More in Sarasota

It was a beautiful day here in central Florida, so I taking advantage before the rains come and went for a walk .... in Sarasota.

What can I saw about Sarasota?  Nice town; lots of traffic.

My first stop was the circus! Ca d'Zan was the home of John Ringling and his wife Mable.  On the grounds, which are lovely and you could spend a pleasant day walking and sitting, is the residence, Mable Ringling's Rose Garden (the oldest rose garden in Florida, dating from 1913), the Rubens Galleries, the Wisconsin Railroad Car (named after the home state of the Ringling Bros. circus; it was the luxurious private railroad car used by John and Mable Ringling to travel the country for business and pleasure - puts my modest coach to shame!), the Tibbals Learning Center, and of course, the Circus Museum - with the miniature circus, was fascinating.

The miniature circus took one man 45 years, working at least 20 hours a week, to construct. It is completely accurate and totally to scale.  Alas, no pictures allowed.

Second stop was the Sarasota Jungle Gardens.  This was a pleasant one mile walk with little to see and the cost was much too much.  Here are the Florida birds you could feed ....

And, of course, the ever present ...

Moving on to the South Florida Museum ....

They were feeding the manatees when I was there

Snooty was born at the museum in 1948

I stopped by a used book store that was recommended to me .... but as luck would have it, it was closed for the day due to an event.  It was a good thing .... it saved me from an even bigger storage and weight problem!  I would have to jettison something to make room.

I also found a nice quilt shop.  It's a good thing fabric doesn't cause the same storage and weight challenge as books, but it's getting close.

Last stop was Costco.  The guy behind me in the gas line was driving a Jag .... I guess that's how he paid for it - shopping at Costco.

Rain predicted for tomorrow .... the Orlando area gets much more "weather" than they do in Wauchula, so we'll see ....