Sarasota - Ringling Estate

 After a rainy night we woke up to a cool morning (as in needing- a-jacket cool) with the forecasted highs in the upper 60's.  We packed the dogs in the car and headed to Sarasota to the John & Mable Ringling Estate.  We spent most of the time in the Circus Museum which houses a lot of circus history.  Also housed there is the Tibbals Learning Center -- the circus miniature and interactive galleries (no, we could not walk the tight rope or fit in the little clown car).  The replica in miniature of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was created by circus historian Howard Tibbals.  It features eight circus tents and 42,000 objects in a 3,800 sq ft exhibition space and replicates the tented circus when it was at its largest (circa 1919-1938).  It was amazing! 

Ed and I couldn't remember if we had ever been to a circus....

In addition to the Circus Museum we checked out the gardens on the estate and the Venetian Gothic Mansion (Ca' d'Zan aka House of John) which was beautiful on the outside but definitely wasn't our style on the inside.  There was also a Museum of Art on the grounds but we were getting tired of walking around and headed out.