Greeley is very similar to Athens, (and Columbia, Missouri for that matter), in terms of city population and the fact that there is a large college campus in the downtown area. The University of Georgia (UGA) in downtown Athens and the University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou) are both HUGE, with each having more than 32,000 students. Enrollment at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) is roughly 1/3 of that figure. So while the overall college town theme is the same, UNC is scaled back in all respects, which is one reason why Heather likes it here so much. Everything moves at a much less intense pace.

I had no problems finding a parking space in one of the primary campus lots on my way back from my picture taking adventure. Maybe the upcoming holiday had a lot to do with that. But UNC's Thanksgiving break wouldn't start until Wednesday, meaning school was in session when I arrived. Even so, I had no problems parking in the lot next to where I needed to be.

Heather and her coworker, Tom, treated me to a campus walking tour when I arrived. The scaled back aspect of the campus became apparent almost immediately. UNC's campus is less than half the size of what I am used to at UGA which made for a nice walk.

Ross Hall is one of the primary academic buildings at the southern end of the campus. It's a large building that looks like it's been added to a few times, and now resembles a lower case letter "h" as written by someone with lousy penmanship, (like myself).

A lot of the physical science disciplines call this building home.

The center of the "h" is occupied by a nice open space courtyard.

It looks like a nice place to hang out and enjoy the sun as the visitor seen in the photo above was doing. I tried (unsuccessfully) to catch a quick photo of him as he was posing.

He expressed his displeasure with the paparazzi by running away.

McKee Hall sits north of Ross Hall, and is home to a lot of the teacher education disciplines.

Like Ross Hall, the design of the building also features a center courtyard. Although at McKee Hall, the open-air courtyard sits under the building's tower.

I like the overall design, especially the ceiling.

The Michener Library is named after author James A. Michener.

James A. Michener Library.

The Pulitzer-prize winning novelist (and Pennsylvania native) was both a graduate (Masters in Education), and faculty member at the University in the late 1930s and early 1940s

Walking toward the football stadium is where the scaled back nature of the campus was most obvious to me.

Nottingham Field is home to the UNC Bears football team and the school's track & field events. Some kind of practice was taking place when we walked by.

The stadium's capacity is listed as just over 8,500 people. I had to smile as someone who has experienced what life is like in Athens when 93,000 Georgia Bulldogs football fans converge on Sanford Stadium. But that's the beauty of this place. It's not a crowded mess, nor is it a traffic nightmare. While I'm sure things can get hectic at times, the scale is much less than what I'm used to.

The Bank of Colorado indoor arena follows the same philosophy as the football field. Capacity is right around 2,700 people, (compared to the 10k+ capacity of the Stegeman Coliseum at UGA).

The indoor arena is part of the Butler-Hancock Athletic Center which features athletic offices, training rooms, and SES classrooms.

Butler-Hancock Athletic Center.

Next to the Athletic Center is the Campus Recreation Center which is basically a big gymnasium for faculty, staff, and students. All the normally seen goodies – weight rooms, indoor track, climbing wall, swimming pool, fitness rooms, etc. – can be found within.

We passed by Turner Hall, one of the many dorms, on our way back to Ross Hall.

At this point, Tom asks me if I wanted to check out something happening in the Snake Lab. Yes I would !

Dr. Stephen Mackessy studies venomous snakes and snake venom composition and happened to be in his lab when I was there. I know absolutely nothing about snakes or snake research. But it sounds like the science of snake venom would require being able to extract the venom from the snake before you could go any further. Being able to do this in some manner other than getting bit by the snake would probably be step one in this process. That very activity happened to be on the agenda today. While I was excited to see something like this, I don't think the research subjects shared my enthusiasm.

One of the research subjects tried to opt out of today's proceedings.

Dr. Steve has been doing this for many years and is quite familiar with how to not get bit.

On the agenda for today was to collect some snake venom.

The process involves placing tubes around the fangs to collect the venom.

All I know is that I'd end up in the hospital.

And from what Dr. Steve said about today's research subjects, (I believe some kind of rattlesnake, not sure really), that's exactly where I'd be.

Getting close to the snakes didn't bother me at all, (I actually found it extremely fascinating).

Getting to see something like that was great !

I don't ever recall seeing "extracting snake venom" on anyone's list of vacation activities.

But I was glad I was here today.

Heather used the rest of the afternoon to show me some of the local sights before the day ended. At this point, her Thanksgiving break had officially arrived and set the stage for more intense sightseeing tomorrow.