The Circus

I had known about the circus being in town for a little while, but I was having a hard time deciding whether we should go or not.  The best time would be to go on April 1st... My little sister Kaija would be here to enjoy it with us, but the biggest problem was that it wasn't scheduled to even start until the time that we normally put the kids to bed.  And April 1st was also Alex's birthday, so it would be an active day.  I wavered back and forth about it a lot, almost purchasing tickets two separate times before I talked myself out of it.  Jesse wasn't a lot of help in deciding - he recognized the same drawbacks as I did, and also hesitated to put the whole family in downtown Baltimore in the late evening.  But in the end, I decided it would be fun, even if the timing would be tricky.  So, off to the circus we went, after rushing out the door after Alex's birthday celebrations.

We arrived just as things were getting started, and an usher lead us to our seats.  We were on the highest open level, on the back row against the wall, but it still seemed like fairly decent seats to me.  We could see most everything easily ... the exception being high-rise stuff that was sometimes blocked by the basketball hoops.  Melinda, Jacob and Alex (and the grownups, too, I think!) were all instantly mesmerized by everything going on.  A whole song-and-dance routine, with clowns by the dozen, dressed up girls, prades of animals... what a sight!!

In this first picture, sort of front-and-center is a guy on GIANT stilts.  I was absolutely amazed by him.  He was hopping around, dancing, and later on even did a limbo sort of move, putting his body completely horizontal to the ground, backwards.  I can't imagine how he didn't ever fall over!!

Just more busy activity in the grand opening of the circus!  It was hard to watch everything happening - there was so much going on at the same time!

The kids' reactions:  Melinda is drop-jawed, and Alex is more wide-eyed than I usually see him when he's excited about something he sees.

Jacob was grinning and pointing to things quite a lot.  (Can you believe he told us after the circus was over that he didn't like it?  He was having a grand ol' time!  But it was all because we wouldn't buy him a "glowy sword" that he saw among all the souveniers available.  He had a bit of a fit about that... but who can blame him, after all the sights and sounds, and then being up at such a later hour after an already busy day!)

Nearing the close of the grand opening, a parade of elephants, among other things.

There were so many fun things to see.  I couldn't take pictures of even half of them.  One thing I wish I had taken a picture of was a man who did monkey bar rings way up at the ceiling, upside down, with his feet.  Near the end of his routine, he flung himself, still with his feet, towards the horizontal bar/swing at the end of the rings.  No net under him.  He caught himself, but it was amazing and tense!

There were some lovely more quiet routines - one segment including a few strong men who were balancing themselves acrobatically on each other, all while another girl across the floor was balancing on her head on top of tall poles stacked on top of more tall poles, all while yet another girl was doing an amazing floor-to-ceiling length, twist-herself-in-ribbon dance.  I wish they would have been one at a time - I felt like I was missing something from one of the other two every time I focused on just one!

There was also a segment with girls "dancing" on rings while another couple of people did a ribbon-dance.  This one was amazing.  The ribbon people would wrap themselves up in the ribbon just right so that they would let go, then roll speedily towards the ground from all the way at the top, only to stop suddenly at the bottom.  I can't imagine what must have gone through the head of the person who invented that sort of routine... how they figured out in the first place that wrapping yourself just so would make you roll dramatically but stop just in the nick of time, you know?

During intermission, we grabbed a couple clown-head mugs with snow cones inside.  Jesse had to run Jacob down to use the potty, but the rest of us stayed up.  (Melinda suddenly figured out she had to go halfway through the second half.  That was sad, we had to miss things!!)  Alex liked getting tastes of the snow cone, as his blue tongue will testify.

And look!  I really was at the circus, too!  Photographic proof!

Of course, there was a cage full of tigers, which was neat to see, especially since tigers are one of my absolute favorite animals, but I can't say that I was particular amazed by the routine.  It seemed like they were just being guided from one side of the cage to another.  Cartoons make it more fun, with tigers jumping through hoops and everything, but I suppose just the fact that a single man surrounded by many tigers - who could "turn" at any moment - is amazing in itself.

There was also a fun little elephant routine.  They did a lot more interesting things when I wasn't taking pictures.  Melinda was particularly upset that I didn't get a picture of the elephant that did a "hand"stand, using its trunk curled up on the ground as an extra balance point.

 

 

There were some not-so-interesting things, like a bunch of white ponies that were cute, but basically just ran in a tight circle for what felt like 10 minutes.  They switched directions like a flock of birds... but I've seen horses run before.  The most interesting thing about them was when they were lined up tallest to smallest, the smallest looking like a large dog.

There were also some guys who were hopping all around on giant tire-shaped bouncy balls.  They did some pretty impressive tricks.  One guy's ball popped partway through the routine!  He didn't get hurt, thank goodness, and it didn't seem to impact the routine, either.

But then there were also thinks like trapeze artists (yay!), motorcycles driving on a high-wire with a girl balanced underneath, and of course, the motorcycles in a steel cage.  THAT was cool.  Excuse the shaky video... I was zoomed in as far as my camera could go, and of course tiny movements like Alex bumping me make a big shake on the screen.  ;)


After the circus, we headed back to the car.  That's when Jacob had his melt-down about not getting a "glowy sword", and Melinda was upset that I wouldn't buy her something or other (I think it might have been a stuffed horse).  They were T-I-R-E-D.  Jacob insisted he didn't like it.  Even the next day and the next.  It wasn't until after Kaija went home that he admitted to liking the circus, and asking to go again.   And of course, parking was in a garage, so there was a super-fun line to get out.  But once we did get out, we were home free.  Got home at almost 10:30pm.  Yikes!!  But what a night.  It's not often you get to see a circus.  I know the last time I saw one, it was with my grandparents back in Tacoma, Washington.  I can't have been older than 8.  I'm glad we went, after all- it was a fun time.  Kaija sure seemed to enjoy it, too!  (We miss you, Kaija!)

I asked Melinda and Jacob what their favorite parts of the circus were.  Jacob said something like "the ladies going on the string down to the square"... which might have referred to the ribbon dancers.  Melinda said "the girls with the pink scarves", which againis probably the ribbon dancers.  Though not all of them were girls, as far as I could tell from our distance.  ;)

A few people have mentioned how I haven't blogged in a while.  Sorry about that... we're still here, life still goes on, I just haven't been in a blogging mood, and I haven't been managing my free time well this week.  I'll be busy the next few days, but after that I'll try to get all caught up and everything.  Hopefully.  ;)