Florida Getaways 2008

If You Go Sarasota: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art 5401 Bay Shore Road 941-359-5700 • www.ringling.org Open seven days a week, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. All-inclusive admission: Adults - $19; Seniors - $16; Students - $6 PAL Sailor Circus 2075 Bahia Vista St. 941-361-6350 • www.sailorcircus.org Circus Sarasota 12th Street and Tuttle Avenue, opposite Ed Smith Stadium 941-355-9805 • www.circussarasota.org Tickets: $10-$45 Fundraising Gala under the Big Top, Jan. 5, 2008 February 1-24, 2008, Sarasota; March 8-30, 2008, Fort Myers Royal Hanneford Circus Robards Arena, 3000 Ringling Blvd. 941-922-4358, 800-847-4697 www.hannefordcircus.com April 18 & 19, 2008 Walker Brothers Circus 3000 Ringling Blvd. 800-528-6577 www.walkerbrotherscircus.com Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary 7101 Palmer Blvd. 941-371-6377 • www.bigcathabitat.org Friday-Sunday, November through May Circus Ring of Fame, St. Armands Circle St. Armands Circle Park 941-388-1554 www.starmandscircleassoc.com Annual ceremony: Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008, 1:30-3 p.m. Right, Royal Hanneford Circus. Below, the Police Athletic League’s Sailor Circus was at ﬁrst a school-sponsored athletic A Ring of Circus Attractions Florida, home to America’s circus industry, has a large number of regularly scheduled circus-related public programs. Cirque du Soleil (“Circus of the Sun”) was born from a group of Canadian street performers, who ﬁrst performed as a company in 1984 to help Quebec City celebrate its 450th anniversary. Cirque creates innovative, live shows and presents them under big tops or in theaters around the world. In Florida, La Nouba is its resident show at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando; it also stages performances in Miami and St. Petersburg. www.cirquedusoleil.com, 407-939-7600 Lake Placid, a town of about 2,000 residents set in Highlands County in the south-central part of Florida, claims to have the most clowns per capita of any town in the state. Toby’s Clown School was founded there in 1993. Since then, more than 500 clowns have graduated from the school. Elderhostel offers a weeklong clown school in Lake Placid in February, which teaches makeup techniques, costuming and clown character development as well as the history and philosophy of clowning. And more than 40 murals adorn the town, including a fence covered with more than 25 clowns, most of them replicas of clowns who live in Lake Placid. www.lpﬂa.com/visit/toby.htm, www.elderhostel.org/programs Big Cat Rescue in Tampa is a nonproﬁt educational sanctuary founded in 1992 that offers scheduled tours of its facilities. Its mission is to rescue and provide a permanent home for exotic cats that have been abused, abandoned or retired from performing acts. The sanctuary houses 16 species of wild cat among its more than 100 residents, including tigers, lions, leopards, cougars, bobcats, lynx, ocelots, servals and caracals. Big Cat Rescue, 12802 Easy St., Tampa; www.bigcatrescue.org, 813-920-4130 The Flying High Circus at Florida State University, founded in 1947, is an extracurricular activity for students. The students present an annual Homeshow performance series, taking place in April under the Big Top on campus. The students, who juggle, clown and perform on the ﬂying trapeze and other apparatus, have been featured on national TV and have performed in Canada and the Caribbean. circus.fsu.edu or 850-644-4874 Gibsonton, a hamlet located 10 miles southeast of Tampa, is famous as a home to active and retired circus performers. It is home to the 4,500-member International Independent Showmen’s Association. The town, also known as Showtown USA, was founded in the early 1940s by Al the 8’4-½” giant and Jeanie the 2’ 6” “Half Girl.” — Karen Galvin Venice: Flying Trapeze Academy & Flying Fantasy Circus 1401 S. Ringling Drive, Venice 941-412-9305 • www.titogaona.com Adults: $40 for a two-hour class; kids: $30 Private lessons available Circus Bridge U.S. 41, near Old Venice Arena Gunther Gebel-Williams Commemorative Statue Venice Train Depot, 303 E. Venice Ave., Venice 941-861-9864 Cirque du Soleil, Orlando 27 http://www.ringling.org http://www.sailorcircus.org http://www.circussarasota.org http://www.hannefordcircus.com http://www.walkerbrotherscircus.com http://www.bigcathabitat.org http://www.starmandscircleassoc.com http://www.titogaona.com http://www.cirquedusoleil.com http://lpfla.com/visit/toby.htm http://www.elderhostel.org http://www.bigcatrescue.org/ http://www.circus.fsu.edu

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Florida Getaways 2008

Florida Getaways 2008 Contents Shorts: Visit A Port or Airport Deals: Join a Museum Water: On Lake Apopka Suite History Circus City Listings: Florida Vineyards Ad Index Florida Maps Looking Back: On Old Florida

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.