Sarasota adventures - Days 86 to 89 - Sarasota, FL

Monday (12/27), we visited to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.  We had heard that entry to the museum was free on the day after Christmas and never one to pass up a bargain we decided to take advantage of their generosity.  So did 3,000 other people, which we discovered upon our arrival.

Line to get into the Ringling Museum

We had decided to visit the museum with Brittany & Scott's family and fortunately for all we arrived about 20 minutes before they did compliments Marina Jack's courtesy van.  They were able to join us in line and thus bypassed most of their 30 minute wait. 

Turns out only the Art Museum is free and all of us opted for the standard entry fee so that we could visit all of the exhibits.  This proved to be a wise choice as the museum was rich in circus history and artifacts.

We spent the afternoon visiting the Circus Museum, the Ringling Mansion and the Tibbals Learning Center.  Each was fascinating and our only regret was not being able to spend more time in each place.

Ringling's decision to move the circus's winter quarters to Sarasota and later to open them to the public had a profound impact on area.  They then acquired property on Sarasota Bay and built their palatial home.

Ringling's palatial mansion

The center of the mansion as viewed from Sarasota Bay



The mansion's impressive living room ceiling



Diana and Susan on the veranda.  It was cold

The star of the Circus Museum's exhibits is the Wisconsin, the private railroad car that John and Mable had build in 1905.  I learned from the docent that it was sold after a New York City ordinance prohibited a wooden train car from entering their tunnel.  The car went on to have a life of its own and finally wound up being used as a fish camp by one of its several railroad company owners.  The car is in the process of being fully restored.  That said, they seem to be at the tail and the restoration is spectacular.

The Wisconsin

View from the salon overlooking the observation platform

The Circus Museum houses numerous beautifully restored artifacts.  Below are just a few photos.  Click here for their website to see more.

Calliope

Diana and Susan behind the calliope



Zacchini Circus Cannon in foreground

The hit of the "show" was our visit to the Tibbals Learning Center where we saw a scale model of the Ringling Brothers Circus that took 50 years to get to this point.  Howard Tibbals, the mater builder is still adding to the exhibit, which contains 50,000 scale models.

Part of the miniature exhibit viewed from above

The detail is incredible



A partial view of the "Big Top"

Besides spectacular costumes, the Tibbals Learning Center houses a wall detailing the history of the circus.  What made this exhibit unique was its three part time line that showed the circus history in relation to major US and world events along with who was Presidents of the United States at that time.  I Diana and I spent considerable time here.  It was fascinating.

Noteworthy is that John and Mable Ringling lost control of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus right after the 1929 crash.

The other noteworthy event was Jim's son Eric teaching me how to use several of the features of my Cannon camera.  I'm now motivated to take a photography course.

Tuesday, we spend a relaxed day.  A 6 mile walk and a visit to Whole Foods were the major events.

Wednesday, Ron Markovits took me for a cruise on his Tiara 3900 Sovran.

Ron readying Majestic for our cruise

We started from the Sarasota Yacht Club and went out to the Gulf via the Big Sarasota Pass.  This was an eye opening event because while the pass is big in terms of area, the channel is very narrow and tricky with missing buoys that show on the chart and buoys that do not.  Local knowledge is absolutely essential to negotiating this channel.

Leaving the beautiful Sarasota Yacht Club

Once into the Gulf we were on smooth water.  From our viewpoint, this 900 by 500 miles body of water was a mere pond.  Ron said this was a rare event for the winter.  Readers may recall our 180 mile crossing from Apalachicola to Tarpon Springs which to say the least was exciting and we had a "good" weather window (2 to 4's with an occasional rogue 5 decreasing to 2s as we got withing three hours of Tarpon Springs).

Majestic's wake reveals calm waters on the Gulf

Ron at Majestic's helm

Ten miles later we arrived at the Venice Inlet, which was entirely straight forward.  No local knowledge needed here.  In fact it was very similar to the channel inlets on Lake Michigan.

Entering Venice Inlet

We then returned to the Sarasota Yacht Club via the Intracostal Waterway, where Ron shared with me more of the local knowledge needed to operate in these waters.  I also got to view the scenery and take lots of photos, which is not the case when I'm at the help of guided Discovery.

Ron's boat could not get under this low swing bridge

We called and they opened the bridge

We had a late lunch in the yacht club's main dining room, which provided good food it a beautiful setting.  Note: The recently spent 14 million dollars on a new facility.

The Pool

The Lobby

Thursday, was warm for a refreshing change and we spent another leisurely day.  Unfortunately, Thursday's biggest event was moving the boat from a floating slip to a fixed dock, which means having to deal again with tides.  Turns out Marina Jack was booked solid and we had to vacate our very comfortable slip.  Our newly assigned slip turned out to be a bit of a challenge for the furry kid (aka Kodi) due to the nature of the cement pilings (see photo) that caused the boat to be further from the dock than usual.  Several discussions with the dockmaster about our need for an accommodation, even just for overnight, produced no assistance despite the fact that there were several open floating slips and lots of room at the gas dock.  With the help of Keith, one of the dock hands, we figured out a partial solution.  Still, we were forced to manhandle Kodi for her late evening walk.  Note: She did, however, jump down onto the boat on her own when the evening walk ended.

Note the cement piers with 2 by 4s in the foreground

The day ended pleasantly with an outdoor evening meal at a Cafe Americana with a lovely city view (and where Kodi could sit with us).

Written by Les.