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At lunch I had a rib sandwich and my brother had a BBQ Chicken Sandwich. The Chicken sandwich was much better and it also wasn’t too overpriced. Overall, I felt it was a decent lunch.

Once we ate, I took on the Mushroom Swings. This Wave Swinger is designed to be similar to a mushroom. It really makes this ride stand out, and stand out in a good way unlike it’s giant, now defunct, brother Orange Stinger in Disney’s California Adventure. While the cycle was the same as the others, you got to swing next to the swan lake and the Rainbow Gardens rafts. It was very fun, nothing to special though.

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After the Mushroom Swing it was time to go ride the South Country Backroads Garden. These are similar to the cars that you find in any average theme park, but are much more decorative. You have a choice between driving 1920’s cars and 1950’s. I recommend the 20’s because those cars handle more people so the line moves faster. The tracks are a mirror image of each other and you get to pass different setting that correspond with your era of choice. Again, it was great fun! I drove in a pimped out 1920s blue car.

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Rainbow Gardens was our next choice. This slow moving circle raft takes you through the colorful world of the rainbow gardens. What is so cool about Gilroy Gardens is that it doesn’t take much to get a good shot; just point, click, and you have a great shot! This attraction actually seemed to be one of the most popular with guests even though it didn’t have a long line, all the rafts were full and the line was still at a good length.

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Gilroy is famous for its Garlic and it is no surpise that Gilroy Gardens has an entire ride dedicated to Garlic. It may look like your standard tea cups, but the smell of garlic, and the garlic shaped cars create a quite unique atmosphere for the ride. Very one of a kind if you ask me! Was it anything to special? No. I wished we could have spun more but Garlic Twirl is worth doing.

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Our next ride would be the paddle boats. I had planned on taking lake view shots with some more creative angles however the only thing my mind could think of was “So tired, must paddle boat, must get back in 7 minutes.” Really I had no idea for what we would be in for, it was definitely a work out and was a fun little ride but I felt SO bad for those clearly out of shape adults who were the only ones working because their small children couldn’t reach the peddles. The Paddle Boats are so classical and fit in with the park very nicely, plus they are free! However we did wait the longest for this attraction, around 10 minutes, but I felt it was worth it.

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The park’s second coaster, Timberline Twister would be our next adventure. The layout was a simple figure 8 and the car went through it twice, but the queue offers two different routes, the short cut or the scenic route. To any of my fellow photographers out there, weather you are brand new or a long time photographer, make sure to take the scenic route you can get some great shots of the lush vegetation. As for the coaster itself, the cars were well done and it wasn’t too rough. But it was a kiddie coaster, don’t go in with high expectations.

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We only had a chance to ride the coaster once because we were in a rush to go see the bird show entitled Enchanted Wings. While I won’t say much as I will give an indepth review of it tomorrow, I have to say it was a real surprise and is a must see for anyone who goes to the park. Comedy, tricks, and lots more make this show almost impossible to describe. It was a real treat.

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Up next was the park’s rather unique attraction, the rock maze. Alright so it isn’t really a maze as it is super easy to figure out but if you go in with the mentality of chasing with a friend or something it becomes the most fun place ever. It would really be hilarious if this was given an entire halloween theme with different live actors and what not in the maze and on top of the the path above, but even without the actors, the maze is fun. If you have the energy check it out. (sorry for the bad photo, it is all I manage to take)

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Once the maze was solved, it was time to ride the Sky Trail Monorail. The monorail is the one attraction in the park I didn’t like. Unfortunately they were only running one train at the time and the train goes extremely slow through the route so the line was almost unbarable. Do this first thing in the morning if you really want to ride it otherwise, I would just skip it. Nothing to unique about this one unfortunately.

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Since it the end of the day was approaching we decided to take a ride once more on Quick Silver Express before taking the train back to Redwood Junction Station. It was again a great scenic route over the waterfall, pass the rock maze, and bird cages and was just as good as the trip to Coyote Junction.

We ended the day with a ride on the Banana Split. While it is a swinging pirate ship, the boat was dressed up as a huge banana which made it very unique. However there wasn’t anything unique about the ride cycle. Of course you should ride in the back row but if you like swinging pirate ships, check it out.

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Overall we had a great trip and I would recommend this park to anyone. I look forward to going back as it was lots of un.

So what do you think of Gilroy Gardens? Like the pictures? Don’t like the rides? Leave your comments and park thoughts!