Visiting The Circus

On June 20th, our family splurged a little bit, and bought tickets to the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. I can't remember the last time I've visited the circus (in America, anyway; I went to a couple of circuses in Russia, where they are more of a "thing" then they are in the States). I know I went once when I was a kid and thought it was amazing and incredible and beautiful. But, being a cheapskate, I wasn't planning on buying tickets...until they sent us a flier in the mail. Then Nathan saw the flier, and said, "I've always wanted to take my kids to the circus someday!" That made my resolve waver, and soon after that, I dashed into Tucson and bought the tickets. Curse you, spam-mail!!

Anyway, we had a great time. Since the Tucson Convention Center isn't far from where Nathan works, we picked him up from work, and went out to dinner at a nearby Chinese dive. Then we drove over to the convention center and went inside, ready for a great show.

"ELEPHANTS...ELEPHANTS!!" the girls were screaming at the top of their lungs.

It was kind of noisy, but it was bright and exciting as well. The girls were literally squealing with joy on several occasions. Watching their reactions to the show was almost as much fun as watching the show itself.

Daring young people on the flying trapeze

A troupe of basketball players on unicycles. It was pretty wild & crazy.

This guy was absolutely the craziest guy alive. All those tigers sat there through the whole act, snarling and batting at him with their paws. They seriously looked like they wanted to eat him. You couldn't pay me to sit in the middle of that.

Human cannonball

All the sensory overload was a bit much for poor Aurora; she fell asleep midway through the intermission, and slept soundly through the entire second act! A shame...she missed some pretty cool stuff. But since she spent most of the first act trying to climb over everyone's chairs, and annoying the people sitting around us, it was probably for the best.

Trained poodles=my girls' favorite act!

These were two huge, interconnected, rotating human-sized hamster wheels. That's a guy running along the top, as it rotates up and down. It was a pretty cool act, but probably looked better from another angle.

One thing I learned about the circus that night...it's kind of a long show! The intermission didn't start until 8:20 or so; the show didn't end until 9:30. The kids' eyes were drooping through the final acts, and they all fell fast asleep in the car on the way home. But they talked about the circus for days afterwards, so we know it was a success! We'll probably wait a few more years before going again, but it was really a fun night.