The Greatest Papa on Earth!

Gather round, children, and let me tell you about the time when Papa got us all into the circus when it looked like all hope was lost.

First thing this morning, we went down the elevator from Nana & Papa's apartment and were greeted by the really sweet doorkeeper lady, who asked us about our plans for the day. We told her we were going to the circus. "God help you," she said.

We went to get a taxi. The first driver was too expensive. The second driver was, we think, inebriated. The third seemed pretty good compared to the first two, so we hopped in. We pulled up to the circus, only to find that it was sold out until January 14! This was especially disappointing since Nana had asked if it was necessary to reserve tickets, only to be told she didn't need to. I told Ellie we weren't going to the circus after all. But Papa had a few tricks up his sleeve.

First, Nana went to one of the ticket-takers to make sure there indeed were no tickets. "Sold out," she told her. Nana was then told by a questionable source to go to the office to buy tickets there. No one in the office. Papa went outside to see if anyone was scalping tickets. No dice. Papa thought about trying to buy tickets from one of the people going in, but felt awkward depriving some four-year-old of a trip to the circus. He can be really sentimental sometimes. Finally, after much finagling, Papa found a ticket-taker whose friend was a circus administrator. "My kids are here from America," he told the important circus lady. "There must be something that can be done. No cost is too high." Well now, in Ukraine, those are the magic words. He slipped her a 100-hryvnia note (about $20). "There are no seats," she told him. "But do you mind sitting on the stairs?" Heck no, we didn't mind sitting on the stairs. It's a much better story that way anyway, what with the bribery and broken fire codes and all.

Turns out that there ended up being four empty seats, which we gobbled up. The circus may have been a little anticlimactic compared to getting in, but it was fun too. Three words for you: PORCUPINES ON SLIDES. You don't get to see that every day. They brought out boars and tigers and a lion too. It's too bad that circuses are notorious for abusing animals, because I'll tell you -- we had great fun watching them jump through hoops of fire and walk on balance beams and eat meat from sticks and all that.

This afternoon, we headed over to the park so Ellie could satiate her digging desire that went unfulfilled yesterday. In the summer, this park has a trampoline that they harness you into so you can go super-high and probably puke. How cool is that? They also had train rides and a bunch of four-wheelers kids could drive. About the only thing missing were those egg-cup spinners they have at Lower Cascades that terrify children. Do you know what I'm talking about?