Day 5 (Feb 19)

We woke up with some time to chat with family, and then Dad, Scott, Carrie, Gabe and I took off to catch a curling match. We followed a giant crowd and made it into the Curling Center. We sat in the smallest seats I have ever sat in. All of us were touching shoulders and hips, but it was still very polite with the people in the same row. None of my group was well versed on every rule, but the people around us were very polite ot answer our questions. The Canadians love their curling. We were able to watch China vs. Denmark, US vs. Russia, and Great Britain vs. Germany. The three games went on at the same time and the crowd would cheer for all three sheets at once. It was fun.


Scott and Carrie left part way through to catch a bus up to Whistler to watch the Skeleton. As the games progressed, China defeated Denmark 11-1 in a shortened match. They ruled the ice. Great Britain defeated Germany with 3 points in the 9th end, and the US -Russia match came down to the last throw. The crowd erupted when it left the skip's hand.

Dad, Gabe and I returned home to pick up Mom and travel downtown. Daimon and Kirsten were traveling to the curling center to watch the Men's afternoon match. We traveled downtown and immediately noticed that the crowd was larger. We hadn't been downtown since Wednesday, and the crowd was twice as big. Each line was 10-15 people longer at least, but it still was polite.

We walked to the Native pavilion and listened to music and looked at art. We also watched some preliminary skeleton races. As we continued to walk downtown, we decided to go back toward the flame. We walked through the edge of Gastown and toward Robsen Square. On our way we found a "Green Living" type booth. It had games to help teach about energy conservation as well as a dance floor that was powered from the dancers, and a tent with comfortable reclining lawn chairs with a big screen.

We watched some skeleton and then decided to walk to the library and wait for Daimon and Kirsten to come downtown.
We found our way back to the library and found our way back to the pub we were at the on Monday. We had some drinks and appetizers to help us watch speed skating, and hockey on the screens. We met up with Daimon and Kirsten and we thought about moving toward a LiveCity place for another concert and night cap with fireworks.
We decided that it wasn't worth standing in line for hours and one had already started turning people away. We then walked to Gastown to find food. We wandered the streets and found some more olympic shops and shopped for a bit. We eventually found a great deli and watched some ice dancing as we ate.

We walked back toward the flame. From there we made our way back to the Green living place with the comfy chairs. As the TV switched from ice dancing to skeleton, we also played some of the games and won blinking lanyards.

Mom and Dad finally decided to go home. We stuck around downtown to find fireworks. We made our way to the water and found a brewery tent. We watched the end of the days curling matches on TV and tipped our glasses with the locals.
We all walked toward downtown to finish the night. We saw a few fireworks, but also were shoulder to shoulder in a giant sea of people. We decided to try and catch a bus, but waited for 40 minutes. We then decided to walk toward our house, and each stop was full of people. After an hour or so we finally found a taxi to hail. All others were packed. It was an incredible amount of people trying to get downtown to party with the crowd. We got home and packed for an early departure. We had to get back to Whistler for a cross country ski race.

Day 4 (Feb 18)

We woke up extremely early to drive to BCIT campus to catch a bus to the Biathlon Venue on Whistler. We drove across town in the dark of morning, with little traffic. It was nice to be crowd free for a bit. We got to the buses, and they gave out free coffee and hot chocolate in the parking lot. The bus ride was nice, and we got to watch the sun rise over the islands of the west coast. The riders mostly slept, read, and were in awe of the scenery.
We got off the bus and had to walk about a half mile up to the actual ski venue. The walk was nice, and they had a snow sculpture and bathrooms about halfway up. As we approached, it was obvious that Scandinavia enjoys their x-country skiing. There were tons of Norwegian flags. We found a place on the hill overlooking the stadium and stood behind a french crowd for the first race, the women's 15km individual.
We watched the race from our spot on the hill, as well as from a trail along the last corner.
Each skier started 30 seconds after the next. They would ski 5 km and then come in and take 5 shots. If they missed their targets, they lost one minute on their time.
We watched a skier from Norway run away with the race. The crowd was fun. There were German's with old army helmets, robes, mustaches, and eagles. There was a French man with a trumpet who had a suit made out of feathers. It was great.
Between the races, there was a musician on the hill singing, and our group went into a warming tent to eat our lunch. About an hour later, the Men's race started. Again, the Norwegians were the team to beat. Bjoerndalen, the godfather of biathlon, skied the race 2 minutes faster than any other but missed two shots. A man from Belarus did not miss a shot and was tied for first at the halfway point of his last lap and crossed the line tied for silver with Bjoerndalen. Norwegians went for gold and silver. It was pretty incredible to see the crowd shirtless and cheering for their country.

The bus ride home, I am pretty sure everyone slept. We got back to the cars and drove home. We met my brother and his wife who had arrived at 3am the night before. They went downtown during the day and described the crowds and lines. We then had our Christmas. Not all of us were together for the holiday, so we exchanged gifts and ate a great lasagna dinner. We watched the results from the day and enjoyed some family time.

Day 3 (Feb 17)

Day three started with me and my sister getting up really early to get on a bus to catch a train to stand in line for Stephen T. Colbert. As we approached the stage, we saw that a line had started to form from the stage, going along the sidewalk to the science center. It did not appear that there were any barriers, but we were looking from above in the skytrain.
When we exited, we saw a couple of bobwheelers (bobsled on wheels)

and quite a few other characters. Our view of the stage at this point was obstructed by a hill. We were standing right in front of Science world, and the police asked us to be the corner as the line wrapped back around. We were, at the time, the furthest from the stage. As we arrived at our place in line, we stood for a bit and started chatting with the group around us. They had friends go off and get coffee as we shared stories of Colbert and discussed politics of Canada as well as USA. The coffee came back, and two of our new acquaintances decided to take a walk.

They returned after we had been standing in line for about 45 minutes and they announced that they were unsure WHY we were standing in line. There were no barriers, and seemingly, no organizers keeping order.

They were "just being good Canadians and creating order." They told us they would hold our place in line if we wanted to walk. Gabe and I walked to the top of the hill and noticed that there were maybe 3 volunteers, and no barriers. We went back to the line, but decided as a group that we would try and get closer.

As we stood on the hill, we saw a group dressed as polar bears with an anti-global warming message.

We decided that we should get a photo, and we moved closer to the stage. After we took our photo, we realized there was a crowd (25 people) around us. As we stood there, a guy on a bike asked if there was a reason we weren't closer. he then rode his bike to meet with volunteers in charge. They simply asked us to stay off the field. He rode back to a certain point, but stopped right below the hill. We all moved up to be near him.
A man then got on his cell phone and told his friend, "we are having a weird red-light, green-light game going with the volunteers." As they turned their backs we moved forward slightly, and then stop. AS we stood there, a truck pulled up and the volunteers began to unload traffic gates. They then set them up against the line on the sidewalk. I don't think it would happen in the US to see the barriers being put up after the lovely line formed.
Eventually a woman came over and announced to no one in particular, that "would you please get off the field, there is a line over there." The same man on the cell phone called his friend. "A woman came over and politely told us to get off the field, we were too polite to move, and she was too polite to tell us again." In about 10 more minutes, they opened the front of the line, and my sister and I ran to the front of the stage!!!

We were front row. We then stood there for 45 minutes getting to know the people around us. We got to watch the crew finish setting up the stage and watched a video about Stephen's ride to the olympics.

We then watched Michael Buble', Mike Eruzione, and Bob Costas be interviewed. I was the only USA chat starter in the crowd. During the Bob Costas interview you can hear my voice when Stephen asks if he is impartial or not. Pretty exciting.


We watched filming from 10 - 11:30. We then walked back to downtown and met up with the family. We ate sandwiches agian and then I went with Daimon and Kirsten to Granville Island, and my sister went with our parents to Stanley Park.

Granville Island is a small area that has a public market, and lots of specialty shops. During the olympics, there were lots of tents with food and drink and information. We wandered around and found a lot of different types of art. There was a crazy mime through a window, two welders dancing, an art studio in operation, and murals.

We walked around and shopped, found food, and listened to some music. We also found some tvs to watch the days events with a beer in our hand.

As the sun went down, we found our bus and went home. We had an early morning to catch a bus to the biathlon venue.