Circus, Circus!!

Saturday night we took Olivia to the circus (well, OK....her grandma and grandpa took us all to the circus..but you get the point).

All things considered, the circus itself was great. We oohe'd and ahhe'd at the high-wire act, the trapeze artists, the trained horses and the elephants. The clowns (all 2 of them....what happened to all the other clowns?) were sort of funny...but not side-splitting hilarious. Perhaps they need to take a remedial class at Clown College?

However, the location of the circus left much to be desired. Why? Well, we had the (ah-hem) honor of seeing the circus at the Sports Arena, across the river from downtown Toledo. It has got to be one of the most undesirable locations in all of northwest Ohio for any kind of event.

TheSports Arena is old. VERY OLD. It's outdated. It's ugly. It's dumpy. The parking is horrible. It's small. Did I mention that it's old and outdated?

For years, the powers that be here in Toledo have been "talking" about building a new arena. However, no one can seem to get their butt in gear and make it happen. So it's all been just a lot of talking. They argue about location, builders, cost, naming rights. Look...mayor of Toledo....just pick a freakin' location, get a good builder who won't charge an arm and a leg and build a new arena.

Maybe, just maybe, if we had a nice, shiny new arena we'd actually get a 3-ring circus to come to town (other than the one that has already taken up residence in our local political "arena")...rather than the one-ring circus that was here this past weekend! One-ring circus, it's OK....but a 3-ring circus...now that's what we're talking about.

A couple other not-so-bright moments from our circus adventure:

• We had to stand outside in a thunderstorm (thankfully, we had some cover from the storm) for no apparent reason other than the Sports Arena managment wouldn't open the doors to let the crowd in on time. Bad move.
• $20. That was the price of two bags of cotton candy. Yeah, that's right. $20 for cotton candy. Why? Because it came with a hat. C'mon Ringling Bros......that's just not right. The Sno cones were $6 a piece. Geez....

But as I said, we had a good time regardless. Kevin and Olivia had never been to a circus...so it was a good first for them! Let's just hope that next time the circus train rolls through town they can set up shop at a more modern location!