Parade of Animals Heralds Arrival of Circus in Anaheim : Entertainment: Youngsters cheer as elephants lead the way to arena for tonight’s opening show.

Riding atop a circus elephant eight feet above the bone-breaking asphalt of Lewis Street, Monica Spoelstra was having difficulty Monday following a handler’s admonition to “just relax.”

Hunched over and grabbing the elephant’s ears with a vise-like grip, Spoelstra, 26, muttered, “I really don’t believe this,” as the animal lumbered in the one-mile parade that signaled the arrival of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The circus opens tonight at the Anaheim Arena and will continue through Aug. 15.

“It’s hard to hang on,” said Spoelstra, promotions manager for the Mighty Ducks hockey team, laughing nervously as she dug her knees against the elephant’s neck. The animal’s shoulders rolled from side-to-side as it walked, creating what others described as the feeling of a small earthquake.

Spoelstra’s elephant was one of 18 that led the parade from the circus train, which parked behind an industrial park after a short trip from Los Angeles on Monday.

After the elephants, 36 horses, four zebras and two camels were unloaded--the elephants squatting deeply to scrunch through the train doors--the parade formed down Lewis Street, turned onto Katella Avenue and passed Anaheim Stadium on the way to the arena. Afternoon traffic was backed up for about 30 minutes.

Some of the several hundred spectators had waited more than an hour to see the parade, which took about five minutes to pass a spot. Most were children and their parents and grandparents, with many bringing along folding chairs, blankets, cameras and picnic baskets.

None seemed disappointed by the parade’s brevity.

Three-year-old Randy Guite of Huntington Beach pointed excitedly with his right hand as every new breed of animal caught his attention, before turning each time to tell his grandmother, Linda Guite, what he had just seen.

At one point, Randy turned and exclaimed “Penguins!”

“What?” his grandmother said, looking briefly puzzled. “No, those are zebras.”

Danielle Lyons, 8, and her sister, Deanne, 4, had come from Costa Mesa to see the parade and were most excited about the elephants, which they had only seen up close once before.

“They’re really big, but the baby elephant was really cute,” Danielle said.

Carol and Darrell Jenkins of Stanton had brought their 3-year-old son Christopher to see the parade. Carol Jenkins said she still has happy memories of seeing circus parades 20 years ago.

“I remember when I was a child, we would go to downtown Anaheim to see the parade and how fun it was to see the animals,” Carol Jenkins said.

Christopher said he was most impressed by the camels because they only had one hump, unlike the two-humped camels he has seen in his story books.

Then, speaking to a visitor, but more for the benefit of his mother, Christopher said: “I’ve never been to the circus, but I might get to go to one someday.”