Olympics - Day 4

On our last day in Vancouver, we had no Olympic events scheduled and our train to Seattle did not depart until almost 8:00 pm. That meant one thing: sightseeing! We slept late and leisurely packed up all our stuff before checking out of the hotel. We were again thankful that we could fit all our stuff in backpacks, with the addition of a shopping bag or two for souvenirs. We boarded the bus for the last time and headed off to the Sky Train. This time, we took the train all the way to the end of the line, at the Waterfront station. Evelyn treated us to brunch in the Lookout, which was having a Sunday Brunch in their revolving restaurant. This was our third time up in the tower, but the views were still equally impressive.

We boarded the Seabus and rode it across the bay to Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver. From there, we boarded a bus towards Grouse Mountain. Our destination was the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which spans 450 feet and 230 feet above the Capilano River. It was another beautiful day in Vancouver, so we were glad to be outside enjoying the scenery. The bridge itsself is an impressive feat of engineering, with large and reduntant steel cables to hold everything up. Despite all the reinforcement, it is definitely still a suspension bridge which means it sways in the wind and oscillates as people walk. It is definitely not an adventure for those who don't like heights! On the other side of the bridge is a nature park with boardwalks and smaller suspension bridges through the treetops. We spent a while exploring the area and then headed back towards Vancouver.

Back at Lonsdale Quay, Christina found more fresh fruit and I got another beaver tail treat. We rode the Seabus back over to Vancouver just as the big US vs. Canada hockey game was starting. We wound through the downtown area and made our way back to the train station. We had planned on shopping for Olympic souvenirs at the "Official Olympic Store", but the line was outrageously long and we're sure all the items were over-priced. We decided to complete any shopping online once we got back home. Christina guarded our stuff at the train station and Evelyn and I went out in search of food. As we walked around the waterfront, we found some large screens that were set up and broadcasting the big hockey game. We were standing right outside the arena when the US scored a goal to tie it all up. We had to head back to the train station before the game was over, but luckily it was showing at the McDonald's. We were surrounded by US fans when they won the game, so we had a big celebration in the station (this was the qualifying game, not the gold-medal match).

The train ride back was an adventure on it's own as we ended up sitting next to a man who was heavily intoxicated and very excited about the US win in hockey. He was very obnoxious and could be seen running around the train draped in a US flag on numerous occasions. When not celebrating the game, he was having a dramatic fight with his girlfriend via cell phone. We were all surprised that he didn't end up getting kicked off the train...he surely would have been kicked off an airplane! Evelyn and I ended up heading back to the dining car while Christina tried to sleep. We made it back to Seattle right around midnight and back to our house by about 1:00 after picking up the car. We both took Monday off to sleep in and recover!

All-in-all, the weekend was an incredible adventure. It was everything we had hoped for and more! Yes, the tickets and hotel were ridiculously over-priced. Yes, there were lines and crowds wherever you turned. But the incredible thing was that none of that mattered. The energy up there was absolutely captivating. It was exciting to just be a small part of the excitement. As my friend put it: IT'S THE FRICKIN' OLYMPICS!!! Enough said.

Olympics - Day 3

The third day up there was the first chance that we were able to sleep in late. After a leisurely morning and terrific breakfast at the hotel, we packed a backpack and headed into town. The bus and train were as busy as they had been the previous night, so we could tell that the transit system was being used well. When we got downtown, we transferred to a bus that would take us to the Vancouver Aquarium. What we didn't realize at the time was that the bus route took us through some of the most crowded areas of downtown. What would have taken us about 4 minutes on the train ended up taking almost 30! We finally did make it out to the aquarium, just in time for the dolphin show! You'll notice that the dolphins weren't your typical Sea-World variety bottlenose dolphin. Rather, these we Pacific White-Sided Dolphins. Yes, we're glad that the scientists were so creative in their naming conventions! The show was short but entertaining, and we spent the rest of the morning wandering around the exhibits and watching a beluga whale show (no aerial tricks at that one!).

After the aquarium, we headed back downtown for more Olympic adventures. In a hurry to find dinner, we ended up at the food court of a huge downtown mall. We certainly weren't the only ones with that idea, but we did manage to get our food and eat in a reasonable amount of time.

The first event of the evening was the Victory Ceremony at BC Place. This was the nightly celebration and medal ceremony for some particular events. The neat part was that it was in the BC Place stadium, where they held the opening and closing ceremonies. It was neat to see the inside after having watched the opening ceremonies! The tickets that we had purchased the previous day turned out to be right on the floor with clear views of the stage. We watched various cultural and dance performances before the medals ceremonies began. Medals were presented for about 4 different events, including Men's Skeleton and Ski Jumping. The Skeleton was fun to watch because an eccentric Canadian won the gold medal, which threw the crown into wild applause and a group-singing of the national anthem. It turned out that all the athletes were up at a similar medal ceremony in Whistler, so all we got to see was a live feed from up North. That didn't quell the excitement of the crowd one bit though. After the medal ceremonies, there was a concert by a rock group called Stereophinics. Apparently they are quite popular in England, as there were hundreds of flag-waiving fans lining the stage. After a few blaring songs, we decided that we had had enough and headed out to our next event.

The main event of the night was a hockey game between Germany and Belarus. Why Germany vs. Belarus, you may ask? The answer is simple: we had to purchase our tickets in a lottery system way back in November of 2008, long before any of the match-ups were ever decided. Also, tickets for any of the US games were starting at around $1000 each by the time we got up there (the tickets for the gold medal game were going for up to $4000 a pop!). At our game, the arena was still full of cheering and chanting fans, though we guessed that most of them were Canadian and US folks who were taking on an adopted patriotism. We decided to join them, with Christina cheering for Germany and me cheering for Belarus. This was my first ever hockey game, and I was not disappointed. Germany scored the first goal, but Belarus came back and scored three in a row to make it 3-1. With the cowbell getting plenty of use, Germany came back and score 2 goals in the second period to tie it at 3-3 heading into the 3rd. It turned out that I picked the right side to cheer for, as Belarus ended up scoring two goals in the 3rd to win it 5-3. I must say that I'm a big fan of the adopted team concept. I was thrilled that my team had won, but at the same time nobody seemed disappointed that the other team lost. That aspect of sport seems to be missing from most US sports! Overall, it was a great experience. As we watched the big US-Canada games in the following week, we were able to see where we were sitting for our own hockey adventure. It was a truly memorable evening.

After the hockey game let out just before midnight, we hurried off to the train with what seemed to be the entire population of Vancouver in tow. Surprisingly, we were able to get home in good time and we were all fast asleep by 1:00.