Going to the Circus City! Sarasota Flordia

We finally got away from the Gulfport FL/St. Pete area and headed to Sarasota FL. **** We cannot say thank you enough to Bob and Ellen in Gulfport who helped us so much, and provided such great hospitality. They even introduced us to some other boat folks too. ****  We ended up at the Sarasota Mooring Field that is managed by Marina Jacks.  We opted for a mooring ball at $25.00 per day vs $2.75 per foot.  That for us would be $104.50 per day!  It is a short ride in via dinghy to the marina.  For the $25.00 I get the same amenities, showers, shuttle service, restaurants etc.  The bathrooms are nice, each have an individual private bathroom with shower.  I am glad some of those mega yachts can afford to pay for all this for us to enjoy. The only down side is there are numerous dinghys at the dinghy dock that have been left there by the mooring field peeps.  Some it would appear for a long time by the growth on them.  They really need to manage this better. The marina is right in the middle of downtown Sarasota.  The fist night we went into town and checked out a local pub, then headed off to Bob's Train.

This is a quirky little restaurant inside four railroad cars from the Ringling Circus, cars he has acquired. Our friend, Bridget, gave us another win for a must see local treasure.  There are over 900 pictures and circus memorabilia to look at.  Bridget's Dad was a good friend of Bob, and Bridget's sister who has a picture on the wall as a HUMAN CANNONBALL!  See if you can find it when you play the slideshow. The UBER driver to and from had not a clue this place was there.  Just a FYI get this for dessert (picture to the left) Rum On The Rails, warm spiced peaches in brown sugar on top of carrot cake infused with rum and topped with vanilla ice cream with whipped cream. IT WAS SCRUMPTIOUS!!!

The next day we got up and caught the marina shuttle to 
This was an amazing day!  We arrived at 10:00 am and left at 5:30 pm and every minute was wonderful.  We started in the TIBBALS LEARNING CENTER.  Some neat insight is that Howard Tibbal's could not get Ringling to let him have the rights to put there name of the circus miniatures he was creating.  So it is a exact replica of the 1936 circus, but with Howard Brothers Circus as the name. Everything else is exactly Ringling.  If you pay close attention to the detail such as in the kitchen tent you will see boxes of fruit etc. Each box is full of individual pieces.  Silverware same way, plates, etc.  Each folding chair in the big top actually folds.  In the ticket wagon that you cannot see in has a register with individual tickets, and cash to scale. It took us 2 hours to really see this one exhibit.  It is still a work in progress. Next, we went to grab a bite of lunch from Banyan Cafe.  The grounds are over 60 acres and much of it is a huge garden. Off to the original museum set up by Ringling himself.  It has some old circus carts and wagons.  It also has one of his private train cars.  In there you will see the Hotel Flag. Go to Bob's Train and he can tell you the hidden history behind the flag.  We then walked through the rose garden Mable Ringling dearly loved and made.  Then off to the home both John and Mable Ringling built.  WOW! It is called Ca'd'Zan (House of John).
Then over to the Art Museum.  John Ringling was an extensive art collector, and built a huge art museum but it was only open for 2 days to the public before his death. He had some financial issues and to keep it from getting split up, he gave the entire place to the state of Florida in 1936 upon his death.  It is also the Florida State University Art School.  If you are ever in this area, take the time to see it.  It is well worth the money and time.

The weather has brought some rain, so we are sitting tight for another couple of days.  Sunday we will top off the fuel tanks, and prepare for the trip further south.  If things go well within the next week or so we should be in the Keys.  Sunday we went to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

Our trip is slow, but we are sure enjoying the areas we stop at.  Meeting some really cool people along the way too. We took so many pictures and it was much easier to view and load them in videos.  So please take the time to see all the great things we visited while in Sarasota Florida.