"Wanted, dead or alive" Dasha doing a rendition of Bon Jovi
On June the 15, 2009 Alyson took me to the Ringling estate. The website advised you could spend up to a day there and I could see why. It was gorgeous. Originally the estate had belonged to John Ringling and his wife, the owners of the massive Ringling circus. On the estate were about 2 acres of beautiful grounds filled with big Banyan trees and a beautiful rose gardens as well as romantic sculptures scattered all over the place. Of the buildings that were on site we visited the Art museum, the Ringling mansion and the Ringling circus exhibition.
To get into the museum cost me 7USD, as I was still a "student". Alyson got in for free as she was a student of Florida State, well she had the card and was technically considered an employee of the museum. A few days later whilst walking around on the grounds next door, which I think belonged to the New College nearby I found a back entrance to the Ringling museum which actually let me in for free.
a large part of their lives traveling in Europe, amongst the many things they did. They brought the concept of European architecture and their love for European art, particularly for Renaissance art back with them from this. We toured about half of the art museum so that we could fit everything in.
After the museum we headed to the Ringling Mansion. They lived her interestingly between the 1920's and the 1940's which I thought was quite lavish particularly as it was the time of the Great Depression. Their mansion had a mix of the European 19th century palace feel in combination with a 1930's ambience, particularly when you contrast the living room with the kitchen. The light switches were cute and round and I tried flicking them a few times but sadly to no avail.
The front of their house was beautiful. It faced out to sea, right onto a pier and would be what guests would see upon entering this amazing estate. John Ringling would be out the front welcoming them into the magic world of the Ringling's.
I never realised a circus was like a small traveling city. There were hundreds of everything, traveling animal
trainers, traveling acrobats and dancers. The chefs would make up to 3,509 meals a day.
Back during the day when the circus came to town the town would go wild. Usually schools and banks and stores would close and the whole towns population would head to the circus. It would be virtually a town holiday were young and old would flock to the circus. On top of this people from surrounding towns would make travel to the location where the circus was held. It wouldn’t be a common for a town to double in size on a day when the circus was in town.
No wonder quite a few elderly people I knew spoke so fondly of the circus. It would have been awesome to have seen it in the magnitude of the times.
We headed to Sarasota beach after this. It was a perfect day for it and the water was deliciously warm. No waves but I felt like I was almost getting into a spa and felt like you could spend the whole day just chilling in the amazingly warm water. Me and Alyson had a good swim for about an hour or so and
it was soon time to go as Alyson had to go to dance practice and then rehearsal for the dance performance.
After the practice we were invited to Ashley's house, another dancer for dinner. It was also Jamaal’s birthday and we had delicious chocolate cake to celebrate. Ashley made an amazing dinner of enchilada’s yum. I really enjoyed this business and I'm so going to learn how to make them. Then we played rock band hero. Well good.
