Florida Trip, part 2--Ringling Museum, Sarasota

Hoping for better luck with the pictures this time!

We really only had one rainy day while we were there, so on that day we went to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.  It was a very interesting place! We started out by touring the home that had been built by one of the Ringling brothers, John. It is right on the water, and I got as close to the water as I could to take this picture (without falling in). According to what I read, people would dock their yachts right there when they came to parties at the mansion.

The Cad Zan Mansion, which means "House of John"

A couple of the ornate circus wagons that were used when the circus moved from town to town. 

In keeping with the Circus theme, Lynda had a foot-long corn dog for lunch. 

In one of the buildings there was an awesome miniature circus display.  It was a HUGE display, and the amount of detail was just amazing. 

This picture was taken from an upstairs viewing area. It gives an idea of how big the display was, but this probably only shows less than half of it. 

These two pictures were taken at the art museum that is also on the grounds. It was very nice, too, but I really enjoyed the circus displays more than the art.

Kind of an unusual tree---I think it's a banyan, but I may be wrong about that.

Pat and Jeane enjoying the greenery.

I kind of wondered why this Ringling Museum is in Sarasota, but apparently the circus didn't travel around during the winter---they spent the winter in Sarasota. 

After our day at the Museum, we went to an Amish restaurant for a delicious dinner. The restaurant was very much like the Essenhaus Restaurant in Indiana.  We also saw a lot of Amish people, including some very cute little children.  Who knew that there were Amish people in Sarasota?  Not me!

End of Part 2. I've decided to do this in smaller bits so that if I lose my pictures I don't lose so many.  So stay tuned!