This time the city was buzzing about 5 times as much as Thursday when I was here. The amount of people walking around was crazy and yet I couldn't believe how relaxed and happy the crowd was. Usually you get that many people into one area and it can be pandemonium.
The day was sunny and warm so after the cauldron we headed up to the Art Gallery to see how bad the line up was for the Da Vinci exhibit. The line up ended up being around the block and then some (I estimate 2 hours plus) we hung out and saw some the sites instead.
The Olympic Clock
Retro Posters
Of course the most popular attraction though was the zip line where people would wait up to 5 hours on average all for a 30 second ride over Robson Square.
There was artwork:
Cool photo opportunities:
And even athletes
We made our way to the Four Host Nations pavilion and found a long line up to the entertainment portion of the pavilion but thankfully a short one to the gift shop. There were some beautiful works of art but my favourite were the Coke bottles all done by different tribes:
It was a fun day filled with lots of walking but we did notice that not all of the pavilions had stuff for people to view. For example we went to Granville Island to check out Atlantic Canada house which had a bar and a food sample tasting. Swiss house had a bar, restaurant and food tasting. We thought all the pavilions would have something to see and were a little disappointed to find out that they didn't.
On Monday it was hockey day for me and Hubby. It started with Hubby going to the women's game with USA verses Sweden and then I met up with him after my work shift to see the Canada women's team take on Finland. I must say I don't think I've ever seen that much red in my life! It was so cool being a Canadian surrounded in such a patriotic setting with everyone wearing their colours, waving their flags and cheering. The girls came out and had warm up and looked really good to go.
Of course the roar was deafening every time Canada scored.
Our favourite moment though came during the second and third period. Turns out we were sitting in the section where they do the Sportsnet broadcasting. So we hear an "excuse me, pardon me" and look up and there is Darren Millard, Darren Pang, Nick Kypreos and Bob MacKenzie all walking by us to do their segment.
Plus their stage is so well designed. The whole thing is on hydraulics and can be brought out or taken down in under 5 minutes. Too cool!
In the end the girls pulled off the win and it was great to see them get to the Gold medal game.
Finland also played a great game and I was really happy to see that they won the bronze medal over Sweden.
Then on Tuesday it was back to the curling venue to watch the women play. This was the last game of the round robin and all of the teams headed to the finals had already been decided so wins or losses didn't matter at this point. Again it was a great line up with the following teams playing: Canada vs Russia, USA vs Switzerland, Japan vs Denmark and Sweden vs Germany. Again just like the men the women were piped out.
And then a quick shake of the hands, a quick practice slide and they were off!
The team had been doing pretty good all week but my favourite was their third Sarah O'Conner. I thought she really helped bring the team together and curled some excellent shots.
I'll admit though Cheryl Bernard came through with multiple draws to the button though! The definite turning point though was this shot which scored 4 points for Canada.
The Russians had a hard time bouncing back from that one.
We also had a little bit of humour in the crowd when this guy showed up
Cheryl had a good laugh over him but then it was right back to business. I was sorry to see her lose out to Norberg in the gold medal game but can't say I didn't see it coming. She had two opportunities to wrap things up and it was a shame that they had to take silver in the end.
Overall the Olympics being in one's back yard was an amazing experience and I can't believe how lucky I was to not only participate in a small way but also to see and be part of the celebration that went on. I can't wait to see what the next games brings as it seems like Canada and especially Vancouver has set the bar high! GO CANADA GO!
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