Circus Parade Festival

This year, the "Great Circus Parade" has returned to Milwaukee (2003 was the last year for it). It was a tradition and then funding became an issue (it costs 1.5 million dollars to put the parade on!). If I remember what I read (I can't find it again)it was brought back this year to celebrate Circus World's 50th anniversary, but don't quote me on that...

I got Jason out of bed this morning, early, to head down to the lakefront. I know he was pretty excited about the parade (he marched in it while in high school) and we won't be able to see the parade itself. The Circus World museum has a ton of old carts and they are on display down by the lake until the parade on Sunday afternoon. We had a good time! We were even lucky to find a decent parking spot on Lincoln Memorial Dr, so we didn't have to pay to park somewhere!

Here are some pictures from our day:

This is the North entrance:


Some general views of the festival:




Here are some of our favorite carts:



The Calliope:


When we got there, there was actually someone in there playing it. Actually, a few guys were in there. It was interesting to watch (they kept the side door open). They were having troubles with the steam pressure though, so they didn't play too long. Here is a view of them in there playing it:


Amelia was really interested in the organs, like for carousel music. Here she is, intently listening to one:


Her favorite seemes to be the first one we listened to, "The Ambassador":


There were some animals there too. Horses, camels and elephants. There was also a petting tent that we did not go in (it was very crowded). Here are some of the animals we saw:




When the elephant (above) walked by, Amelia started talking to him, loudly :)

There was also a tent where they had wardrobe on display (you couldn't actually go into this one). The costumes were really beautiful!




We got Amelia a blow-up elephant :) She got pretty excited when we hung it on her stroller:


Here is our attempt at a family photo:


(if you click on the photo, it will enlarge it and you can actually see us. I am in the far right mirror and Jason and Amelia are in the one second from the right)

Here is a photo of Jason and I:


Amelia was VERY tired by the time we left the lakefront:


We had a fun time today!

However...when we got home we discovered that Morrison had escaped when we left to go to the festival :( Our poor kitty was gone. Jason walked around the block and called for him. After Jason left for work, Amelia and I drove around looking. We then came home and I started calling Poopy again. I went in and got the stroller, to go out looking some more, and kept calling for him. Suddenly, I heard some faint meowing...so I called some more and about a mintue later he came running to me from a bush :) He is home! He was gone for 4 hours! I let him in and kept getting the stroller ready (so Amelia and I could walk to the mailbox) and he was already trying to get out again:


Amelia looked so cute today! Her outfit was the same color as her stroller...she blended in :) Here she is:


She is making it hard to take her picture lately. She always starts to "buzz" when I try, so she looks like this in a ton of pictures now:


Well, this post has gotten pretty long...and I need to go check Poopy over. We called the vet and they suggested keeping him isolated, to check for fleas and/or any puncture wounds before letting him in the house. He also goes in tomorrow for his booster shots (he was due in March...). I am glad I found him and that he is home with us! We sure would have missed that fuzzball!