Before rain started .

November 25, 2019

Yes, this was one of the last days before the rain caught us on the road. We visited Barkerville - a historic town for Gold Rush days back in the past. The city was named after B.Barker who first struck gold in this location in mid XIX century. He found over 1000kg of gold and the news spread quickly and the town was build quickly as well. Today it’s a historic park and town, were you can try gold panning, walk around the streets, attend some shows and walking tours and even go on some trails around the city.

The most exciting part for us was to find a photography studio and by a miracle take an open spot to get an old school photo of us :) Remember the one we did in Korea? Us wearing hanbook :) Scroll down to see whom we were in a Cariboo Gold Rush days :)

Far far away in the middle of the center you can see moose :)

After this shot my camera died so don’t have much images from there, just few snaps on my phone :)

A Day in Detroit .

June 22, 2019

What do you know about Detroit? I knew a city had a strong automobile industry, GM and Ford (Chrysler) has a headquarters here, diverse culture in Detroit influenced some music styles and that few years ago city filed for bankruptcy. Which in my opinion didn’t go far even today. You can sense this while wandering around the downtown. There are tall buildings in the middle of Detroit that are abandoned, people look sad and depressed. I wished I could be teleported back in 1940-50s when the city was booming.

Downtown area has lots of beautiful buildings, lots LOTS of churches and a huge Institute of Arts where I spend most of my time. It was worth it! :) The other thing that I loved was open roof parkades where I could go up and take some downtown skyline photos!

Detroit Institute of Arts(DIA) is a huge museum where I spent 4hours of exploring and wandering around. Sounds crazy but you could easily stay there for a whole day! I’ve seen art from ancient cultures to today’s contemporary art. It felt so good. Just to walk and observe all this. Some galleries were more empty then the other ones so it felt like I am there just by myself :) Didn’t mind that!

In the photo above you can see Mushhushshu-dragon, Symbol of the God Marduk. According to the card next to this mosaic it was made in 604 - 562 BCE.

When I saw these rings at first I could not believe my eyes! These are humongous and done with skills :)

DIA has a huge collection of Diego M. Rivera’s work. The scale of some of his works are really impressive. He was born in Mexico, early in his life went to Spain. This is where he got surrounded by European Art. He is known for showing every day people doing their work. This was a fave thing for Soviet propaganda ‘art’. He got commissioned to paint a mural for Red Army Club in Moscow. Shortly after authorities canceled his contract because D. Rivera got involved in anti-soviet politics. A year later he was expelled from a communist party in Mexico as well. That didn’t really affect his career. He got huge contracts in States and was constantly working artist. To add on top of that had lots of lovers and probably enjoyed his life :)

So this little gothic chapel back in the day which is XVI century (If my memory is not lying) did belong to a wealthy family in Belgium for a private devotion. It was a trendy thing to have your own chapel(!) The image below shows the same chapel on the right side corner. In 1923 the chapel was gifted to DIA and piece by piece taken apart, numbered and put together again. This just blew my mind!

Bye bye Detroit! :)

Mountains are calling, rain is falling .

June 8, 2019

Things that I remember: Rain, fire, fire, sun, coffee in between, fire, hike and delicious food.

Manning Park it’s huuuge and birds by the lake are so used to humans they land on your palm with no fear! Remember San Diego Zoo had lots of birds too but they were not paying attention to people. Question here is - did I get the bird to land in my palm?? I think the answer is obvious ;) It was another successful camping trip. The only thing that I didn’t realize before going there that the actual season starts in June, otherwise lot’s of trails are closed and you have no access.

But! We did few smaller hikes around the lake, Youn took a little swim in a lake but for me it was too cold so I just recorded him ;P Scrolled down and enjoy beautiful views of Manning Park!

D♥︎

For the days you feel at your best .

May 18, 2019

Before we head on to our next nature vacation I wanna share images from few years. Youn and I went to our first camping trip to States. I think this is where we realized how much we want to do this together and the days we spend there we still think of as our best camping days!

We arrived late late at night and all spots were taken so we end up sleeping in a car and this image above was what we saw when we woke up. And a miracle happened!!! Someone left early early and we took their spot. (Back then this campsite didn’t have reservation available).

We slowly set up a tent that we borrowed. It was a huuuuge one where you can just walk in ;) and made one of our favorite breakfast! It was corn tortilla+egg+bacon+avocado+pickles(!!!)+tomatoes. You get it, all the good stuff ;)

Even now when I look at these photos it looks soooo delicious ;)

The reason why we went camping to States was based on fire ban in Canada. We both can’t imagine camping without having a fire.

We did some hiking around and this haze came all the from Canada!

Watch this short video: Diablo lake

Like a little happy chipmunk ;)

Getting ready my fiiiirstt marshmallow ;)

Here is a beautiful panoramic shot from a look out to Diablo Lake.

Beautiful beautiful area and river water is from glacier so it stays freezingly cold even on hot summer days! I will always go back there to cherish the first time ;)