Willard State Hospital Part 2: Once More Into the Breach

So, now it's time to get into some of the creepier Willard pics. We got to wander through the Grand View building, which was very cool. It was originally built as the 1st agricultural college in the state, but when the college moved to Cornell, the hospital came in. This building was where "women of a calmer nature" were housed. Mainly post-partum depression and such...

This building was also featured in an episode of Paranormal State. You can watch the episode online here if you are interested... http://www.scaryghostvideos.org/98.html
I'll warn you ahead of time, though that Paranormal State is a terrible, terrible show. I mean it's really cheesy and bad. There are a lot better ghost hunting shows out there. Unfortunately, this is the only one that's been to Willard...

Though I did enjoy their chalkboard they left behind...

And their whiteboard...

Most of the building was old, but pretty normal. Maybe slightly One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but nothing that bad.

Then we got into the basement and things began to change. This probably was nothing but an old storage area, but it makes you wonder...


I can't imagine walking around these tunnels at 2am.

I would love to know what this graffiti says...


This is what's left of the fireplace in the kitchen. Of the creepy basement of doom...

Jaime wouldn't get more than five feet away from me the entire time. Sadly, no ghost sightings, though. And I doubt the folks from Paranormal State did either...

Stay tuned for Part 3, where we visit... The Morgue...

Willard State Hospital Part 1: And what did you do this weekend?

I'll tell you what I did. I toured the Willard State Hospital. And it was awesome... For a little background information, Willard was a mental hospital that was open from 1869-1995 for people with chronic mental illnesses. Nowadays Willard houses a drug treatment center, a shock camp for people who committed minor crimes and a day care center. Though a lot of the buildings were put to use, many more have been left to decay.



Yesterday, some of the buildings were opened to the public for tours to raise money for the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Daycare, which is on campus. Former employees were at all the buildings to talk about the history, which was nice. The tours themselves were pretty disorganized because the campus is so huge you have to drive to many of the buildings. Jaime and I lost our tour after the first building and decided to just look around at our own pace and that worked out better.

Some buildings were in better shape than others. Hadley Hall is still used by the Department of Corrections for training, so it was probably in the best shape.



Inside was a very nice auditorium and gym. The woman who we talked to there said that they actually had a lot of colleges come to give performances for the patients and the staff. But the coolest thing here had to be the bowling alley in the basement.


Yup, a real bowling alley. Jaime was really excited to see this. They used to have staff and patient leagues. Patients worked at the bowling alley setting pins and maintaining it. Sadly, the picture doesn't show the Brady-esque yellow carpeting. The scorecards and old ashtrays were still there. It was like they closed up in the middle of someone's game...
Anyway, that's just some of the tour. I'll start getting into the creepier stuff in part two...

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Hey all... At least I have an excuse this time for not writing, as I was in Disneyworld all last week! Woot!

This being both my first real vacation in years not spent at home and also my first time at Disneyworld, I was pretty excited. I also got my picture taken with Stitch! We spent the week onsite at the Pop Century Resort and I can honestly say I still didn't get to see everything. Words cannot express how massive Disneyworld is...

I could probably go into great detail on the daily activities of my trip, but I will be nice and not do this. I will however note the highlights...

-The Disney Dining Plan is essential. If you take the time to research where you want to eat and make dining reservations well in advance, it is more than worth it. Not only does it save a ton on money, but there are some excellent restaurants at Disney. The Yak and Yeti at the Animal Kingdom was my personal favorite. Least favorite was the Biergarten at Epcot. However, Jimmy really wanted to go there and at least the beer was good and the show was entertaining. Still didn't block out the taste of the terrible food...

-I got my picture taken with Stitch!!!



On our last morning, Jaime and I went to the Ohana! character breakfast. So, we got to meet Lilo and Stitch, as well as Mickey and Pluto. Sadly, I think I was more excited about meeting Stitch than Jaime... I'm such a child.

-Jaime rode Expedition Everest nine times. This was thanks to the Magic Hours, which allowed her to continually loop around back in line in the space of two hours. I don't know how she managed to do it and not get sick...

-The entire atmosphere of Disneyworld is amazing. Everything is perfect. Sometimes too perfect. I was slightly disturbed to wake up at 7am and find workers already painting walls that did not appear to need any painting. Jimmy actually left a tiny piece of trash out just to see how quickly someone would come along to pick it up. It took less than an hour. Although it sometimes was reminiscent of David Foster Wallace's cruise ship experience in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, it truly was a sight to behold. Everything... was... perfect... No matter where you went, there was something fascinating.

-And people were happy. Everyone was friendly. I can't tell you how many conversations I had with total strangers that would not have happened in the normal world. It really is "The Happiest Place on Earth."

-For those that are interested, I uploaded most of the vacation pictures on my Flickr site.

Anyways, I can completely see now why there are people who return to Disney year after year. It's an overwhelming experience. And I'm think I'll probably be returning in the future, as well...