Frogma in Florida The Rest From Day 4 (not 3, 4) at The Ringling

Well, phooey, I'd had hopes that I would have a President's Day paddle trip report, but a very nasty cold put the kibbosh on that. Fortunately there's more Florida!

The Howard Brothers Circus was, I would say, the main attraction at the Tibbals Learning Center, but the bandwagon above (ever wonder what that bandwagon people are always metaphorically jumping onto looks like? Well, there you go!) marked the entryway to another section, where they had some great interactive and video exhibits about circus life and traditions.

Here's another glorious bandwagon - little dog barking is that Tibbals touch of not just building a thing but telling a story at the same time:

Same bandwagon from out in front, with its 24 horse hitch of magnificent matched grays

And another wagon from the Grand Parade vehicles and marchers up on the 2nd level of the exhibit, where you also get the overview of the full circus model. I was starting to rush a little bit because my sister and I had planned to meet at 4:30 so that we could squeeze in a stop at Trader Joe's on the way "home" to our VRBO, so I didn't get the whole story of how this fits in with the big model on the ground floor, but it was an amazing array of beautifully detailed wagons and floats with musicians and glamorous performers aboard, clowns with pony carts, and assorted attendant marchers. This one just went on and on! Glorious. 

There was lots more to see in the Tibbals Learning Center after this and I put the camera away because the interactive nature of the exhibits made me want to spend my remaining time actually interacting! I fell off the tightrope, I couldn't get my foam stand-in for a human cannonball into the net (note to actual human cannonballs: if I ever apply for a job as your trajectory plotter or whatever it's called, don't hire me), and I didn't even try to squeeze into the replica of the famous clown's tiny clown car (this isn't the gag where a dozen clowns come out of the car, just one extremely tall clown folding himself into a vehicle roughly the size of a Li'l Tykes toy car), so I'm clearly not cut out for the circus - but I did really enjoy all of it. I think my favorite may have been a video of another famous clown (sorry I didn't get names, bad blogger, boo) applying makeup, explaining how each traditional paint marking served a very specific role in helping him telegraph his clowning expressions to the farthest bleacher seats. That was kind of fascinating to me because we all know what a clown looks like, right? But I never thought of why and it was really interesting to hear a professional clown explain it, with so much respect for the tradition he followed.

At 4:30, I went out to meet my sister, and only then realized that OH NO, I had never set foot in the ORIGINAL Circus Museum! The way the Tibbals Learning Center was laid out, I'd thought that it met up with the original, but the minute I stepped outside I saw that the 2 buildings were completely separate. OOPS. Karen had also not realized that (and in fact she'd missed a lot in the Tibbals building without realizing it either, there's just so much to see at the Ringling) so we decided to ditch Trader Joe's and take a quick swing through here. Fortunately the original museum is a little more amenable to a quick run through, with more original circus vehicles, including the prize of the whole collection, the Wisconsin, the Ringling's private rail car. Fun to see, sure looked like a nice way to travel. 

 There's also a great woodcarving shop attached to the museum, where carvers are recreating the same styles of beautiful and whimsical decorations that made the circus's visit so glamorous - beautiful!

 

Tiger, tiger!

And then over in a space carved out behind the Wisconsin, there are desks for people who help build and maintain the Howard Bros. Circus. What a neat thing to do!

And now this is going out of order a little bit. John and Mable Ringling became great art collectors as the circus' success grew, and that tradition is solidly showcased at the Ringling. In fact, if I make it back there someday, there's an entire art museum for me to see - we did not get on the road very early and by the time we got there, picking and choosing had to be done, and I opted to focus on the circus aspect. However, I did visit one art display, the most newly opened feature at the complex, a gallery of art glass. This was actually just outside of the entryway so we stopped here first. Gorgeous! The first one, the dress, was intended as a meditation on the interplay between clothing and the human form it covers, and I just loved the way the body showed beneath the soft folds of the garment.  

Horse caught my eye because I love horses...

Tons more beautiful and often thought-provoking art there. 

And then of course - also slightly out of order - but LIFE BIRD! It's so funny, I don't think of myself as a serious birder, but I was aware of this "life bird" concept through my real birder friends, and all of the sudden I was very aware of that in Florida. "Life bird" = seeing a kind of bird for the first time. I did just go sneak a google peek to see what the restrictions are and I now know that the smews, whistling swans, and mandarin ducks that I saw at the Prospect Park Zoo last weekend aren't technically, 'cause they were zoo residents, but this pretty little heron is a Tricolor Heron and I had definitely never seen one of those before! This guy, the mergansers (we have those in Jamaica Bay) and the Great Egret were all hanging out in the pond behind the entrance. Because Florida is cool that way. Just wait for Day 5!

For more information about visiting The Ringling, visit Ringling.org