good!

• Incoming!

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• Guilty conscience won’t let you do this?

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  Oh sure you're a little evil. But hey you paid 50 cents to soak them and they can pay 50 cents to dry off!