Mascots on Ice

After dance class, we met my mom and sister and headed downtown to catch the Olympic mascots skating at Robson Square. It was super busy and we couldn't get a spot right up by the ice - as you can see from my pictures, the crowd was pretty big. We decided to stand on one of the stairways so we could see over the crowd and got a decent view of the show.

Miga - the part orca (killer whale) and part Kermode bear is one of Holly's two favourites. The Kermode bear (also known as a spirit bear) is a rare white bear that is unique to BC and is a sub-species of the black bear.














Quatchi, the sasquatch, dreams of becoming a world-famous hockey goalie.















Sumi (my favourite), is the official mascot of the Paralympic Games and is part thunderbird and part black bear (and he wears the hat of the orca).















In this picture you can see a pink and white toque - that's Holly being lifted up by my mom so she can see the mascots!



















A little downtown Canadian spirit on display . . .

Men's Semi-Final

Paul & I attended the semi -final game for men's hockey today. It was USA vs Finland and we were anticipating a close, exciting game. . .

. . . pre-game warm up . . .














. . . pre-game ritual . . .














. . . a very disappointing showing by the Fins who didn't appear to even show up for the game . . . it was 6-0 USA after the first period! I felt like I was watching Canada vs Sweden in Women's Hockey all over again . . .

. . . and finally - the handshake at the end of the game (final score . . . 6-1 USA) . . . I know it was a once in a lifetime experience, but we really did expect more (and were "glad" we bought the tickets through Vanoc and only paid face value (over $200 each) for them!).

Olympic Cauldron

I finally saw the Cauldron - after 2 days of not noticing on my way to work . . . I looked up while I was walking from the train station towards Starbucks . . . and there it was - a mere 2 blocks away. I couldn't believe I had missed it - considering it has been fairly dark in the morning, I should have noticed the huge flames flickering against the North Shore! So, today I took my camera to work and stopped by since it wasn't raining. I also decided to go before work because in the afternoons, there is a huge crowd surrounding the site. You can see how few people are here at 7:30am!

Hockey SWE vs FIN

Tonight, Paul and I went with Jim and Marlene to another preliminary round hockey game. These two teams (& countries) have quite a rivalry, so we thought we were going to see a tight game - Sweden was all over Finland and won 4-0.



















Holly's favourite mascot is Miga (although she has taken a liking to Muk Muk lately), so I took these for her because I thought they were kind of cute.

Olympic Outing

Today we went to a hockey game - my first of the Olympics. I had 8 tickets, so some of our friends came with us - myself, Holly, my mom, Jim, Laci, Marlene, Mimi & Jeff.

We wanted to take some pictures before going in, but Holly didn't want to be in them, she wanted to TAKE them! Here are Jim (from California), me and Laci. Paul didn't join us - he was working on the roof of our reno!















General Motors Place all decked out for the Olympics - with a (temporary) different name: Canada Hockey Place.



















Warming up for the game - Norway vs Switzerland.



















Uncle Jim being funny - his hands were too big for Holly's red mittens, so he put them on his ears!



















Mimi & Jeff.















Shortly into the game we got to see an attempted penalty shot! No, he didn't score.



















Just before the game ended, someone fell asleep. . . this is beceoming an Olympic habit!



















After the game, we went for a walk through Yaletown. We saw these guys at the game - now those are cowbells! You can't even ring them with one hand!



















Here is Holly telling Jim how he has to walk along the railing - with his hands UNDER the bar!



















Some of the condos along False Creek - showing off their national pride.



















Across the way, you could see the Athletes' Village.














I think this one might be the home of the Canadian atheletes . . . anyone agree?!



















This one caused a controversy - the IOC threatened to force the Aussies to remove their fighting Kangaroo! I think it's great!















Impromptu inukshuk building. . . I've seen these on the beach sometimes, but never this many - they stretched the whole way along False Creek. This is also the spot where the International Dragon Boat Festival is held. The inuksuks were so neat to see - I guess I had missed the news reports on this phenomenon, so it was a nice surprise.

Curling

Tonight I took Holly to see some curling, while Paul & Jim (our friend from California) went to a hockey game. Here we are at the Vancouver Olympic Centre - built just for the Olympics.















After I took a picture of Holly by the Olympic banners on the fence, she insisted on taking one of me!















We had to wait for about 40 minutes after we arrived because they were cleaning up after the last set of spectators had exited. Luckily, we got to see the mascots again! They took our picture for us, so I got to be in it, too!




















The media section - a full house tonight!















Clean ice - ready for competition . . . across the way on the right is the IOC section (you can see small white squares on the seats) - we didn't see them, but I heard after that the King and Queen of Sweden were there.















We've been lucky with seats at events so far - these ones were at the top of a small set of stairs, so no one was sitting in front of us. We were right by the "house", so half of the action was right in front of us - and we happened to have the Canadian women's team curling on the sheet closest to us!!! Holly is ready to cheer, with a snack in hand and her cowbell around her neck. Thanks Uncle Jim for buying it at the hockey game last night!



















Warming up . . .















Pipers leading the countries in . . .














Holly watching the matches intently. This was after a nearly one hour nap she had on my lap at the start of play. She fell asleep just after the teams came in, saying to me, "Mommy, I wish they had beds here!". The crowd was nuts for Canada - cheering, stomping their feet on the metal bleachers, etc, etc. . . but she slept through it all!














. . . having fun . . .



















And after all the excitement, and 3 hours later Canada won their game! The match went into extra ends when the 3 other games had ended - the last shot (which was at the other end, so I couldn't get a picture) was by Canada, straight down the ice to stop almost dead centre in the middle of the button - what a great shot! Who thinks curling is boring?! Not me! And after seeing it live for the first time, Holly wants to curl in the Olympics, too!

Before the Games started, Paul asked her what she might like to do in the Olympics and she replied, "Gardening!". We had to explain that it wasn't a sport, but that she could swim, or ski. She liked the idea of swimming and I said, maybe she could even do a triathlon. After asking me what a triathlon was, and I told her it was swimming, biking, running, she said "I can bike and run!" - so it was possibly swimming, triathlon or skiing for the Olympics. We saw a bit of figure skating and I thought it might be fun for her to try since I used to be a figure skater, but when I asked if she'd like to try it, she said "no". Now after tonight, she's decided curling is the sport of choice. . . future Olympian? That would be cool!