Tulip Festival 2015

What is the beautiful place at Agassiz in British Columbia! It is located around 100 km from Vancouver. The annual Tulip Festival was opened from April 1 to 12, 2015.We went there on April 5, 2015. The cost is $5 per person and $10 for parking. It was pretty sunny but a little cold. We came there at 9:00 am and it was the best time to come. One hour later it was pretty busy; it was a long line up for a bus and busy traffic. However, it is worth to see.

Bright Nights at Stanley Park

It passed already a few months from my last post. It is Christmas time,the most wonderful time of the year. I would love to spend holidays with my family but could not visit them this time. I hope I can be with them for next Christmas. Christmas in Russia and Canada is celebrated on different dates, January 7 and December 25 accordingly. For me, it is so weird that I should work on my Christmas on January 7. Anyway...Merry Christmas to everybody! :)

We could enjoy beautiful lights at Stanley Park that was open from November 27th to January 4th (except December 25th).In order to see the lights, you just give donation on the entrance.
Also, you have the opportunity to go on the night train around the Stanley Park that cost $11 what we did not do. It must be beautiful. As always, some pictures are below.

Yellowstone National Park: Mammoth Hot Springs

We were moving back to British Columbia from Ontario and visited on our way a few places in US. One of the interesting places that recently caught attention thousands of people is Yellowstone National Park. Although we were not so lucky with the weather, it was pretty nice to see different colorful formations.

We were there at night on March 29-30. That day in the morning it was earthquake magnitude 4.8 and we were sleeping when it happened. I read that this earthquake was the strongest one since 1980.

The pass ticket to the park costs $25.

I was surprised that many bison walk near buildings in Mammoth Country. It is supposed to be wild animal anyway and I don’t how local people deal with this.  There are also many elks and mule deer. Also we saw bighorn sheep.

In this time of year there are many parts of roads closed at the park and it is understandable. You would see the weather!  The visibility was very bad because of the snow. One of the opened ones was Hot Springs in Mammoth.

There is many discussion about this place lately because of the supervolcano located right there. Especially after some video with running animals that was posted on the internet in the middle of March.  As you can see my photos, animals go nowhere.  If you have some comments related to this topic, please feel free to leave them.

Niagara Falls, Ontario

Usually, I don't write much in my posts, but this time I decided to share my opinion and information that I have about the place I visited. Maybe it will be useful for someone.

Because we moved from British Columbia to Ontario, we found an opportunity to visit Niagara Falls. I had always wanted to go there and here we are. It is an amazing place created by mother nature. You see there how the water is powerful. By the way, the rainbow appears very often that gives more charm to the falls.

Also now there are many other attractions on a different taste. In one word, it is a tourist place. In a hotel we got a brochure with coupons to various attractions,gift shops and even for free parking. Usually if you are more close to the falls, it is more expensive parking. The closest one costs $18, that is a little further $5 for an hour. However, you can find a free parking;  you just need a walk a little.

We were going to Niagara Falls for the weekend in the beginning of the November 2013. The weather already was a little cold and first day was raining a lot. However, we were lucky because tonight the rain stopped and the next day was sunny. Anyway, we found what we would do while it was raining. We visited the Butterfly Conservatory where we watched different colourful butterflies in a different size. I was amazed and was ready be there all day long. Maybe I show some of the pics of butterflies in the next post. At the evening we walked near the biggest fall named Horseshoe Falls and enjoyed different colour of illumination on them.

By the way, if you want to go a few places, it is better to buy the wonder pass on the internet. It includes  the Butterfly Conservatory, Journey Behind the Falls, and Niagara's Fury. From October 25 to April 30 the pass costs $19.95 for one person without taxes. Also a very nice place, I think, is the Bird Kingdom, but we didn't have time to visit it. The gate price is $16.95 without tax, but you can use a coupon that give you a discount $2. You can print it from the website or take it from the brochure at a hotel. However, if you buy the ticket online, it costs $13 without tax.

 If you buy every attraction separately, it is very costly. For example,
                Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory costs $13.50 without tax. Hours of work is 10am-5pm.
                Journey Behind the Falls costs $15.95 without tax. It works during 9am-8pm  but 9am-6pm on Sunday.
                Niagara's Fury costs $13.50 without tax.

Be honest, I wasn't like much Niagara's Fury. If it wasn't included to our pass ticket, I wouldn't go. When you come there, they give you a raincoat. You watched a short animation how the falls were created. Then you are going to a separated room and they imitate a boat shaking it a little, and on the monitor around you you will see a video as you are going on the boat. Sometimes they splash water to make you feel like you on the boat. The size of the monitor is  a half of the wall and you cannot imagine completely that you are on the boat. Overall, I am not impressed at all.

Journey Behind the Falls was nice. You go on the elevator to very foot of the falls where from an observation desk you will see the massive water flow. Also there are a tunnel but not so long with two windows to water flow. It is up to you how much time you will spend there because in fact you will be there just on the observation desk.

It was a pretty enjoyable trip. I hope to go there one more time in summer.

The Falls at Night

Badlands National Park, South Dakota - Part 3

Finally, I found a time to post third part of my pictures from Badlands National Park located in South Dakota.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota - Part 2

Our nature is so amazing and I am happy to have a chance to see some parts of our world and share my photos with you. As I said in my previous post, I would like to continue with Badlands National Park, South Dakota. Here you see quite unusual yellow mounts located there. There are so amazing. One more part of the pics from there is in part 3.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota - Part 1

The next state we visited when we were in USA was South Dakota. We stayed there at night in a pretty famous small american town Deadwood and visited the one of the amazing places I have ever been, the Badlands National Park. It consists from sharply eroded buttes, spires, and pinnacles. 

In next three posts  I would like to show photos from the national park. I divided the post about the park on three parts because of two reasons. First of all, I have too many photos from there :)  And,  the second reason is  some variety in the colour of  mounds. I would even say that photos in the part 2 and 3 maybe are more adorable. It would be great to hear your opinion too.

By the way, if you plan to visit the park, the ticket costs just $15. 

Grouse Mountain

In July we with our friends visited Grouse Mountain located in North Vancouver, one of the beautiful places of  British Columbia.

UBC Botanical Garden and Canopy Walkway

Lately I have been very busy with my studies. I'm taking a pretty intensive program which don't give me a free time at all. This week is pretty hard for me because I have several exams. However, today after the one of them I decided a little relax and come back to my blog.

In August this year my husband and I visited Botanical Garden located on the campus of University British Columbia. This is a typical garden. However, we liked very much canopy walkway there, several bridges on the trees located pretty high and the bridges swing (some shots below). 

By the way, in the garden we saw a grass-snake (I hope it was a grass-snake :)). Actually, I'm afraid of any kind of snakes but decided take some shots (you can see them in this post). 

If you have any questions about the garden, please ask me. I will be happy to answer.

Capilano Salmon Hatchery

Today I'm going to share with you a lovely place where you can go for a hike and also see many salmons. It is located not far from Capilano Suspension Bridge, in Capilano River Regional Park.

The weather was so sunny so some of my photos are exposed, unfortunately. 

Stanley Park

Today I would like to present one of the beautiful parks of Vancouver, Stanley Park. Many tourists visit this park every year. This park is different in every season. In summer, there are many gorgeous roses.
I've already shared some photos with flowers from  Stanley Park that was taken in April. Also photos of squirrels are from there. By the way, Vancouver Aquarium is located in this park too. In general, many pictures were taken there.

This park is an amazing place to relax and enjoy the nature. It combines  age-long trees, a garden, and a beach. You can do different activities there. I f you are in Vancouver, you should to visit it.

These photos were taken at the beginning of July this year.

Barnet Marine Park

Lately I haven't had a time to blog because of my studies. But now I've decided to find some time for sharing some pictures that was taken about two weeks ago. Recently we've found out a new beautiful park near a bay in Burnaby in which we'd never been before. Burnaby is a city located immediately to Vancouver. I would say, and not only me, this city is a part of Vancouver. 
There is a small beach and many places for barbecue. It's a pretty place to take a rest in. By the way, I took some photos of birds at that place.

Queen Elizabeth Park

One of the beautiful parks I've ever seen is Queen Elizabeth Park located in Vancouver. It's so colorful, an, by the way, it's absolutely free.

Here are the photos taken last year with a simple camera in May (по-русски мыльницей :) ) and semi-professional camera in September 2011. You can see a difference between them.

Chinese Garden

Last weekend my husband and I were walking in the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver.  Big fish and turtles are swimming there. For me it's was so interesting; I was looking at them like a child. The park is small but beautiful. I think I will go there again some day.  Here are some pictures from there.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

While it's again raining in Vancouver, I decided to return to my hiking in Capilano Suspension Bridge in April. The suspension bridge was originally built in 1889; it's 136 metres long and 70 metres above the river. 

Recently cliffwalk, like small bridges, became another plus of this place. When I was there last April, they just mentioned about it. Now it's already open. 

Moreover, this place has a mini-museum about native people. 

This is the interesting place, but it's expensive (for one adult - $31.95) and too small for hiking. I bought the membership for one year since the price was the same for one visit and for membership for a year. By the way, another suspension bridge is located in Vancouver, a little shorter. It's absolutely free and there is also a beautiful place, but about it some another time :) 

Here are some pictures were taken by a simple camera and weren't processed. Dates of taking pictures are April 2011 and 2012. So, this post is not about the photos but about the place. 

University of British Columbia

Like everyone, I don't want to stay at home on weekends, so my husband and I decided to go for a walk and depart to University of British Columbia (UBC) where he studied. The campus is very beautiful. There are some buildings in a different style; I'm going to show you some of them right now.

(Click on photos to enlarge)