Search This Blog

Monday, January 9, 2012

[Alight at Night Festival] Light show at Upper Canada Village, Morrisburg, ON

What did you do in the new year's eve?
We went to see a light show called Alight at Night festival, at Upper Canada Village("UCV").
The Upper Canada Village is just over-an-hour drive away from Ottawa, near U.S. border.
We love the village. We go there at least once a year. I think we will buy a seasonal pass for coming 2012 season.
The Upper Canada Village sketches a 19th-century village in the Province of Upper Canada.

The Village depicts life in a rural English Canadian setting during the year 1866.
There are 40+ historical buildings, 


including several working mills (woollen mill, grist-mill and sawmill) and trades buildings (blacksmith, tinsmith, cabinetmaker, cooper, bakery, cheese-maker) you can visit. You can buy bread and cheese they make in 19th-century way.



And there are custumed historical interpreters who tell you what life was like in the 19th century. We visit the UCV mostly in summer. The village is open from April to October.


They perform an open-air show as they would have done 2 centuries ago.


They turn into a real tavern and pub in winter time.

You can talk to and take photos with ladies of the old time :)
(This photo was taken back in 2010)


You will have a chance to pull a calf or/and milk a cow :)
(this photo was taken in July 2011)
These are some of the many things you can see and do at the Upper Canada Village in summer.
I will post summer visits of 2012 as I'm sure that we will go back this summer.

The village reopens for a month-long light show, ie.. Alight at Night Festival from early December to early January.



You can see about a million lights.

We had planned to go to see the light show in 2010, but we couldn't make it unfortunately.
When we found time to plan for seeing the light show, from mid-December, the weather was almost crazy with freezing rain and snow storm. To make it worse, the temperature plunged to -24C(or -11 Fahrenheit)
Finally, on the very last day of 2011,
the weather became pretty cooperative :)



Ticket price($13/adult and $8/youth(over 6)) are very reasonable considering that admission, unlimited train ride and wagon ride are all inclusive.


We started with a little train trip.


As the train operates mainly in summer, it doesn't have any window or door!
They put plastic windowy  cover instead of switching to a winter(?) train.


Well, it was not an ideal window to see outside :(
but, it kept us nearly warm.


You can see the glowing train coming.


Then we entered the village.


As the weather was mild, there were lots of people.


Pablo had his dinner, chicken wrap sandwich I made, before we started our visit!


Lights on the church were changing the colors.


As the church was completely white out, it absorbed  and reflected the lights so well.

Green was very pretty on the church.


The name of the church is Christ church.


The church was built in 1837 as a church of England. 

Every single building in the village was glowing with lights.


You can have an afternoon tea or any meal at this hotel.
The hotel was built in the 1790s by Daniel Myers, a New York Loyalist whose family came from the Palatinate region of Germany, as a house, it was also used as an inn.
  


Then we had a wagon ride. 


Both in summer and winter, wagon ride is a good way to scan the village.


This is a "cheddar" cheese factory where the village brand cheese and cheese curd are produced daily from April to October.
The visit is really interesting. I'll post about it in summer.


 Light house was standing lonely, all by itself.
Well, light house is meant to be standing along though, isn't it? :)
Light house was beaming like a star.


There also was sound & light show.


I find it's kind of must for a light festival.
I'd like to put some kind of light show, of course with sound, in my front yard, for the month of December.
My neighbors would go crazy... :(


 It's the corner store of the village.
Inside the store is, completely and disappointingly, modern.

 We went back to Town hall of which garden held the light & sound show.
We entered the building to see the exhibition of gingerbread houses made by professional bakers.

Wow. There were amazing gingerbread architectures, something you wouldn't have imagnied that you coule make with gingerbread.

Japanese style gingerbread houses.

This is the replica of the Christ church standing in the village.

An elf village?

Gingerbread merry-go-round.


Fairytale story book made with gingerbread.
 Then we came out and enjoyed a walk on the snow.


Candle lights which must be powered by something else.


The lights looked so warm and comforting.

We had a family photo too :)

Remi and Pablo with their mommy.
It looks very late in the night, but it was even before 7 p.m.
Happy Pablo.


And joyful Remi.


This little fellow fell fast asleep on our way back to Ottawa.

I miss Christmas!!!
It's so far away :(
I don't want this year to go fast.
At the same time, I want Christmas to come quick.
I know I'm not making sense :(

It's my biggest dilemma!

Have a nice comfy Monday evening!

Alight at Night Festival

0 comments:

Post a Comment