Candy Land coming to a close for season for Lake Metroparks
Dec. 31—The annual Candy Land experience, set up at Lake Metroparks Penitentiary Glen Nature Center, located at 8668 Kirtland-Chardon Road in Kirtland, has seen many Candy Land experiences come and go.
This year's exhibit, themed Gone to the Birds, will be finishing its seasonal event on New Year's Day. The now-expected Candy Land themed experience will be returning next year for those who missed it. The theme Gone to the Birds has been ongoing since before the exhibit took a break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tony Gazso, an Interpretive Naturalist for Lake Metroparks, says he is sure the experience will return next year, but he isn't sure if it will still be the same theme.
"It seemed to be at least comparable to last year, which was our first year back since COVID," Gazso said. "It was still very successful, a whole lot of people had a lot of fun and no real complaints."
"The theme Candy Land typically changes every few years," Gazso said "I don't know yet if 2024 will be the same theme or a different theme. Candy Land will definitely be back. Whether it's still bird related or not we don't know. We haven't decided on that yet."
Currently, Gazso oversees the sparrows and hawks that fill a large room normally used for meetings and lectures. The past six weeks, a paper and plastic landscape of wetlands, meadows and woodland creatures have taken up residency in the room — a bright life-sized Candy Land-inspired game board trail snakes between surprised-looking owls and stuffed coyotes.
Those who want to play the Candy Land-themed experience go through several areas representing sections of the playing board. The first one, a research station, shows players in different stages of field research and sets the stage for seeing different species of foul and wildlife.
After playing into the board for a few rolls, players will also see a Nature Center Wildlife Rehabilitation mockup, where kids can play in an area that is similar to the real one located just outside of Penitentiary Glen Nature Center.
All of the creations inside have been picked to guide kids to look around and spot things for themselves, with the help of a game box that serves in the place of dice.
Ruby, a bright red bird made of sparkles and different materials, is part of the eye-spy element of Candy Land.
"That's Ruby," Gazso said. "One of the things to do here is to try and find her, and we also have her nest hiding somewhere in here. It's just something else to do and we have a sticker for people if they find her. You get a game box that has cards in it so you can actually play the board game. You draw cards just like the board game and then walk to the different colored spots on the game board."
On the way to the final area of the board is a new addition for this year, a hallway that is bathed in a blacklight that illuminates glowing stars covering the walls. The area represents nocturnal birds and was upgraded for 2023.
"Originally, a couple of years ago it was just a dark tunnel, and we just had a couple of owls in here. But this year we spruced it up and added blacklights and the glowing background with the stars on it. We wanted to add something different."
After players exit the game, they can take a break with hot chocolate in a room nearby. They won't be alone, however, as a snake will be there to provide some company. And she won't be hiding in the trees as black rat snakes are known to do, to many people's surprise.
"We have our new resident Pearl the great rat snake here," Gazso said. "She's our newest resident; she's been here only a couple months."
Paper crafts, this year in the shape of a bluebird, can be taken home or done in the hot chocolate room for a $1 donation.
Next year's updates can be found at www.lakemetroparks.com/events-activities/events/ for those who missed this year's extravaganza.
