RINGLING IN CHICAGO--

FROM THE TOC BLOG:
Posted in Around Town, Kids by Amy Carr on November 12th, 2010

I never wanted to run away and join the circus. Living on a train isn’t really my cup of tea. Still, I find myself intrigued every year when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus train pulls into town. Maybe I’m drawn to the quaint, retro appeal of the fact that the circus continues to travel by train 138 years after P.T. Barnum first loaded his Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus onto a series of flat cars. Maybe it’s the desire to live out the adventures of Jacob from the novel Water for Elephants, or the images my imagination stirs up about life aboard a train filled with clowns, trapeze artists, lion tamers and snake dancers. Or maybe it’s the fact that the circus won’t let outsiders on the train…or at least they wouldn’t, until now.
Earlier this week, I was invited to lunch on the “Pie Car,” the refurbished dining car where chef Michael Vaughn prepares meals for 350 people from six different continents every day for 11 months out of the year. Running away to join the circus for an afternoon is more my style and, for one spectacular afternoon, I did just that.

Read more: http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/2010/11/a-sneak-peek-inside-the-ringling-bros-and-barnum-bailey-circus-train-photo-gallery/#ixzz156K8X7SI