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!

Gold for Canada!

Today I was hoping to see Canada win a gold medal . . .

The Richmond Olympic Oval - it's a beautiful facility . . .














Shannon Rempel skating in the Ladies' 1000m Final . . .















This camera is very cool - you might spot it on TV sometimes - it runs on a track all the way around the rink so it can follow the skaters . . .














Christine Nesbitt - she was in one of the last pairs . . .














. . . and crossed the line 2 hundredths of a second ahead of Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands who was the leader at the time! The crowd went crazy!

She would end up with a Gold medal after Kristina Groves skated for Canada in the last pair - Kristina missed winning a Bronze medal by 6 hundredths of a second!















The flower ceremony was held in the middle of the carpeted area you can see in my first photo and it was facing sideways, so my best photo opportunity was to take one of the screen!















A self-portrait of me and my sister, Ellena. We didn't see him in the crowd, but saw on the screen that Richard Branson (billionaire adventurist and owner of the Virgin brand) was in attendance also!

CAN vs SWE

Today I went to my first Olympic event of the 2010 Winter Games! It was at Thunderbird Arena at UBC - it's been a while since I was here and it brought back some great memories of the 7 years I spent going to school there.














Paul isn't allowed to take time off during the Games, so my uncle came to the game with me instead - Paul's loss was his gain!














Our event was women's hockey - Canada vs Sweden.















The Swedes were over-matched and had to take a time out - unfortunately for them, they lost 13-1 (at one point it was 13-0!). We were expecting a tighter match because the Swedish team won the Silver medal in Torino in 2006, but it was fun to be in the crowd that was supporting the Canadian team - the atmosphere was great!














Even Donald Sutherland made an appearance at the game . . . my lens is not super strong, but you can just make him out standing up in the front row with his white hair - and sitting at the end of the row to the right is John Furlong, CEO of VANOC (the Vancouver Organizing Committee). Unfortunately, this is one of the sites I was hoping NOT to see - a bunch of empty seats in the IOC section - the rest of the arena was completely full.

Go Canada Go! and Gung Hey Fat Choy!

Holly and her cousin (2nd cousin), Owen, who is 8 months old. She loves him and kept asking if she could hold him. If we're lucky enough to have another baby, I think she's ready to be a big sister!