A trip to the Zoo.

          March marked the month which held Brent's last ever Spring Break from Buffalo.  In order to make it count we made sure to keep a full schedule of events to keep us happily occupied.  That list consisted of; the Corning Museum of Glass, St Patrick's Day with his family, watching an abundance of March madness, a going away party for a dear friend of our who has moved to DC, and the Syracuse Zoo!  Brent and I headed to the Zoo for the day with Dylan and Leda, friends of ours who are a quite adorable couple, and Leda's friend, Kelly, from North Carolina who was visiting for the week.  I hadn't been to the Syracuse Zoo, or a zoo at all for that matter, since I was about 11.  Though I haven't been to a plethora of zoos in my lifetime, I imagine that the zoo in Syracuse is not the most awe inspiring of them all.  Regardless, it was still super fun and interesting to read about the animals and, obviously for me, to take their photos!  Confession: Okay, I took more photos of Brent and my friends than the animals, but they are just as cute as Red Pandas, and far less camera shy.  I will definitely go back again this summer as it's a pretty cheap form of entertainment for a nice day.  If you ever go and are short on time, the penguins are a must-see.

Weiner's a Winner.

          Having gotten to bed early most nights as of late, I've had the opportunity to do a lot of "bedtime reading".  Two of the books I read recently were the contents of my care package from Alex mentioned in a previous post and they both were quick and easy reads.  Jennifer Weiner's In Her Shoes, and Best Friends Forever were the books in question.  Her books each gave the points of view from each of her significant characters which I think made it interesting to see the events play out from inside their minds rather than a narrative of events.  In Her Shoes was definitely my favorite of the two.  I hadn't seen the movie before so it was nice to be surprised at how everything played out.  Best Friends Forever didn't necessarily captivate my attention to the point where I couldn't put it down, but I still finished it in a matter of a few days.  All in all, both good reads and I will definitely keep Jennifer Weiner as an option when picking out books in the future.  I recommend them both! 

Glass is underrated.

          In March, Brent finally took me to the Corning Museum of Glass after 4 long years of me begging to go.  Though a museum of glass is not primarily what Brent loves to do on his spring break, he was nice enough to oblige and watch the hot glass shows and demonstrations with me, front row!  We saw glass breaking demonstrations, where we learned which glasses are used where in life, and for what reasons. We looked through the museum of all the old pieces of glass dating back ages, and we watched a lazer demonstration using glass fibers in comparison to copper ones where we learned why High Definition televisions are so high quality!  I loved the whole day, but the hot glass show was like nothing I'd seen before. Watching them manipulate the glass into beautiful pieces is all in a day's work for the gaffers and it seriously made me re-think my profession.  Corning is a quaint little town where we enjoyed a meat free lunch at a pizza place on account of lent, and we enjoyed the long ride back with a gorgeous view of Seneca Lake, it's wineries, and all the little towns had to offer.

Florida lovin'

          Though this post is coming a little late, Brent's family and I did go directly to Florida after our trip to South Carolina.  We had an incredibly relaxing afternoon by the pool at the hotel which we followed up with watching the SU game at a local Irish pub.  The following day we made our way to Islands of Adventure, Universal where I had a life changing day! Okay, maybe it wasn't life saving/life changing but it was a very intense day for me and my deep seeded Harry Potter love.  Having been to Florida only once when I was four, and remembering absolutely nothing from the trip apart from what the photos looked like, this was like the first time for me.  Nothing could have made my Hogwarts experience better.  I was so impressed by the attention to detail that was taken inside the castle and Hogsmead that I found myself feeling real magic all day long!  My incredible cousin Jeff was nice enough to come meet us for the day since it's only a half hour trip from his school.  He served as our own personal tour guide of the park and was equipped with many interesting facts one wouldn't know without being informed.  We had a blast all day at the park and after relaxing a bit we took on the night scene in Downtown Disney.  Jeff had mentioned an Irish restaurant earlier in the day and when we found it, we all agree it was absolutely incredible.  It was a large restaurant with a beautiful bar and a stage for live music.  After all of us sat at the bar enjoying a few drinks and taking in the authentic Irish music we were seated and served meals that I'm sure they serve in heaven.  The restaurant, Raglan Road, has a band perform there 6 nights a week who are accompanied by very talented Irish step dancers who danced close enough to us that we could have tripped them. The whole ambiance of the restaurant and the band kept us there until after midnight and wanting more when the band wrapped up, but we had to settle with buying the CD to listen to on the long 24 hour car ride home. 

          After Orlando we drove to Gainsville for a day to see Brent's cousin Nora play in her freshman year for the Florida Gators woman's lacrosse team.  After countless awards and accomplishments in high school, Nora isn't slowing down in college.  She's already tied the schools record for draw controls in a single game and has been named Rookie of the week twice for her division.  It was so nice to spend the day and night with Brent's extended family and cheer on Nora and she continues on her path of greatness as another female athlete of the Ellis family that is making a name for herself.