Friday is Circus Day

Funny how one blog leads to another. We're sitting by the pool Thursday evening and discussing entertainment options for Friday. I mention how much I enjoy Leslie Styles blog 
( scrumpdillyicious.blogspot.ca ) and recall she had once done an entry on the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. We checked it out, talk to the next door neighbours who give the museum a big thumbs up and decide that is how we will spend some of our time tomorrow. We also have a 6 pm boarding for a sunset dinner cruise on the agenda. Great. The day is all set. 

Of course we're talking about a large property owned by John Ringling of Ringling Brothers Circus fame. So we set off after a leisurely breakfast, not knowing exactly what to expect. We know there is a circus exhibit section, the family mansion, John's wife Mable's gardens and a museum of art. But, we really don't have a good sense of the scale of the place. Turns out to be a huge property with the circus exhibit only being a small but very interesting part of it. 

John Ringling is an interesting rags to riches to rags (well sort of), story and nothing like the circus huckster I would have imagined. 

First the circus... 

The next couple of shots are from a miniature rail line and circus setting which does a great job explaining how the circus moved from town to town by rail and was orchestrated, timed and scheduled so precisely that work crews had set up in the next town underway before the big top show was I completed in the previous. They could do a show in a different town every 24 hours. 

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The work horses being fed. They apparently were so accustomed to their routines, they needed little to no prompting from their handlers to get their jobs done...

The big top in the background with a performers prep tent in the foreground...

The Menagerie exhibits...

One of the original Ringling Brothers calliopes...

We spent only 40 or so minutes here, before moving on for our tour of the mansion.

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A stop at Mable's (John's wife), rose garden...

The Banyan trees along the walk ways are remarkable...

A view to the mansion...

The mansion named Ca' d'Zan (meaning House of John), was built over a two year period between 1924 and 1926. John gave Mable a budget of $250k but she overran that with final completion cost coming in at about $1.5m and another $400k on art and decor.

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John had a passion for fine art, spending most of his free time studying and purchasing pieces, eventually amassing a collection of over 600 pieces. As a result of his art habit, he commissioned the construction of the Ringling Museum of Art which has since become Florida's state art museum.

The front lawns and entrance to the art museum...

The museum courtyard.... 

One of the guests of the Ringling property. Beautiful but an unknown species to me.

John was considered one of the richest men in the world owning railroads, circuses and a large part of Sarasota, but after his acquisition of the American Circus Corporation in 1929 for $1.7m...  well most will know the infamy of that year. To make the "great depression" era even worse for John, Mable died that year and he was now cashless and losing control of his many properties. He was however, able to hold on to his mansion, his art and the museum until his death in 1936. These were all bequeathed to the state of Florida. Not sure who got the $311 he had left in the bank at the time of his death.

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Friday evening was the sunset dinner cruise on the Marina Jack I I. Baked salmon and prime rib were excellent and they served some of the best tasting mashed potatoes I've ever eaten (next to my wife's of course). We sat next to a couple from Pittsburgh who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary that evening. We spent so much time chatting and taking pictures for them, we forgot to get pictures of our table. Oh well, it was a wonderful dinner on a spectacular evening.

The bridge to St. Armand's Circle ... 

Returning to port...  

What a great day this was but for one minor flaw. We had allotted four hours for the Ringling tours, but hardly made a dent in the art museum which may have been worthy of four hours on its own. If you are ever in the area and plan to take this in, six hours including a nice lunch break might do the trick.