Let's Run Away and Join the Circus!

June 28, 2009

We took the kids to the circus a few days ago. I had my reservations, because it wasn't Ringling Brothers, or even Circus Vargas. If you've ever been to one of their circuses, you know that those are pretty amazing productions. This one, however, was one I've never heard of (kind of like when we were kids and Mom got us Redbucks to wear instead of Reeboks). Since they sent me two-for-one ticket in the mail, though, and it was happening just up the street from us, we decided to give it a chance.

It was definitely a small production, but that certainly had its perks. The 'crowd' was quite small, so our seats afforded us an up-close-and-personal view of the ring. We had great seat with plenty of elbow room. Even though it was a small circus, there was still a nice variety of acts--aerialists, trapeze artists, skateboarding dogs, a pony act, a motorcycle on the high wire, a contortionist, and an elephant act, to name a few. Danielle even got an autograph of Alex the Clown. Each of us had our favorites.

It was well-worth the money spent--we all had a great time. As an added bonus, I got to check off one of my Lifetime List items: things I want to do or experience some time during my life. I'm not really sure why, but I've always wanted to ride an elephant--it's on my list. I just think they are such awesome and gentle creatures. So when we saw that they were offering elephant rides (for a small fee....), I couldn't resist. All of the kids were pretty excited by the idea, too. Again, because we were at the lesser-known cousin of Ringling Brothers, there was no line for the animal rides, either. We just walked up, climbed the ladder, and jumped on the elephant to begin our 30-second African safari. Although the ride was incredibly short-lived (he basically walked in a small circle), I felt a sense of accomplishment. And we got photographic evidence to commemorate the event!