Back to Vernardos

 

Tonight we were back at "The Little Circus that Could," otherwise known as Vernardos Circus, now for a third time!  Yes, this is our third time going to Dawsonville to the tent in that parking lot, and just loving the performances inside.  Last time was a lot of fun, and so was the time before that.   This year may have been our favorite visit.  I love this picture above.  And how cool that we could all get together and pose again with the talent for this picture below?

We had a great time here, all four of us.  I got a program this time, an old-school thing that this digital age has largely forgotten about, but I was glad to pick one up as a souvenir to look back on.  Maddie, Nate and Maddie got some candy while I got a lemonade, and we sat down to watch some talented performers do some standard circus material, but there were other more unusual acts that certainly made this a unique night.  For one, I've never seen the knife throwing act where the other performer is strapped to a large rotating wheel.  That's in all the old circus tropes, and how cool to see that in person.  Or rather, how dreadful!  You spend the entire part of that act on edge - so to speak - because you're terrified for the performer that's in harm's way!  Also in the show tonight was a guy who literally walked on a Claymore sword's edge, a kind of tightrope walk on a sword - with bare feet!  Yikes.  He also did this interesting juggling act with golf balls and golf clubs a bit later - the fun thing about this circus is that the performers are all out there helping you to your seats or selling concessions.  This really gives the attendants a sense of how big this operation is (not huge!), and also how tight-nit they all are.  And I think that's what's been so enduring about it to us.  This is our third time seeing Venardos, and by this point they have two traveling units - this time around we saw a completely different set of performers than we did the last visit.  Needless to say, we highly enjoyed it and will be first in line online to get tickets again when they come back this way.  We'd even consider driving a bit further to see them!  But it's not all just the small circus sentiment that drives you to the seats - there is some genuine talent here.  We saw a stunningly good juggler at Cirque du Soleil last week, and absolutely loved his performance.  The jugglers tonight however, were the greatest we've ever seen.  Additionally, these were the same two guys that showed us to our seats when we presented the tickets.  Wild, isn't it?  Here are a few pictures of the performers we saw tonight at Vernardos Circus.

The rest of the day was pleasant.  Maddie was at Team Edge practice this morning.  We drove in the new car without any difficulty, and I got by the office to finish a few things for tomorrow's service at KidPak.  I also went for a nice walk at the park, moving along that virtual Thanksgiving path as I did so.  

It was a nice walk - I saw a few deer fairly close to the path, and they didn't really budge from their spot when I walked by.  I nodded, and just kept marching by through the fallen leaves.  No sneaking up on anyone in the fall in the forest.

We got home, and Nate came along too.  We got a few new ornaments today for the tree.  Here's the Armorer for the Star Wars tree:

And here's Sabine, another new ornament that Mom got for us.

And here's Kronk!  And his squirrel.  Squeakety-squeak!  It was a quiet afternoon, leading up to the circus.   I was asleep for a bit, trying to rest during this illness.  Maddie and Nate were doing a puzzle this afternoon, a brand new Star Wars puzzle I picked up from the library yesterday.  I'll share the finished product when it's all wrapped up, although it's a 1000-piece puzzle, so it might take a little time here and there.

It was a good day.  I didn't read too much tonight, because I'm pretty under-the-weather.  But we did read a little, and after that said our prayers.  And then... it was time for a good night's rest.