Cotton candy and purple dragons

Most of you know that I don't have any kids. So while I've been to DisneyWorld 5 or 6 times as an adult, I'd never actually been to a theme park with a small child until Saturday. I tagged along to Busch Gardens with Tim and his 4-year-old, and we wandered around to the kid attractions. The big grin on John's face as he rode the purple dragon with his daddy was priceless. He was a little less certain about going on the boat ride alone (I was going to go with him but it was "just for children"), but he went anyway and smiled and waved to us each time his boat came around the little pond, so I think he had fun as long as we were watching. He even endured the slowest-moving cafeteria line in the world with remarkable patience for a 4-year-old; heck, I think he took it better than I did. And he persisted in his request for cotton candy in spite of all distractions, until Tim finally got it for him. (I think he got more of it on his dad's clothes than he actually ate.) We ignored the roller coasters and other stomach-churning rides; the most adventurous thing we did was take the skyride from Germany back to England.

So did it make me regret not having kids of my own to take to Busch Gardens and DisneyWorld? Heck, no. I'm perfectly happy enjoying Tim's kid's delight in cotton candy and purple dragons.