Jacques Cartier Park is on the other side of the Ottawa River in Gatineau. There was parking there…read morebut it filled up quickly and we ended up parking on the street quite far down. Either get there early or be prepared to walk back. It was such a pleasure wandering through the various plant displays. There was a lot of people when we went but it was expected since it was a lovely summer day. There's everything from trains, animals (puffins, moose, dragons), Mother Earth, a self playing piano and of course quintessential Canadian displays such as mounties and hockey players and even a vegetable patch.

We've had an amazing time, last year, and so I've had no grand expectations visiting it again (it…read moreis now called Mosaiculture), but boy, was I wrong. The new tree statue is absolutely spectacular, absolutely eclipsing the lady with the waterfall, from last year. Will definitely repeat, in a year or more from now.

BEWARE of this company FMG (Festival de montgolfieres de Gatineau)- we bought VERY expensive…read moretickets ($40 each) to see the balloons launch last weekend, and then had a family emergency where we could not attend- we were told in person that the tickets would be refunded and when I followed up the company refused. Also, I found out afterwards that you can see the balloons launch FOR FREE on the opposite side of the fence and apparently (because of the weather) the balloons didn't even leave the ground that night! Total RIP-OFF and poor customer service!

I accidentally wound up in Gatineau around the time of the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival. I…read moreremembered reading a quick blurb about it being one of the largest hot air balloon festivals in the world (if not THE largest) so my boyfriend and I trekked over from our hotel to check it out. It was fabulous! There were dozens of balloons taking flight, and not just your typical balloons. There were cats, Noah's Ark, a giant panda, and many more. The photo opportunities were infinite and I wish we could have stayed longer. The festival continues into the afternoon with food, music, and fun for everyone in attendance, but unfortunately we had to go once the last few balloons had gone up into the sky. I highly recommend trying to come out and see this, especially if you're a flight/festival fanatic! The good news for anyone who may want to visit from the US? It's always over Labor Day (or Labour Day if you prefer!) so you could easily make a long weekend of the adventure. And what an adventure it is!

I found out about a street food fair at the High Commission of Malaysia that happened yesterday May…read more12th. Sorry people I forgot to post it in the shout outs! We dropped and they had a 6-8 stands setup serving some delicious Malaysian food. Tickets had to be purchased for each food stand and the tickets were refundable if you did not use them all. They had a lot of home made goodness happening. My highlights were the chicken satay's peanut sauce and chili's from one stand that sold noodles. I even ventured off to try some Malaysian deserts...I'm not the biggest fan of Asian deserts but they weren't bad at all. There were a lot of delicious flavours happening and even Chahaya Malaysia was there serving up some food. I hope they do this again next year and have more tables setup for people who want to sit down.

The Canadian Tulip Festival happens every year in Ottawa in May. The exact date changes year to…read moreyear. The history of the Tulip Festival is very unique. It dates back to World War II. Canadian Troops played a significant role in the liberation of the Netherlands from German occupation during WWII. Furthermore, when Germany invaded the Netherlands, Princess Juliana (heir to the Dutch throne) and her 2 children fled to Canada and sought refuge in Ottawa. Princess Juliana gave birth to her third child, Princess Margriet, at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. Princess Margriet's birth in Canada would have been problematic as then she wouldn't hold sole Dutch citizenship and thus wouldn't be in the line of succession to the Dutch throne. Recognizing their predicament, the Canadian Government (temporarily) declared where she was born, Dutch soil. This act of goodwill was remembered by the Dutch. In 1945, the Dutch Government sent Canada 100,000 tulip bulbs to express their gratitude for Canada's role in their liberation and for the kindness Canada bestowed on their royalty. And they have continued to send tulip bulbs every year. So the tulip has become a symbol of international friendship. The tulips became a big tourist attraction, and it was photographer Malak Karsh, who in 1952, suggested the idea of a Tulip Festival to the Ottawa Board of Trade, and the inaugural Canadian Tulip Festival occurred in 1953 and has been going on every year since. So every May, Ottawa is filled with tulips. There are over 1,000,000 tulips in bloom (and over 100 varieties) in Ottawa during the festival. The largest concentration of them can be found in Commissioner's Park by Dow's Lake. However, they are literally everywhere in the city. And not just real tulips, but sculptures of tulips too get erected through the city. Local businesses even get in on it, offering tulip shaped cookies. It's truly a sight to see for tulip lovers. Or admirers of flowers in general. After a long, cold and dreary Canadian winter (it pretty much snows October to April, lol), welcoming Spring with colourful tulips all over the city is so wonderful. I absolutely love walking around and seeing (and occasional photographing) all the tulips. When I was new to Ottawa, I went to Commissioner's Park during the Tulip Festival. While it was beautiful, I found crowdedness and busyness incredibly annoying, lol. Now as a long-time Ottawa resident, I admire the tulips scattered throughout the city instead ;)

So I'm not sure what it was about this year but the Tulip festival was way more epic last year with…read morethe amount of flowers they had going on at Major Hills onwards. I'm comparing this years to last years tulip festival I guess... They had other events that were scattered around and those were ok but something seemed missing. The kick off ceremony was in a small cramped place in between Sidedoor and Planet Coffee. Most other times this would be an awesome place to kick off anything else but a festival? It was very difficult to fit people in there. I've seen more things happen in the past. It was cool that they had it across multiple sites this year. I'm not sure if that happened in the past. I hope they go all out again next year and do it better than this year!

Laval has been long overdue for some festival love and we recently got to enjoy our first Rib Fest…read more It was great! Location was very important and it happened across the street from Montmorency Metro station, this location is easily accessibly by metro and train. Many buses come here as well. The only outstanding issue is for people like me who came by car. Simply put, parking is practically non-existent unless you walked 10 minutes. In a way, that's a good thing. You'll need to waddle a few minutes after you leave this festival filled to the rafter with yummy grub. Rib Fest held many guests of honor that are local or from very far away. I visited this festival 3 times and it was GREAT! The food is amazing, music is solid and it is quite kid friendly as well. My only qualms were the parking as well as not enough seating during their busy time. Looking forward to their next one, hopefully in Laval!

Great Jazz festival that happens every year late June to early July…read more Artists from all over the world come to several stages to perform for free or for a fee in some cases. This year, we saw many great artists along with thousands of other music lovers from all over. Metro Place des Arts or St Laurent for easy access.

Let it be known that you're going to Montreal in the summertime and the next thing you'll hear is…read more"Are you going for the jazz festival?" I was not. Regardless, when I realized my trip coincided with the festival I researched artists, venues, and dates only to come to the realization that a whole lot of Montreal's jazz festival takes place for free at multiple venues in a fairly concentrated area of the city. Assuming you can find the schedule (at staffed kiosks in the area) and locations and understand the program (no joke, it was a challenge), you can learn when and where everyone is playing and identify the free performances. Multiple nights on end I found myself at large outdoor spaces filled with folks there to enjoy the free offerings. Was it jazz? Let's just say that jazz is in the ear of the beholder because not once did I experience music that I consider to be jazz though that seems somewhat beside the point. Free live music is almost always enjoyable and this is no exception. The outdoor spaces are clean, the sound is good, and the large crowd is considerate even as they come and go. Were I returning to Montreal during another summer I'd most certainly plan my visit to coincide with the jazz festival and again attend several events.

I was at the fair Thursday evening. Was looking at items with vendors. One vendor kept insisting I…read morebuy something when I went to leave she grabbed my wrist and I had to pull my hand away and leave quickly to get away. It was a strong grip not just grabbing to me nobody has the right to grab you by the wrist and force you to buy something.

It was a packed day and lines were insanely long. The quickest wait we had was approximately 30…read moreminutes. While waiting in one of the long lines there was a smoker not far in front of us in line. After stopping and asking one of the personnel on a golf cart if he could ask the individual to stop smoking, I was bluntly told, "This isn't city property, people can smoke where they want, sorry". I went to their website at carpfair.ca and used their chat option to ask what their smoking policy was. Their response was "9 meters from any building and that it's best to be off to the side away from people". I asked for them to clarify if smoking in the line was permitted and their response was "I would not do that". I asked if it was allowed in line again and received the response,"With the amount of people we have on the grounds and the amount of children we would respectfully ask you not to and to go to the designated smoking areas around the grounds." When I brought up the exchange I had with their employee and requested clarification I received an automated response saying they would get back to me and if this is urgent to call their office. Any subsequent questions were responded to with this same automated response. Had I known the smoking policy prior I would not have gone. For the price of admission which does not include rides I find it ridiculous that there isn't a policy for smokers to smoke else where. Their comment about a "smoking area" appeared to be false, as I walked around the grounds I could not see a single visible smoking area. I detest the run around I received when inquiring about their own policies. If you enjoy second hand smoke, this fair is the right fit for you.

Igloofest is one of my favorite music festivals I've been to. Artists are always incredible, and…read morethe vibes are great! Love seeing everyone come together in their ski/cold weather clothing and dancing to the music. Would recommend!

Great venue, too cold and more warm places to settle in would be nice. People here are friendly…read morealthough some may get drunk typically a bit and some only speak French basically. I would not suggest going alone if possible as I had to do that. I also had to get my ticket by buying a hotel package and could not buy a ticket separately from the IF site directly. I had wanted VIP and this was not an option for me by choosing a hotel package. IF took 2-2.5 weeks to respond to my email inquiry regarding this. It seems an app was an option but I didn't know what app I could download and if it would have been compatible usage within the US. Internet coverage was included to Canada w my plan but my data roaming auto-turned off and I could not figure out how to turn it on right away. I was also driving in the evening and I could not find a comfortable place to stop for awhile. I almost did not go but decided I needed to go as I was interested in both main stage artists and had my own edm outfit that I should've done a better job showcasing. Food options were decent and alcohol was easy to get. Bathroom access was okay . I think it was so cold that they should've opened up the dining areas on the other connected island and had TVs to watch the performances from inside the dining areas of that part of the Old Dock. The safe space would have been good here too. Providing this environment and resource helps encourage and maximizes diversity with race, sexuality, religion, and minimizes bias. There are recycling bins here and the culture here seem to make best efforts to follow. Many Americans would sadly see this as another trash bin. Montreal has a ton of TooGoodToGos including mini-supermarkets. The little contributions we can do to help sustainability can only help our world, and the culture seems to reflect this too. I wore double layers and it was enough for awhile. Some of the locals didn't seem to have more than a single layer and they seemed fine. Main stage artists did not have merch available to sell and side stage had a few things that I felt were over priced on top of my lack of interest. Some great beats and covers from the side stage though I am not a big fan of covers. Igloofest has some great sponsors and I like how they support some local French hotels too and not just the American standard ones. Some of the friendly people here, I do wish we could've bonded to be even friendlier . Not being able to speak French fluently didn't help. Too cold for Google Translate to be my constant friend and my juice almost ran out near fest end too. Maybe if I had put my reversible sequin jacket on earlier and had IF on it, this would have rocked everyone's world that much more. There was a free picture booth and a chance to win a free VIP package. I tried it later in the night, and a group of people get a picture(s) for free at the end. In my first take, one of the staffers got in the pic since it was just me. I kind of wish I had asked to keep it but maybe to ask if I win, that I would win a boyfriend too, lol. Alas, it was too cold for me to really think and the idea of being in a new area and being able to speak only minimal French (Je joue les echecs.) Maybe if I make my social media public, with all these pictures and certain tags, maybe something positive could come of that. The loneliness I felt here reminded me of a person who won the same type of award I did where he told me to carry my award around everywhere. Or online where some people pretend they want to meet you and purposely don't. The struggles I took to get here on my own ( 3 car dashboard warning signals all resolved after stopping on the side 3 times), product shipped under proper protocols that could not be done in the US, appreciating some food quality, drink, and a gym, all help culminate an independence for me to attend an event and the related prep and struggles all on my own.

I always forget to review this festival but it's my favourite winter event! It's so fun and lively,…read moreit'll make you forget it's cold outside. I try to visit every year because they always have new additions and activities. This year there were a few changes: -reservations ahead of time for the big 3 activities (ferris wheel, zip line, and slide). I think this change made sense theoretically but in practice it was very messy. They didn't advertise well enough that the tickets existed, so tons of people just showed up and were very confused. Also at first the tickets were available at 5pm BEFORE the day you planned on visiting and then it was changed to 1 hour before the festival opened for THAT day and that day only. Tickets were for 20 minute to 15 minute time slots. The scanning process was slow since so many people didn't know to reserve in advance, and sometimes the employees would just not care and let anyone in so the tickets served no purpose. -Less food trucks but more food booths (from sponsors like the milk company and maple syrup company). -The bell lounge didn't have phone cleaning or VR activities anymore, It was more for drinks and live music performances. - New Tim Hortons game where you threw pucks at a giant screen. -Cheese festival inside the mall! (very packed though so didn't visit) I really love this festival but it's too short! Make it available for 3 weeks and still end on the Nuit Blanche!

Went Friday night and wasn't disappointed. Weather was 2 no…read morerain and not to many people. There was a hour wait for the sledding you grab a pass and watch the clock. Ferris wheel was a super quick line. You go around slow at first then fast the last two times. There's curling and little hand clappers so you can cheer for your team. The saq is in a igloo which was super cool might not of been made of snow but It was just as cool. Fire pits everywhere to keep warm and you can even roast marshmallows super cute idea !