The tickets were pretty cheap, so we went ahead and parked in the expensive lot and walked all the way to the other end of the lot where the animal meet-and-greet was happening. We were there a good 20 minutes before the animal pre-show was supposed to close, so we got in line to see it. Unfortunately, the not-so-nice lady at the front of the line refused to honor our printed online voucher and told us we'd have to go to the ticket booth and redeem them for tickets before she'd let us in. Here is a picture for reference.
The blue circle is where I parked. The orange spiral is where the animal pre-show was. And the purple 'X' is where the box office is located. Grr..
I warned the girls that we might not make it to the box office and back before they closed the pre-show, but they wanted to try for it anyway. So we practically speed-walked the whole way there and back and entered the pre-show with just a few minutes left to look around.
Needless to say, my girls were thrilled to see the animals up close - and some of them were really close.
a pretty cool amber-colored tiger
the tigers were about 6 feet from us
This horse looked exactly like the Bengal tigers for a minute, but it was spotted. It was one of the most unusual-looking horses I've ever seen.
After we had looked around outside for a few minutes, we headed inside for the indoor pre-show. They let everyone come down onto the floor and meet all the clowns and performers. You can also watch some small acts in performance rings, learn to juggle, or try on your very own clown nose. A decided it was a good time to collect autographs in the program we bought just before we came inside. It was a little like "Where's Waldo" as we looked through the book and tried to find the matching clowns in the crowds of people. We got SO close to getting all of the clowns' autographs. I think we were only missing one or two by the time the show was about to start.
the first clown she found
Towards the end of our autograph-gathering, we found a girl clown with blue hair. We tried to ask her for her autograph but she walked away in a big rush mumbling something we couldn't understand. It seemed a little rude at first, but less than two minutes later we spotted her again.... hanging from the ceiling. Totally forgiven. We did track her down as soon as she was done, though, and got her autograph.
We made our way up to our seats once the pre-show had finished. We were way, way up on the upper deck, but we could see everything just fine. Or maybe I'm just so used to seeing shows and sporting events from that height that I don't know any better. At any rate, we all enjoyed the show tremendously. It had a transportation theme, which they exploited heavily.
"Traffic cone" man on stilts
leaping horses
leaping tigers
poodles in buckets
women being shot out of cannons
standing elephants
and the tallest stilts I've ever seen, by far... I mean seriously, take another look at this guy compared to the people around him
He had to duck to get out the door!
Don't tell anyone, but I brought you some snippets of the show so you can see some of the acts.
This guy had serious guts. There were a ton of tigers in there with him.
This tiger sat on the sidelines during the entire show and didn't do any of the tricks. We wondered about her until we found out that apparently she speaks Spanish, and only likes to dance...
These guys were having way too much fun at their construction site
I'm not sure why I quit taking pictures halfway through the show. I swear I nearly had a heart attack near the end when the guys ran and jumped on the spinning circles. I thought for sure they were going to fall and die. But I did make sure to get a photo of one of my very favorite things there - the ringleader's outfit! I swear I would buy this for Jessey in a heartbeat if I knew where to get one. I loved the whole ensemble, but the jacket was just awesome.
Actual Date: August 21
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