Alight at Night

On Tuesday night Lenny and I drove up to Morrisburg, ON, about a 40 minute drive, to check out Upper Canada Village's Alight at Night. It was really pretty, not too cold, and just the right amount of entertainment for something self-guided. One of the buildings even had the lights timed to Christmas carols played on overhead speakers.

I've been to UCV during the summer quite a bit but never during the winter. A lot of the buildings were closed (obviously) and there wasn't really a lot to do or read, but we had a great time just being by ourselves, outside, with pretty things all around.

Construction on the park began in 1958 as part of the St. Lawrence Seaway project. The Seaway required the permanent flooding of ten communities in the area, known as The Lost Villages. As a consequence, Upper Canada Village was incorporated as part of the project's heritage preservation plan. Many of the buildings in Upper Canada Village were transported directly from the villages to be flooded.

Here are some pictures of us out and about in this town "stuck" in the 1860s (+ lights).


Hmm I wonder who that is infront of that strange looking Christmas tree?

Flash on: It's Lenny!

Hmmm who is that you say?
It's a me! Heather! I bundled up so well for this outing.

Another attempt to show you some of the million lights.
Inside one of the buildings they had the displays from their annual gingerbread house competition. Check out some of these amazing creations!
A very realistic Santa's toolbox:
An excellent replica of one of the churches at Upper Canada Village:

An awesome Christmas tree with soooo many candies. One day I will create an epic gingerbread creation like this.
This one was entitled something like a "Whoville Christmas." Pretty well done, eh?
One of the other buildings that was open was the bakery. This guy bakes 85 loafs of bread in a stone oven that takes three hours to heat twice a day. We ended up buying a loaf in the shoppe on the way out and it was delicious! The flour is all ground at the grist mill on site too so it doesn't get much more local than that.

This was a bear figurine we considered getting to commemorate our trip but in the end decided a picture was best.

This video gives perhaps a better recap of the lights compared to my beginner camera skills:





Well there you go, a recap of our trip to UCV. I didn't end up taking any pictures of the near dozen carriages and horse-drawn wagon rides because I didn't want to spook the horses. Hopefully some of you will get a chance to check it out someday.