I saw the Big Apple Circus today with two of the three boys, and my dad and step-mother. I like the small circus, but Big Apple seems to be getting smaller each year. Long gone are the elephants, and the last few years have been without a trapeze act. Grandma (a clown) is still fabulous, but the juggler this year was disappointing (just ping-pong balls and saucer-like discs, no balls or clubs). The trained dog/cat/bird act appeared twice, which is at least one time too many.

The kids loved the clowns, and my youngest was now old enough to really attend to it all.

We always went to see Ringling Bros. when I was a kid (because Big Apple didn’t exist yet). That’s a much larger circus, with three rings. There’s no way to see it all because there’s always more than one thing happening at a time, and because you’re sitting 50 yards from the action. So the Big Apple is better in that you can really see what’s being shown, but I wish it weren’t shrinking further before my eyes.