Living Our Dream

More Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Events of Thursday, March 28 to Monday, April 1, 2013

In our last post, we described our tour of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Also owned by the same trust that operates the gardens and included with admission to the gardens is the Christy Payne House. The home was built by Christy Payne, whose father was one of the men who helped John D. Rockefeller build Standard Oil back in the early 1900s. Marie Selby Gardens bought the home in 1973 several years after Christy Payne's death.

The Christy Payne House is located right next door to the Selby Gardens and is connected to the gardens by a path that winds through moss-draped live oak trees.

Path to Christy Payne House

Christy Payne House

The house is used as a gallery for changing exhibits of botanical art, and the exhibit that was going on when we were there was Rainforest Masks from Costa Rica. The masks can be traced back to masks that were made by Indians in Costa Rica years ago. The masks are said to have saved the villagers by frightening Spanish Conquistadors back in the 1400s. Making of the masks was almost a lost art when one artist began teaching a group of young men how to carve the masks in the 1990s.

The next photo shows a couple of masks in the process of being carved. First, the design is drawn on a balsa wood blank. Then the details are carved, including hollowing out the back. The masks are finished with brightly-colored acrylic paints.

Design drawn on balsa wood (left) and carved mask before painting

Many of the modern masks have grotesque faces on them that are inspired by the original Indian masks. However, when the art form was rejuvenated in the 1990s, designs using natural elements such as birds and flowers were introduced.

Margery with a wall full of masks covered with birds and flowers

The masks with birds and flowers have a miniature of one of the original-style masks on them somewhere like the one at the bottom of the bird mask shown below.

Detail of a mask with birds

As we walked the path from the Christy Payne House back to the visitor center and the garden exit, we were again reminded of how the gardens use colored foliage and contrasting textures.

Colored foliage and textural contrast in Marie Selby Gardens

While we are happy we were able to finally visit Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and while it is a very well done garden, we were a little disappointed. The use of tropical foliage such as is used at Marie Selby creates a more serene atmosphere as opposed to a garden with a showy display of flowers that creates more excitement. We like both types of gardens; but, unfortunately, we didn't experience much of a serene atmosphere at Marie Selby Gardens because there was a school bus full of students running wild on the lawn and screaming at the top of their lungs for the first part of our visit; and after they left, all we could hear was the construction equipment building the new Children's Rainforest Garden over near the banyan grove. More likely than not, a visit at a different time without the school kids and construction would have been more enjoyable for us. We also thought the $17 admission price at Marie Selby was a little high compared to other gardens we have visited.

From the gardens, we decided to take the scenic route back to Bushnell so we headed north a short distance and took the bridge over to Lido Key, which is one of several barrier islands that lie just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. We then crossed another bridge from Lido Key to Longboat Key, which is another barrier island that is about 10 miles long. We enjoyed seeing all the fancy beach-front homes and condos.

When we got to the northern end of Longboat Key, the drawbridge to the next barrier Island, Bradenton Beach, had been raised to allow a couple of boats to pass. That gave us an opportunity to get out of the car for some photos.

Drawbridge from Longboat Key to Bradenton Beach with Sarasota Bay to the right

Looking to the left toward the Gulf, we could see someone parasailing.

Parasailing over the Gulf of Mexico

We crossed from Bradenton Beach back to the mainland at Cortez and headed east toward I-75. We had deliberately planned to pass right by Anna Maria Oyster Bar so we could stop for lupper. Anna Maria has a total of three locations in and around Bradenton, and they specialize in seafood much like the Shrimp Basket Restaurants that we like so much in lower Alabama.

Anna Maria Oyster Bar

Paul and Margery at Anna Maria Oyster Bar

As soon as we were seated, we fell in love with the tables. The wooden tabletops had depressions scooped out of them that were filled with sand and seashells. The depressions were then filled level with clear resin that totally encapsulated the shells resulting in a perfectly smooth, flat tabletop.

Sand and seashells encapsulated in the tabletop

We also thought the roll of paper towels hanging above each table to use as napkins was a novel idea.

Paper towels hang above each table for napkins

Lunches run from about $8 to $11 and include burgers and salads in addition to a large variety of seafood. Paul had the early bird special of all-you-can-eat fish and chips for $8.75 and Margery had fried clam strips for $8.99.

Fish and chips (top) and fried clam strips

The fish was moist and flaky on the inside and crunchy on the outside, and the clams were sweet and tender and were the best we have ever had! Paul helped Margery finish her huge basket of clams, so he didn't have any room for seconds on the fish. Prices at Anna Maria Oyster Bar are similar to those at the Shrimp Basket, but we would have to say Anna Maria is definitely a cut above in decor, food quality and food quantity.

We spent the next few days relaxing and beginning to get ready for our departure the following Tuesday. We also made plans for Easter with our friends, Pat and Mike. We'll tell you about Easter and our trip to our next destination in our next post.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, March 28, 2013

We finally made it to the botanical garden in Sarasota we have been wanting to visit ever since we first heard about it shortly after we arrived in Florida. With our time in Florida winding down and after the false start we had the prior week when we abandoned our plans to visit the garden after getting stuck in traffic on I-75, we weren't sure we would make it this year. However, after a cool, windy start to the week (Tuesday's high never made it out of the 50s, and we had wind gusts all day of over 20 mph), the temperature finally started to moderate a little and the wind speed started to drop. With the temperature predicted to be in the in the low 70s on Thursday and with the sky predicted to be clear, we headed for Sarasota in the morning. We made it this time with no traffic delays and arrived at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens before 11:00 a.m.

Admission to the gardens is $17 for adults. Inside the visitor center, there is a four-minute video about the garden and its history.

Margery outside the visitor center

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens are part of the estate of William and Marie Selby. William Selby made his money with his father in the early oil and gas industry. He was a sportsman, and he came to the Sarasota area to hunt and fish. Marie Selby began to accompany William to Sarasota after their marriage in 1908. In 1921, they bought 7 acres of land along Sarasota Bay and built a relatively modest, Spanish-style, two-story winter home. It was here that Marie developed her gardening skills.

After William Selby died in 1956, Marie continued to live at the home until her death in 1971. She had established a trust to continue to operate the gardens as a public display. The gardens opened in 1975.

We learned an interesting fact about Marie Selby when researching information about the gardens. The Selbys followed with great interest a transcontinental automobile race that took place in 1909. After the race, the Selbys loaded their own touring car with food, camping gear and spare parts and set out on the same route. They finished the route 6 days faster than the winner of the race. In doing so, Marie Selby became the first woman to cross the United States by automobile.

Today, the gardens are dedicated to the research of epiphites (air plants), especially orchids and bromiliads. There are greenhouses dedicated to research and a library containing 90,000 dried plant specimens. The research facilities are not open to the public.

After watching the video at the visitor center, we headed into the conservatory, which is full of orchids, bromiliads and other sub-tropical plants.

Orchids, bromiliads and anthurium in the conservatory

When we exited the conservatory, we found ourselves at the bonsai exhibit. It's always interesting to see gnarled, miniature trees that look like they are centuries old. The bald cypress in the next photo is less than three feet tall, but looks like a 30 or 40-foot tree.

Bald cypress bonsai

We followed the garden path as it wound past the koi pond.

Kids feeding the koi

Waterfall in the back corner of the koi pond

The Selby home is now a café. In addition to seating inside, there is also outside seating at wrought-iron tables under the shade of large banyan trees that were planted by the Selbys.

Selby home is now a café

Banyan trees are members of the fig family that start life as epiphites growing in the cracks of the bark of a host tree or other support structure. The roots that the banyan sends to the ground can partially envelop the host tree, sometimes strangling it. Older banyans are characterized by prop roots that sometimes extend vertically to the ground and other times radiate horizontally out from the trunk.

Paul with a banyan tree having vertical prop roots

Margery with a banyan tree having horizontal prop roots

A little farther along, we came to a very unusual tree. The trunk of the floss silk tree grows thousands of spikes that are about ½" to 1" long. Guess nobody is going to be climbing that one.

Floss silk tree

Spiky trunk of the floss silk tree

Unlike many other botanical gardens such as Bok Tower Gardens where we recently visited that feature colorful flower beds, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens rely primarily on the color and texture of leaves for interest in the garden. Except for the orchids and bromiliads in the conservatory and bromiliads scattered here and there around the outside gardens, there are few flower displays at Selby gardens.

Leaf texture and color add interest

Another example of leaf color and texture

Nowhere are the textures more evident than in the succulent garden.

Rich textures of the succulent garden

Marie Selby Gardens are surrounded on two sides by water, which attracts a good many shore birds. On the side of the garden that borders Hudson Bayou, we saw a yellow-crowned night heron in one of the trees.

Yellow-crested night heron

And on the side that borders on Sarasota Bay was a great egret.

Great egret

Along Sarasota Bay are also a number of benches where visitors can relax and watch the boats go by.

Benches along Sarasota Bay

Sarasota Bay looking north toward downtown Sarasota

Paul really likes silver fan palms, and he stopped to get a closer look at the one they had growing at the edge of the lawn.

Paul admiring a silver fan palm

In addition to the gardens and research facilities, Marie Selby Gardens also owns a second house on the property that once belonged to Christy Payne, who was the son of one of the men who helped John D. Rockefeller build Standard Oil in the early 1900s. Christy Payne died in 1962, and the house was purchased several years later by the trust that operates Marie Selby Gardens. It is used as a gallery for changing exhibits of botanical art. We'll tell you about the exhibit in the Christy Payne House and where we went afterward in our next post.

Bok Tower Gardens

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Bok Tower is something Paul saw when he was a kid vacationing in Florida with his parents a long time ago, and it was a place he has been wanting to revisit for the past several years. Bok Tower was built in the 1920s by Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies' Home Journal. The reason it has taken us so long for us to decide to go there is Bok Tower is located pretty far from everything else we do in Florida. It is in Lake Wales, which is about 50 miles east of Tampa, about 40 miles south of Orlando and almost 80 miles from Bushnell.

We had clouds and a chance of rain on Monday, clouds and over a half an inch of rain on Tuesday, but the weather forecast said it was going to clear somewhat on Wednesday. The temperatures were supposed to drop from the mid 80s to around 70 on Wednesday over most of the area and fall even further over the following several days. However, the forecast for Lake Wales called for a high of near 80º for Wednesday, so we decided it was finally time to head to Bok Tower Gardens.

We arrived around 11:00 a.m. after a drive of over an hour and a half. We paid our admission at the booth at the entrance gate and headed up the road to the visitor center. Adult admission is $12 for the garden only and $18 for the garden plus Pinewood Estate. There is a AAA discount. Pinewood was built in the 1930s as a separate estate by Charles Austin Buck, a Bethlehem Steel vice president. We opted for a combo ticket for both the gardens and Pinewood Estate. We'll have more on Pinewood in our next post.

We could see the tower in the distance as we drove the road past the orange groves toward the visitor center.

Bok Tower as seen from the orange groves below

Outside the visitor center there were colorful displays of flowers including some of the tallest snapdragons we have ever seen.

Tall snapdragons outside the visitor center

The courtyard of the visitor center had a tropical garden with a pond.

Tropical garden and pond outside the visitor center

Colorful ceramic tiles like the ones lining the pond in the photo above decorate the visitor center. Other tiles depict birds and wildlife.

Ceramic tiles at the visitor center

Inside the visitor center there are displays about Edward Bok's life and about the building of the gardens and tower. There is also a 9-minute video.

Edward Bok and his wife spent winters in the upscale community of Mountain Lake Estates near Lake Wales. Bok decided to purchase land adjacent to Mountain Lake Estates known as Iron Mountain where he enjoyed taking evening walks. He wanted to preserve Iron Mountain as a bird sanctuary.

At 298' above sea level, Iron Mountain is one of the highest points in central Florida. In Pittsburgh where we're from, Iron Mountain would hardly even be mentioned as a hill because it is only about 160' above the surrounding terrain. However, since most of Florida is so flat, 298' above sea level must seem like a mountain to most Floridians.

Bok hired famous landscape architect Frederick Olmsted, Jr. in 1921 to design and build a 50-acre garden which would become his bird sanctuary on Iron Mountain. Bok also built a 205-foot tower on the highest point on the property. The tower was completed in 1929 only a year before Bok's death. He is buried in front of the door to the tower.

The tower is called the Singing Tower because of its 60-bell carillon. Short selections of recorded carillon music are played on the hour and the half hour, and there are 30-minute daily carillon concerts at 1:00 and 3:00.

The bells in the carillon range in size from 12 pounds to over 11 tons. There is a display in the visitor center with an outline of the largest bell so you can get an idea of the size.

Outline illustrating the size of the largest bell

The original carillon console is also on display. The keyboard consists of rows of levers which in turn operate other levers, rods and cables to ring the bells. Although there is only one bell on the display (upper right in the photo below), it gives visitors an idea of what it's like to play the carillon.

Margery trying out the carillon console

From the visitor center, we headed out to the garden. Right outside the door is a table with a display of flowers that are blooming that particular day.

Table displaying flowers blooming that day

One side of the visitor center courtyard was lined with epiphytes to create a screen effect along the walkway. Epiphytes are air plants that derive their nutrients and moisture from the air. They usually live on trees or other plants, but they are non-parasitic and usually don't harm the host plant. Lichens, some mosses (including Spanish moss) and some orchids are epiphytes. Bok Tower Gardens had individual epiphyte plants suspended from monofilimant fishing line to make them look like they were floating in the air.

Epiphytes (air plants) suspended along the walkway

Before we even started up the path to the tower, there was a colorful bed of flowers. What look like three plants with large, bluish, spiky leaves up on the wall behind the flower bed aren't real - they are actually sculptures of either bromiliads or agave.

Colorful flowers at the start of the path to the tower

We both love to visit botanical gardens, and Paul especially likes tropical gardens with lush foliage in addition to colorful flowers. Look at the size of those leaves!

Plenty of lush, tropical foliage at Bok Tower Gardens

Azaleas are blooming in central Florida. Although some of the flowers had gotten damaged and knocked off by the rain the previous day, there were still some blooms left.

Azaleas in bloom

More azaleas lining both sides of one of the paths

The camellias were also blooming. Camellias grow well in the south and usually bloom in winter and very early spring. The flowers look somewhat like roses, but camillias can easily be distinguished from roses by their shiny, evergreen foliage. Camillias are members of the tea family.

Some of the many camillias that were blooming

When visitors arrive at the top of the hill, they are greeted by a beautiful view of the tower and a reflecting pool.

Bok Tower and reflecting pool

The neo-Gothic/Art Deco-style tower is built from pink and gray Georgia marble and from Florida coquina, which is a stone made up of compressed seashell fragments. When we got around to the side of the tower facing the sun, we could see the beautiful colors of the stone better.

Bok Tower

The tower is decorated with sculptures of birds and animals. The photo at the very beginning of the post shows herons along one of the balconies, and the photo below is a telephoto shot of one of the 8 large herons at the top of the tower.

Marble heron at the top of the tower

Colorful ceramic tiles cover the grill openings on the top third of the tower where the carillon is located.

Mosiacs cover the grill openings for the carillon.

The brass door has panels that depict creation from the Book of Genesis. Edward Bok's grave can be seen surrounded by flowers in front of the door.

Brass doors depicting creation

From the top of the hill you can see the orange groves and surrounding territory. It is easy to see why Bok loved Iron Mountain so much.

View from Iron Mountain

Along the path back down from the tower, we passed the endangered plant garden at the center of which was a human sundial. If you stand on a month, your head casts a shadow at the correct time (Eastern Standard Time). It was pretty close to 2:00 just like the shadow said.

Human sundial

We really enjoyed our visit to Bok Tower Gardens and all the beautiful foliage and flowers. A few of the flowers that were in bloom are shown in the next photo.

A few of the flowers in bloom at Bok Tower Gardens

We continued on to Pinewood Estate. Although Pinewood was originally separate from Bok Tower Gardens, it is now owned by the same foundation that operates the gardens. We'll tell you about our visit to Pinewood and where we stopped to eat on our way back to the motor home in our next post.

Freeway's Surgery

Bushnell, FL - Events of Tuesday, March 20, 2010

We had to get up fairly early on Tuesday to drive to Largo near Tampa for the surgery to correct Freeway's cherry eye. We decided to have both eyes done even though the gland had only popped out on one eye because the ophthalmologist said the gland on the other eye was also showing signs of swelling. We dropped Freeway off around 9:00 AM and picked him up later around 1:30 PM.

We're happy to report the surgery went well, and Freeway had no problems. He was a little groggy when we picked him up, but he pretty much bounced back to his old self by early evening. He was was trying to paw at his eyes when we picked him up, so they sent him home with an Elizabethan collar, which Lora calls the "cone of shame."

Freeway looking unhappy with his Elizabethan collar

It didn't take Freeway long to figure out how to get the collar off. We put it back on a couple of times, but when we saw he was no longer trying to rub his eyes, we were able to leave the collar off, much to Freeway's relief.

There is still a little swelling and redness in the corners of Freeway's eyes, but the cherry eye is gone. There is a slight chance it could come back in a few weeks after the sutures dissolve, but we're trusting it won't.

We had a few hours to kill after we dropped Freeway off. We had researched things to do in the area and came up with the Florida Botanical Gardens right there in Largo. The Florida Botanical Gardens are operated by the Florida Botanical Gardens Foundation. The gardens are located in a Pinellas County park. Admission is free.

Adjacent to the botanical garden is Heritage Village, which is a collection of over 20 historic buildings from the 1800s and early 1900s that have been relocated to the 21-acre site. Admission to Heritage Village is also free. Heritage Village was closed when we were there, which was just as well because we would have probably felt compelled to see both the village and the gardens, and we didn't need the stress of rushing to try to do two things in a somewhat limited amount of time. A leisurely stroll through the gardens turned out to be a perfect stress reliever.

The gardens straddle McKay Creek. The visitor center, the main parking lot and the cooperative extension office are on the western side of the creek. Behind the visitor center is an herb garden, a patio garden and a tropical fruit garden.

Herb garden

Patio garden

Banana plants in the tropical fruit garden

Bananas grow on long stems, usually only one stem per plant. The ones on the plants above are small bananas that are growing more compactly around the stem than we have seen before.

What is commonly called the flower of the plant is actually an inflorescence, which is a group of flowers. The flowers in the photo below are yellow. What look like red flower petals are actually bracts, which are specialized leaves whose function it is to attract insects to the flowers. The red bracts curl up one or two at a time as the yellow flowers bloom.

Banana inflorescence is a group of flowers.

Papayas in the tropical fruit garden

There are two bridges over McKay Creek to the eastern side of the garden. We took the northern bridge over the creek. Along the way, we took a side path through a wooded area.

Along the woodland path

Palms are Paul's favorite tree, and he enjoyed seeing the different varieties planted in the Palm Garden on the eastern side of the creek. One of the most interesting was a fishtail palm from India. It gets its name from the fact the fronds are split and look like a fish's tail.

Paul with a Fishtail Palm

There are also several courtyards, a wedding garden, a bromiliad garden and several walking paths on the eastern side of McKay Creek. Unfortunately, we couldn't see much of the wedding garden because they were preparing for what looked to be some sort of TV broadcast, but we did enjoy the rest of what we could see.

Margery on a butterfly bench in one of the courtyards

Water feature in the bromiliad garden

There were signs like the one below throughout the garden along the banks of all the ponds and along McKay Creek. We didn't see any 'gators, so we're not sure if there really are any or they just wanted to keep people out of the water; but since just about any body of water in Florida (including swimming pools) can attract alligators, we weren't taking any chances and stuck to the paths.

Alligator warning

Large pond on the eastern side of McKay Creek

Anhinga drying its wings along the banks of the large pond

Great Egret stalking lunch among the lily pads in the pond

Some of the tropical flowers at the Florida Botanical Gardens

We had a very enjoyable, relaxing time at the garden. Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. When we drove along Indian Rocks Beach a couple of weeks ago when we first took Freeway to the canine ophthalmologist, we drove past Keegan's Seafood Grille, which was featured on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We checked them out online, and even though their prices were a little high, the food looked good and they were close by. The restaurant was busy when we arrived about 12:15, but fortunately, there were still a few tables left.

Keegan's Seafood Grille

Keegan's Seafood Grille is well known for their blackened grouper sandwich as well as a fairly creative menu of other fresh seafood. They also have a long list of appetizers, several types of burgers and a complete dinner menu. Sandwiches run from $8 to $12 and include one side (choice of fries, slaw or pasta salad). Dinners run from $16 to $20.

Paul had the "famous" blackened grouper sandwich with slaw, and Margery had crab salad in a pita pocket with fries. The food was good, but we were a little disappointed in the small serving sizes given the relatively high prices. However, we do have to remember that both grouper and crab are expensive ingredients and that Keegan's is located right along the beach, both of which are major contributing factors to the high prices.

Lunch at Keegan's 

Just as we were finishing lunch, we got a phone message that Freeway would be ready to pick up in about half an hour - perfect timing to finish our lunch and make our way to the vet. As we said, he was a little groggy, but he was still happy to see us.

Our time in Florida is almost over. We have a few more things to do before we leave, then we plan to head north to Calloway Gardens in Georgia. Stay tuned.

Ringling Museum Part I: Cà d'Zan Mansion

Sarasota, FL

One of the main reasons we went to the Sarasota area in the first place was to visit the Ringling Museum. Paul went to the museum as a kid back in 1957 when he went to Florida with his parents, and he has been wanting to go back to see it again as an adult.

Plan to spend the better part of the day at the Ringling Museum, because there is a lot to see. It much more than a museum. There is the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the historic Asolo Theater, a circus museum housed in two separate buildings, and the fabulous 56-room, Venetian Gothic mansion known as Cà d'Zan (KAH-d'zahn). Cà d'Zan is from a Venetian dialect and means "House of John."

John Ringling was born in Wisconsin in 1866. He had 6 brothers and a sister. In 1870, after seeing a circus that had come to town, 5 of the 7 Ringling boys formed their own circus company and soon began traveling to perform. The oldest brother already had a job, and the youngest brother was too young to leave home, so it was only the middle 5 brothers who were involved in the circus. John was youngest of the 5 and was only 16 when he started in the circus business.

In 1894, the Ringling Brothers joined their circus with that of Yankee Robinson. When Robinson died a few years later, the Ringlings took over his show. The Ringling Brothers bought the Barnum & Bailey circus in 1907 following the death of James Bailey in 1906. P. T. Barnum had died previously in 1891.

The Ringlings ran their circus and the Barnum & Bailey Circus independently until 1919 when they combined the circuses into the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. John Ringling and his brother Charles were the only two of the five brothers left, and it was too difficult to manage the shows separately. The circus thrived through the "Roaring Twenties."

In 1911, John and Mable Ringling bought 20 acres of land in Sarasota located on Sarasota Bay. There was already a house on the property, and the Ringlings began spending winters in Sarasota in 1912.

The Ringlings traveled extensively in Europe looking for new circus acts, and they came to love the architectural style of Venice, Italy. Between 1924 and 1926, they built a 56-room, 22,000 square foot, Venetian Gothic mansion as a winter home on their property on Sarasota Bay. The house cost $1.5 million, a staggering sum in the 1920s. John Ringling was one of the wealthiest men in the country at the time. In addition to the circus, he was into oil, railroads, banking and real estate. He once owned up to 25% of the land in and around Sarasota.

Margery was intrigued by the fact that the Ringlings owned three homes: their summer home in the Hudson Valley, their apartment in New York City, and their winter home in Sarasota. They also crossed the Atlantic for their annual trip to Europe. She couldn't imagine they spent much time in any one place, so Cà d'Zan was really an extravagance.

Because clouds were moving in from the Gulf when we arrived at the Ringling Museum, we headed to the mansion first. The mansion is the farthest point from the admission building, and it is also the location of the gardens. We wanted to enjoy the gardens while there was still a little sun.

We started out our tour in Mable's rose garden. The rose garden was completed in 1913 even before Cà d'Zan was started. None of Mabel's original roses have survived, but today, the garden contains 1,200 new plants.

We were surprised at how many roses were blooming for this late in the season. Many of the bushes were taller than we were,

Over on the other side of the lawn is Mable's secret garden. It is here she planted plants she collected herself and that were given to her by friends.

There are self-guided tours of the first floor of the mansion, and there are docent-guided tours for an extra charge of $5 that also included bedrooms on the second floor that overlook the two-story living room. We opted for the guided tour, and we're glad we did. Not only did we get to see the bedrooms, but the tour guides always have so many interesting tidbits like the fact the living room chandelier came from the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. The hotel was torn down in 1929 to make way for the Empire State Building.

The Ringlings found the auction houses of New York a rich source for furnishings and decorative elements such the chandelier in the photo above, as well as paneling, doors, ceilings, and tapestries for Cà d'Zan. It was the end of the Gilded Age, and mansions in New York were being torn down in the 1920s to make way for new high-rise buildings. All the furnishings, artwork and decorative items like the Delft-style porcelain bird cage in the photo below are original to the house.

The chairs in the breakfast room are upholstered in leather painted green. Green was Mabel Ringling's favorite color.

The photo below shows the formal dining room. The table could be expanded to seat 30.

John Ringling's bedroom is furnished with pieces made in France in the 1850s. He paid $35,000 for the 9-piece set ($750,000 today). Notice the use of more green on the walls.

After we visited the mansion, we still had the circus museum and the art museum to see. We'll tell you about them in our next post.