March 15, 2017 Ringling Museum

Hi everyone.
On Wednesday of this week we went to visit the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.  The Museum sits on 66 acres of land that features not only the Circus Museum, it also has an Arts Museum, the Ca' D'Zan, the estate of John and Mable Ringling, the Historic Asolo Theater, and a Rose Garden.

Ernie Burch was a professional clown for 56 years. He was the character Blinko in "The Greatest Show on Earth".

 1952 Movie

 Yes, it shot live people into a net, after testing it with a bag of sand of the same weight.

 There were 5 brothers actively involved in the circus production.

 A billboard on the marque.  The 3 legged man.

 The bearded lady

A view of the Blacksmith Tent. Besides keeping the many horses in shoes, the crew also inspected the metal wagon parts every day.

 Wagon #9 was the blacksmith supply wagon.

 Everything in the circus, that was included on the trains, was kept and stored in an orderly fashion in the wagons, which were numbered and located on the train according to setup.

 The Hotel flag signified that meals were ready.

 If you have a carving skill and need a volunteer job, sign up.  Only good until May 1.

 The next 3 show the work tables of the people painting minature figures.

 The Band Wagon

 Looking up at the man on stilts.

 Emmett Kelly, the mute, never smiling clown.

 In another part of the building was a miniature model of the setup of the Circus.  The detail in the pieces was unbelievable.  The next series of pictures are all miniature pieces.

 Feeding over 1300 people.  Each person had a designated seat.

 Washing dishes 3 times a day.

 The circus lineup begins.

 The Big Top.  It took 4 hours to set it up.

 Keep in mind that you are looking at thousands of hand painted miniatures.

A 3 inch bike

 Relaxation area for the actors.

 At the circus, there was always more that one act going on.

 Those that didn't have a fare.

To give you a better grasp of the circus operation, think about 1300 people, many beginning before sun up, unloading about 150 wagons from the flatbed train cars, pulling them to different locations to begin the process of setting up the circus.  Meanwhile the kitchen begins preparation for that many days meals.  The tents besides The Bigtop are unloaded and setup.  Circus members prepare for the day, sometimes for several performances, and by the end of the day, everything is taken down, cleaned if needed, packed away, loaded on to wagon, pulled onto the flatbed train cars in order, and transported to the next city.

For further reading go to the link.  Ringling Brothers Route Book, 1892

CBS Morning had a program about the Circus on April 30th.  The link of that part of the program is in this link.  Ringling-bros-circus

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie. 

March 14, 2017 Chihuly-Dali

Hi everyone.
We traveled a different road today and ended up in St Petersburg where there are 2 museums that caught our eye.
The first one was the Chihuly Collection that featured some of the larger in size blown glass works.
Dale Chihuly was introduced to glass art while studying interior design at the University of Washington.  He later went to the University of Wisconsin and then the Rhode Island School of Design where he established a glass program and taught for more than a decade.

The Carnival Chandelier

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The Azul de Medianiche Chandelier

Sunset Persian Wall

Float Boat

Ruby Red Icicle

Blue Neon Tumbleweed

Milli Fiori

Milli and Grammie

We went across the street to the Hot Shop where there was a demonstration on glassblowing.

Preparing the chemicals to color the glass.

This smaller oven is used to keep the working piece of glass above 900 degrees.  If it isn't, it will cool too much and crack the glass. 

Using a metal tool to help reshape the bowl.

Cleaning the surfave of impurities.

Heating the stem to keep it above 900.

Using metal tools to reshape the molten glass.

Hand twirling the thin molten glass on top to add a flared look.

The finished product ready for slow cooling.

For those interested, individual lessons are available.

Next we went over to the Salvadore Dali Museum

The First Days of Spring 1929

Enchanted Beach with Three Fluid Graces 1938

The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus  1959

The Ecumenical Council  1960

For those back home, just wanted to let you know that it was windy here today also.

On the way back we stopped for a couple of pictures of Wind Surfers

Thanks for looking out for Grammie.

March 12, 2017 Anna Maria Island

Hi Everyone.
I guess it is time to do a little catching up again.
Since the last posting at Hilton Head Island, we finally made it to Florida where our first stop was in Port Orange where we visited with a high school classmate, Geoff.  We make this visit part of our travel plans to the area.
Next we went to Vero Beach where we spent another 3 days visiting another High School classmate, Gail. In both of these last visits it is  wonderful to visit the people that were a part of our lives 50 years ago. 
Even though we didn't put it in our blog, both Tom and Alice had 50th class reunions this last summer.
Thursday we drove across the state to Anna Maria Island to visit people down here on a getaway from Maine.

We know that  things aren't all that great in Maine with another impending snowstorm but, things are also pretty white down here.

The weather has been great here and the skies predominantly blue.

 T-shirt weather for sure.

 It might be hard to see but Grammie wanted to showcase her recent pedicure that both she and Gail had back in Vero Beach.

 Ta da!  Grammie working her magic.

We had an evening meal at Bones.  The Jambalaya didn't need any spices.

Was everyone really that engrossed in completing the puzzle...or was this just posed.

Yesterday Tom and John went the the Valspar Championship up in Tarpon Springs. 

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie.

March 2, HHI

Hi everyone.
Today was one of those days where everything we planned got accomplished.
We woke up, had breakfast, finished the 1000 piece puzzle and finally around 1 p.m. got dressed for the day.  Making sure we had checked our e-mail and FB we had dinner (leftovers) and then walked into town to get an ice cream.  We came back and spent about 15 minutes in the hot tub.
Now, at the conclusion of The Voice, we accomplished everything.
As one of our children would say...  Boringly functional.
You were probably wondering why we don't write on the blog everyday.

March 1, Hilton Head Island

He everyone.  Since we left Myrtle Beach on the 22nd, we have spent a couple of days in Sun City SC, visiting a good friend Anne.  She has recently moved from her previous location in Beaufort.  She was glad to see us as the previous owner left all sorts of household goods here and there.  By the time we left, things were pretty well consolidated and organized.

On Saturday, we arrived on Hilton Head Island, which is having some of the warmest weather in years.  Today was in the high 70's.  The island is however still cleaning up from the effects of Hurricane Matthew on October 8 and 9.  It is estimated that the costs of cleaning up could run into the 30 million range.  Thousands of the downed trees have been mulched and removed, but a lot still needs to be done.  Some buildings are being rebuilt and there is still a lot to do repairing many homes.

Since this was not our first time on the island, we knew right where to go first. 

There were dozens of choices.  Tom's choice was Junkyard.

This morning we took a Gullah Heritage tour.  The tour was done by Irvin Campbell who has been doing the tours for better than 20 years and has a large knowledge of the  Gullah heritage on the island.  Many of the Gullah people have sold their land and relocated but many still remain.
They were a group of African American people that have been on the island dating back before the Civil War.  Part of the island was used as an encampment for Union soldiers up until 1868.

Part of the tour where the encampment was located features a Bench by the Road started by Toni Morrison and her benches have been located in other locations around the world.

Toni Morrison 

 http://www.tonimorrisonsociety.org/bench_histories.html

This location is called Mitchelville and is the focus of a Preservation Project.  Toni Morrison was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama in 2010 for her work's attention to African-American history and culture.   Mitchelville   in case the link may not work, use http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/article33510423.html

The Freedom Park is being supported by the Hilton Head community.

For dinner we went to the Skull Creek Boathouse.  It features seafood, and the food was great

No, we didn't have the Lobster Tail

The location was down by the water.  In the background you just barely see the big blue tarps covering parts of a roof in need of repair.  In the south, this is the time of the year when year round maintenance is done.

Grammie was seen today down by the water.  She is getting used to the pictures.  What a sport.

A card seen in one of the local shops. It sure does apply here when you see so much devastation caused by the storm.  These people had a mandatory evacuation back during the hurricane.