Our Olympic Adventure

We've been excited for a long, long time... and today was finally the day to begin our Olympic Adventure. We left the house bright and early at 7:15am.

The kids were incredibly excited about riding the SkyTrain. Who knew public transportation could hold such allure for a child? Our first stop was at the Waterfront in downtown Vancouver. We were ready to explore.
Thus began our walk through the city. We started out rested and ready for anything. It was exciting to first see the Olympic Cauldron with the flame burning brightly. There was a really cool overlook for the cauldron and we were glad we got there early. We walked up with little wait. Later in the day, we heard the line was about 4 hours (see Henry's face? That's the face I made when I heard about the long waits at many of the events today!). It was a beautiful day in Vancouver. Now that's Olympic excitement! As we left the cauldron and started walking in to town, Alice took a stumble and fell on the sidewalk. Knee, elbow, and cheek. At first, it didn't look too bad, but it got progressively worse through the day. She was very brave though and didn't shed a tear. We didn't let a little injury get us down. It was the Olympics and we used our spirit of the games (just think of all those athletes who fall and get back up!), and made our way to Canada's Northern House. There are many "houses" around the city - they're basically mini-museums of different countries. Henry liked the arctic wolf the best. Alice liked the polar bear ("Dad! It's bigger than even you!"). We then caught a train and headed to Yaletown. While there, we had Alice's face and pupils checked out by a medic (given the all-clear), we went to The Roundhouse which is the Italian House (yummy chocolates, holy cow!), and made the executive decision that we didn't want to wait an estimated 4 hours to get in to Live City Yaletown. I really wanted to go there as a friend had highly recommended it, but I couldn't make the kids/Dan/me stand in line for 4 hours.

So, we moved on. Caught a bus and made our way to Robson Street. Henry tried his hand at snowboarding. Lookin' good!
Robson was crazy. So, so, so many people. It was fun to hear all the different languages and to simply feel the energy of that many people together. There was a zip line going over the top of Robson Square which I would have loved to try - wait line was 6 hours. We moved on.
All that practice on Wii Fit ski jumps is paying off, eh?
Henry, in the "Lantern Forest." It must be lovely at night.
Lots of interesting pieces of artwork.
Alice and I liked this one.
Cool billboards on the sides of buildings.

And street performers. Let's not forget the street performers. Miss Tulula was quite entertaining.

Then we went in to the Hudson's Bay Company. I was so excited to go to this store. On the first floor, there was the Official Olympic Store. As far as I could tell, it's the ONLY (only!!!) store to buy the official souvenirs in the whole dang city. Seriously. And the wait to get in the store? The line snaked around 2 city blocks and was estimated at 2 1/2 hours. That's to enter the store. Then you do your shopping. Then you had to stand in line to purchase your items. Another estimated 1 1/2 hours. Seriously.

We couldn't do it. I don't like to shop in the first place and the thought of waiting over four hours just to buy a few little souvenirs was not one I was willing to entertain.

So, we went to the 5th floor of the Hudson's Bay Company. They had a really limited selection of Olympic items. There was a section for each country, such as Russia. It was interesting to look at, but the only thing I bought (the only souvenior I bought the entire day!!!!) was a pair of the cool red mittens for Alice and a pair for me.

We walked on. Found this cool bobsled in a very expensive jewelry store. Right next to the 3 hour wait to get in to the mint to see the Olympic medals. We didn't see the medals.

We got back to the Waterfront and hung out for awhile. Alice, modeling her pair of mittens. Aren't they great?

Daddy bonding time.

Then we tackled the crowds and the SkyTrain system to get back to our venue.

We made it! The Pacific Coliseum.

A perfect family photo, as long as you don't look too closely and notice that it appears that Dan only had one leg. Ha, ha.. He really does have two legs. Really. Just not in this photo.
Couldn't pass by without a photo with the Canadian Mounted Police.

The reason for our trip to Vancovuer? Short Track Speedskating! Oh boy. Glad we got to our seats early as we got to see the skaters taking a few practice runs. Yep - Apolo Ohno was right there.

We had awesome seats. Worth the extra money. Absolutely!

My girl. With a shiner.

Fun watching the Zambonis.

My boys.

Right next to our seats was a little area where you could look over and see all the skaters. This was their staging area before taking to the ice.

Love the red mittens!

There are a lot of "false starts" in short track speedskating. Three or four for many of the starts.

The fans were ready!

Including this cute fan.

Here's the story on the hat... Two men sat next to me and within a few minutes, I leaned over to Dan and told him, "This guy next to me is somebody. Seriously - he knows the skaters." There were all sorts of important looking people coming up to talk to the guy next to me and before too long, I figured out that he is J R Celski's manager - the athlete who won bronze this past Saturday. I also got to meet J R's mom who came by to say hi. Anyway... one of J R's sponsors came by and Alice caught his eye. He was taken with how cute she is (smart man) and said he'd be right back. He told her she couldn't be in an ice arena without a warm hat. And he gave her this awesome hat.

Henry, because he has a cute sister, was also given a cool Olympics hat. What a nice guy. It's fun sitting next to important people.

Back to the race.

In case you're wondering... yes, that's Apolo Ohno in the lead. I was a little star-struck.

There's Apolo, starting out on the ice.

Oh look. There he is again.

The craziest thing I've ever seen is the 5,000 meter men's relay. Four teams and sixteen skaters on the ice. It was organized chaos.

We loved it when they would give eachother a push.

There they go.

Alice talked her Dad in to buying one of the... I don't know what it is? Bear? stuffed animals. Official Olympic doll.

Henry mostly liked ringing his cowbell.

Go USA!

The take-off for the women's 500 meter finals.

After another long walk, a bus ride, and another long walk, we made it back to the car and drove home. It was a long 14-hour day, but we had fun and we were all "Olympic-ed out!"