Sarasota Brings Out the Kid in Us

We lost Jose and Char in Sarasota. They had business to attend to and Wind Dancer and Sand Castle were interested in visiting Sarasota, a town that is really only reachable on the Gulf Coast Intercoastal Waterway, unless tou have excellent local knowledge, which we didn't. So, the two boats retraced their way under the Skyway Bridge and back down the Intercoastal, across the Sarasota Bay and under the bridge, motoring the entire way in windless air. Sarasota has put in dozens of municipal mooring balls, and left some space for anchorages too. Sarasota was a great stop. The Ringling Brothers Circus Museum was there, with all the charm and excitement of by gone days. We had a fantastic time, working our way through the old wagons and artifacts, past posters and costumes, trying our skill at balancing on a horse and a high wire and being goofy as clowns. Also in the museum was a huge room of miniature figures, demonstrating all the faccets of circus life from the hundreds of train cars, to the circus parade through town, to enormous mess hall tents, to the 3 ring big top. We were even able to meet the people who assemble and paint the figures and the man who designed it all. They are still working on it, 20 tain cars and about a 1000 figures to go.

 

To add to the day, the beautiful Ringling mansion sitting on the bay is open for tours. And, in a separate building, Ringling's magnificent collection of art, enough for a world class museum made the day complete.

And back to the municipal mooring balls just in time to catch the evening storm.