Cazenovia Weekend Part 2: Birds of Prey, Game Room, Comedian and Monsters University.

We made it back to the Cazenovia Campus with some time to spare before the Birds of Prey show. Disappointed that we missed the Zoo to You demo, but excited to see the Birds we got ourselves some great seats and prepared for some rescued birds.
I personally have never been so close to such creatures and the presented was great about answering questions and telling the crowd about their rescue, eating habits, and their natural intent. First up  with the several owls.

This guy was my personal favorite. He played along with the demonstrator and offered us a "who,who" or is it a "ho, ho"? Either way it was fun to hear, and he even showed off his wing span. He reminded me of Owl from Winnie the Pooh.

Tami's favorite was this little guy who resembles a monkey. He was cute, but perhaps the least bit interested in what was going on and when perched he stayed as far away from his fowl friends as he possibly could.

Gavin's favorite was the Snowy Owl.

I thought this guy was pretty cute too.

They were great fun. Here are a few more.

The least favorite was the Turkey vulture. They are so symbolic of death, that they are most peoples least favorite. Death and Ugly. She can keep that guy far enough away from me.

Both Gavin and Alex got to be part of the show. Gavin demonstrated how the human arm works vs a birds wing, while Alex got to hold a birds nest and help demonstrate what one should do if a baby bird happens to fall out of his nest.

It was pretty exciting to be this close to all these birds, it was also very interesting and neat to hear about their wild lives and special innate features. 

After the birds we had a little time to kill before any other planned activities so we spent tons of time, and even returned twice to the campus game room, where the kids played air hockey, blared juke box music and Tami and I tried (I mean failed) at playing pool.

After some games, we headed off to the FREE photo booth. These are always such fun. We grouped together and followed the recommended poses. Here is what we ended up with (sorry they are pictures of our pictures)

They didn't tell us to stop moving during the pose, so several came out blurry. Tami and I did our theme on Jersey girls. I thought for sure the fist pump would have been required.

The kids did Austin Powers. Alex barley moved, but Gavin and Allie went all the way Groovy Baby.

After the photo booth I showed off my former dorm room in Hubbard Hall. Room 101 is now a safety office.

I felt so special in this room. Due to overcrowding my freshmen year they had to use this space as rooms. I met my good friend Jeanine that year and we were the only kids on campus (at the time) with a suite. The room had two rooms and our own bathroom. It was the only dorm room on the floor and steps away from the cafeteria. We didn't even have an RA, and sometimes we were forgotten about when it came to dorm activities. I also had several roomates that year. We just couldn't seem to keep students. Jeanine, Me, Lauren, Nicole then Lauren left, then we had Jeanine, Me, Alicia, and Nicole, then Nicole left...final semester we had Jeanine, Me, Alicia and Darla. I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with me or Jeanine, but I'm not 100% positive.

View of Hubbard Hall.

After some driving around Cazenovia, which is a sweet little village with shops, beautiful old houses, a lake, and tons of charm, we made our way to another residence I lived at for a while during my Cazenovia Days. (I didn't get pictures of my first off campus apartment where I lived with my newborn son and his dad, and the campus apartments that I lived in my Jr. year while I was pregnant has since been torn down and an art building has been built there.) I did get some pictures of the home I live in for part of my senior year and was devastated at the condition of the place.

I tried a web search of some possible pictures of this place before it became a run down weed infested, rotting structure of a place with no luck. There was some stories that went with this place if I remember and was once a very famous boarding stable, for people like Robert Redford. (I cannot be positive about this as my memory and where I actually heard this story is vague.)  Anyways, it did not look at all like this when I lived her nearly 20 years ago, and I had such wonderful memories of the barn, the horses, the long walks in the meadow and playing with my young son. It was sad to see the place look like this.

My apartment was on the second floor where the green shutters are in this picture, I entered from this back door. There were three apartments in the place in total and I never met the family below me. (Which is strange), but my neighbor across the hall is now a successful DJ on one of the local country stations. (Becky) She and her daughter Alana lived there. Becky was newly divorced and trying to get her feet back on the ground. Becky was a great help and would often let me leave my sleeping son in bed as she listened from across the hall as I would return a friend back to campus or made a quick run to the store. Days were simple back then. Seeing the house like this sadden's me.

Dinner was at McDonalds. (the only Fast food restaurant in Cazenovia) It was much cheaper and more appealing to the kids (myself too) then the campus dinners offered.  Plus they had great toys in the Happy Meals. So I had to get one for myself.

and if your going to have a burger from Micky D's you've got to put french fries on the burger...its the best way to eat them.

We made it back to Cazenovia moments before the Photo booth closed and got one more picture. This time Gavin sat out, and found a student to get the wi-fi # so he could access his i-pod instead. Do you think he had enough of our silly games?

The Alumni reception was next, I didn't see any of my former classmates, but we did talk to a few guys who graduated a few years behind me. It was an entire baseball team who came to support the head coaches induction and awards. I thought that was very nice.

After a few glasses of wine and beer, as well as a few strange snacks, we made our way back to the game room to make the next few hours stretch before the Comedian. (This was the only picture I took at the reception and Tami looks tired, sorry for keeping you up so late).

We did not attend the awards ceremony and allowed the kids to play hide and seek as well as some more games before we were all feeling thirsty and we headed to the next door area. Sort of a late night cafe/pub that offered drinks, coffee, and sandwiches. The girls were unable to figure out how to take our cash since the students use their id cards for payment, so one nice young lady offered up her points. She reported that she had just had the gastric by-pass surgery and could not eat her allotted meal credits. She gave and paid for 7 (why 7 I don't know) drinks for all of us and they let my son go on the computer under their account. How nice.

After some much needed water and soda we headed to the theater for the comedian, Rob Gleeson. We were awarded additional FREE t-shirts that were left over from earlier in the day, so all of us now have shirts, and even though we arrived early there were very few seats left and the kids found us some in the front row!  Sitting in the front row at a comedian show is like sitting up front at the whale show. Your gonna get it...either wet or heckled. Better front row then no row, so we sat.

There was our three and one other young girl right in the front center and the comedian singled the group out almost immediately. He poked fun at our three who were lost when asked who's siblings they were (It was parents weekend) and they all looked at him clueless, leaving an open joke to be had. Gavin played along really well, and at one point he got up to go to the bathroom and the comedian followed him. At the top of the stairs Gavin explains, but I have to go to the bathroom. It became very funny and Gavin was a real sport about the whole thing and played along well with the show. He even approached Gavin twice to tell him how helpful he was at being a part of the act.
He was pretty funny, and we all had fun with this. Rob Gleenson has also been involved with i-Carley which the kids all were excited about as well as playing an extra on Two and 1/2 men. Gavin refused to get a picture with him, but Allie didn't and she smiled wide with a pose at the end of the show.

Minutes after the comedy show was the featured movie. Monsters University. The audience was provided FREE popcorn and soda, and we all found more appropriate seats to view the screen.

All settled in popcorn in hand, the lights went low and Monsters University began.

The movie was tons of fun, the day was even better and we all maxed out any energy we had left in us as we drove home. As always we found that Cazenovia continues to make tons of enjoyment and I keep coming back to these types of events year after year. Already anticipating next years adventure.