Ellen's Day at the Olympics ... and a little about me.

Our 3rd day at the Olympics actually included an Olympic event. Thanks to my friend, Steve, who got tickets to a men's hockey game through the lottery, he sold them to us and off we went. We realized that everyone was obeying the "please don't drive downtown" rule, therefore, there was no traffic on the roads and we drove right downtown from Abbotsford in 50 minutes. Sweet! Parking right under Pacifi.c Cent.re was great because we didn't have to lug all our jackets around with us if it started off warm and got colder in the evening. Brilliant, I tell you. Brilliant.


This collage shows a lot of the patriotism displayed on store windows and even on the outside of store or office buildings. It was really neat to see. The bottom couple of pictures are of Robson Square and the zip line. I hope the 7 hour wait was worth it ... I'm not joking. The line was up to a 7 hour wait ... yes, it was free, but I can't imagine waiting in line that long for anything (oh, I guess I've done that for U2, but that's different!).

Ellen wanted to come along again as well, however, she asked if I could take more than just her head this time, so I made her a little body (complete with red mittens).

Here she is with Quatchi ...

and Miga.

When we went to the official Olympic store, she wanted to hang out in the syrup. Side note: when I sent these pictures to her, I told her that I hope she got her fill and if she needed more, just let me know and I'd be happy to deliver some more to her ... I haven't heard from her yet.

I figured she might be a little lonely, so I took her over to the USA apparel.

Then we went to the Ca.ctus Club and watched the Canada vs. Germany game that was on before the game we had tickets to.

She told me that the gloves I made her weren't good enough, so she wanted to try mine.

Then she tried to steal my ticket ... but when I reassured her that I'd be able to sneak her into Canada Hockey House in my purse, she gave it back.

Don 't ask how she ate with those mittens on. It wasn't pretty.

Aaaah, the official ticket of the 2010 games. One for my scrapbook.

Ellen and I at the game. They were really good seats. Thanks Steve!

Ellen wanted to get a little closer to the action (this picture actually made it onto her website).

The girls at the game. I think Karen was off taking pictures at this point so I didn't get a pic with her in it. Sorry, Karen.

Do you remember these 4 announcers when you were watching the games on TV? Here's what they looked like from the back ... 'cause I know you were wondering.

Love this.

And then there was the game itself. It was Norway vs. Slovakia. It started off looking like Slovakia was going to dominate the whole game, but Norway game out in the 2nd period and really turned it on. This one guy had a pretty bad fall where his helmet went flying off and his head bashed against the ice. They took him off on a stretcher and see the picture of the guys in blue with scrapers? That's them scraping the blood off the ice. Ick!

The end result was 4 - 3 for Slovakia who Canada had to play later on in the series ... luckily beating them. It was yet another fun day at the Olympics.

Wordless Wednesday

Olympic fever - Day 3

I'm back! Lent was good, but boy, did I miss you all. There's SO much to catch up on. I know the Olympics seem like a distant memory, but I still want to blog about it for posterity's sake.

We went downtown on a beautiful Saturday and our first stop was Robs.on Square. Unfortunately, the line ups were up to 9 hours long for the zip line, so I had to settle for taking pictures of it.

Even the dogs got into the Olympic spirit!

Most of Robs.on Street was shut down to traffic and we stopped to watch Mike Killeen and Coleen Christie setting up for their broadcast.

As we hit Thur.low Street, I looked right and saw the Cauldron off in the distance. Of course we had to go see that so...

We got a bit closer. It was very cool to see it ... although (and I don't mean to be negative, just voicing my opinion) it did look a bit like a tin foil large science project. But like I said, it was still cool to see it.

I don't know if you've been watching Ellen lately, but she's trying to "Dominate the World in 2010" and wants people around the world to help her. You're supposed to go to her website and download her picture and take it with you to places around the world. What better spot than the Olympics ... here she is at the Cauldron.

Here's me at the Cauldron and a few closer up pics of the tin foil. ;)

Ellen was being a bit of a diva that day and had to have another picture without the fence in her picture.

The first line up I decided to stand in was to go up to the viewing point and see the Cauldron from a different angle. The line up only took about 45 minutes and since it was a beautiful day, it wasn't bad at all.

I actually think seeing it from below is better because there's too much going on in the background from this angle.

And also from this angle.

But it was cool to look out at the crowd from up there.

We walked to Steamw.orks in Gast.own for dinner ...

And then my friends went to the Victory Ceremony that they had tickets for and I waited in line for an hour at Live City at Yale.town to see Sam Rob.erts. A French girl opened first along with Kardin.al Offi.cial and Jay Malin.owski (lead singer from Bedou.in Soundc.lash).

Then came Sam Rob.erts. Flying solo at this point actually worked well for me because I walked right up to the front row and had a great spot for the show (yes, that's the same front row where just a week earlier the barrier collapsed while Alex.isonfire performed and a bunch of people were injured - the crowd was very calm when I was there and I wasn't in any danger of being trampled).

After the concert I walked back along Granvi.lle Street (which was also mostly shut down to traffic) and the energy was crazy! Lots of people out having fun.

I met back up with my friends and there were some new people who had joined them who hadn't seen the Cauldron yet, so we walked back down there (are you sensing a theme here with all the walking ... yes, there was a LOT of it).

These were the Olymp.ic rings out in the water with Seymo.ur Mtn, I believe, in the background. Whenever Canada won a gold medal, these rings turned gold.

We had a lot of fun that day and I was SUPER exhausted by the end of it but it was totally worth it. Go Canada Go!

Wordless Wednesday

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/13/sports/olympics/20100212_CEREMONY_PANO.html

Lent Break

Well, I'm taking my lent break again. If you don't remember this from last year (or you're a new reader of my blog) click here to read more.

My recap of my day downtown during the Olympics this Saturday and then my night at the Men's Olympic Hockey game on Tuesday will just have to wait until I'm back in April.

Oh, I've set up a post to publish tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday. It's a link you have to click on and it has to do with the Olympics.

Go Canada, Go!!!

Olympic fever - Day 2

On Thursday we heard that our friend, Michael Bu.ble, was going to be carrying the torch downtown ... so, off we headed after work. We decided not to drive right downtown thinking that all the traffic and road closures could make it a nightmare, so we hopped on the skytrain in Surrey and walked through downtown. Granville St. has all these cool statues and things set up and is closed to traffic.

A lot of businesses had signs hanging off their buildings.

There were camera crews everywhere (from all around the world) doing interviews with random people on the street. Bren reminded us to have a good answer ready if we got asked a question. We heard them ask, "Who's your favorite Olympic mascot," "What sport are you most interested in seeing?" etc. Let's just say I'm glad they didn't ask me anything.

Then, the moment we'd been waiting for came. I decided to take video instead of pictures as he ran by us because ... well, mainly because I don't really know how to work my camera yet, but what I do know is that my "sports" setting doesn't allow you to use flash and if I didn't put it on sports setting and used my flash, they would've been blurry. I'm glad I went with video.

As soon as he had run past us, we kind of stood there in awe for a second because we couldn't believe how much security he had with him (a little different then when Mary Jane had run it). Did you notice him high fiving everyone as he ran by? No? Go back and watch it again. I'll wait ......... Isn't he great? Such a nice guy. Anyway, after about 10 seconds, we looked at each other and said, "Should we run to where he's passing it?" Yup! Off we went. There were so many people there that I could barely see anything so I just held up my camera and hoped for the best. We'll just look at the next few pics in silence.

Here they are extinguishing Michael's torch. Sad moment (although I will admit, it wasn't as emotional for me as when Mary Jane ran with it. This was more of a media frenzy and for me, wasn't as focused on the torch itself).

I'm not sure what he was saying to the crowd here, although I do like Kori's guess of "... Fiona, where are you... I know you're here..." hee hee :) He would've remembered me from last summer, right?

After the VanOc dude that he passed the torch to took off, the media swarmed Michael. Couldn't even see him for a bit.

Then he walked right in front of us and this is the picture I got:

Sheesh! See that blur of white in the middle of the picture. Yup, that's him. Awesome, hey? See, that's why I'm glad I took video of the run. Pics wouldn't have turned out. Oh well. I'm glad we went and saw what we saw. Still bummed I didn't get tickets to his concert, but am counting on him announcing a 2nd Vancouver show anytime. He can't announce a 2nd show in Calgary and Toronto but not in his hometown ... can he? No, he wouldn't do it ... and I WILL get tickets.

So, after that excitement was over, we stayed and watched a bit of the party at David Lam Park.

I loved all the patriotism hanging from people's balconies. Very fun.

Then we decided to just walk around and enjoy the feeling of downtown. As we were walking by the Bell party, we stopped to see what was going on. The girls outside told us that Steve Na.sh was inside and that Wayne Gre.tzky had left about 20 minutes ago. Shoot! They said he had walked right out and into a taxi (yes, a taxi). Wish we would've seen that. Oh well. We heard the loud music and they were playing Bare.nake.d Ladies. We started walking away and I saw this Alberta sign so I stopped to take a picture.

All of a sudden I thought, "That music sounds live!" I turned around and went close to the window and sure enough, this is what I saw...

The were right there!!!

We stood outside and watched for awhile and looked through the crowd to see Steve, but didn't see him anywhere.

Might've even tried to get in if the lady with the clipboard of "invite only" names hadn't looked so daunting.

Oh well, it was a great night anyway and I'm SO glad we went.