On our last day at EG Simmons, Bud F and H were tossing
about as to where we should spend our day together. Ybor City, St Pete, Tampa and the beaches were ruled out. It was too cold and windy for the
beaches. Plus, H and I had just been
out to Anna Marie Island. We had picked
the best day weather wise and we had parked at the public beach. Last year we had brought Raegan’s Flat
Stanley with us and had taken lots of pictures of him there on the wide white
sandy beach. This year the “powers that
be” were “reconstructing” the beach.
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| Anna Marie beach |
That meant they had fenced off most of the beach and were bulldozing and
sucking up more sand from the gulf bottom to rebuild what had washed away. We walked way south along the bright orange
snow/sand fence and finally found waterfront sand and waves to walk thru. Can you imagine – I ONLY picked up 4 shells
to bring home! We even climbed aboard
the free island trolley and rode out to the Historic Anna Marie Fishing
Pier. It was a blue sky and gentle
aqua sea day so the pier was full of tourists and fishermen! But, I digress - back to my story about
our last Saturday! Neither the
Franklins, nor we had ever been to the Ringling Circus Museum down in
Sarasota. H found that tickets were $20
for seniors but Bud’s sister and husband were members and graciously offered us
FREE tickets! WOW! After a trip to Sun City Center to pick up
the tickets we headed down 30 miles to Sarasota.
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| Under the big top |
You MUST go see this “museum” if you ever get to
Sarasota! This magnificent 66 acre campus
includes immaculately manicured gardens, the new Circus Museum, the original
museum, an art museum, the historic Osolo theater and the elaborate Italian
architecture structure called “Ca’D’Zan” (House of John) which was built from
1924-1926 at a cost of $1.5 million.
The Circus museum has a school gym sized room that houses a miniature
Circus setup that starts at the railroad yard, unloading the carved 6-inch
elephants! The glass enclosed diorama
winds thru the room and the circus goes thru the setting up of the tents and
finally the intricately carved Big Top with performers doing ariel acts above
lions and tigers! It took 50 years to
build this awesome display! The other
Circus building includes John Ringling’s private railroad car and the famous
human cannon truck. Displays trace the
history of the circus from the late 1800’s to the 1960’s.
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| The art Museum courtyard |
On down Rt 41 thru Port Charlotte to Punta Gorda, it was
back to Alligator Park to use our Passport America discount for 3 nights. From riding our bikes thru the park, the
majority of residents are from Michigan, Indiana and Iowa! Saturday in Florida is Flea Market
Day! We rambled thru Flea Master’s
down in Ft Myers and also hit another that was set up in the parking lot at the
Shell Factory. I even found a gnome
that needed a new home and a fresh coat of paint!
