Day 3 – Beautiful Weather and LiveCity Downtown

February 14, 2010

A beautiful day in Vancouver! I’ve always heard about them but personally have never experienced one. We started out with red mittens, toques and scarves and pretty soon were putting all that away. It was Spring in February! No wonder people go out there and never come back.

We made our way over to the LiveCity Downtown site located at Georgia and Cambie. At 10:30 am there was already a line up to get in. It was Chinese New Year and a parade that winds its way through Vancouver was going to end up at the LiveCity site. While we waited for it to arrive, we checked out the Canada and Manitoba pavilions. The Canada pavilion was a bit disappointing. With all of our history, culture and art I was expecting a lot more. There really wasn’t anything explaining Canada’s history or athletes’. It was a lot of TV screens, some displays of older sporting equipment, a hockey jersey from Wayne Gretzky and that was about it. I hate saying that I wasn’t impressed but I really wasn’t. If there is a line up for that pavilion I would advise you not to waste your time. It is a shame because there is so much more that could have been done with it. Anyway, on to Manitoba pavilion where they very proudly explained to us the Canadian Museum for Human Rights that is being built in Winnipeg and scheduled to open in 2012.

Mounties at the Canada Pavillion (left). Manitoba Pavillion on right.

From there I headed to Robson Square to check out what was happening. Tons of people were out on the street. People standing in line to wait for the zip line ride apparently were there for 5 hours before getting their turn. I’ve done zip lining before and it is great fun but it is not worth a 5 hour wait to me. There are so many other things I can do with that time! There was a performance by an Aboriginal group that actually got audience members up and dancing, surely not an easy thing to do! Close to there a large TV screen was set up and people were sitting on steps watching Olympic coverage. Behind that was a CBC telecast booth, where they were in the process of doing an interview with someone. When the person was done their interview they turned around to face the crowd. It was Jenn Heil, Silver medalist in the Freestyle event. People started standing and cheering and she very graciously thanked us for our support. She looked a bit embarrassed by the attention; we Canadians are always so modest. No doubt everyone in the crowd felt her performance the day before was worthy of a standing ovation. Another lesson to self to not ever put my camera away, by the time I dug it out she had turned away and was leaving! Dumb me. I have to find a way to attach that thing to my hand.

See the red jacket? That is Jenn Heil. I know, you'll have to trust me on this one.

After that I had to head back to Tomarra’s to get my stuff together to go home. I was excited to spend the flight watching the Olympics on those little TV’s West Jet has but they weren’t working! I’m trying to feel any animosity towards West Jet but seriously you are picking up people from the Olympic city! Some of them (me) obviously would be interested in keeping up with what was going on. It wasn’t to be. When my Dad picked me up in Toronto he gave me the news of our first Gold medal won on home soil. Congrats Alex!

You can see all the photos from Day 3 here.

I look forward to returning to Vancouver on February 19th.  It is going to be a great time.

Canada Medal Results:
Kristina Groves – Bronze in 3000 m Speed Skating
Alex Bilodeau – Gold in Freestyle Skiing

Past Week's Events

There is a lot going on as we get closer to Opening Day of Vancouver 2010.  To give you an idea of some of things I have been up to, I thought I would put together a list of things I was working on last week.  It's a flurry of activity, anything from tracking down souvenirs, meeting new people, writing blogs and finding accommodation, again!
In  no particular order:

• Find a place to stay for Olympic Opening weekend. If my plan works out, I can't afford to pay for another place to stay so someone I know will have to invite me to stay with them.
• Met the wonderful Hardeep Gosal, who does an amazing job at running the Cold FX trivia contest on facebook and twitter. We met up for drinks and appetizers. I'm not even at the Olympics yet and I'm already meeting great new friends.
• Heard the Olympic theme song "I Believe" for the first time on CHUM FM. Shed a few tears listening to it, it is such a beautiful song. I'm sure you will hear it a lot. It is sung by Nikki Yanofsky who is from Montreal.
• Decided I wanted a few of the Olympic souvenir glasses from Petro Canada. Found the Capilano with no problem, really really wanted the Garibaldi. After my Mom checked 3 locations in Brampton, I was lucky to find one today in Toronto. Phew!
• Have a list of a few more things I would like from the Vancouver 2010 store. Finalized the list and will be ordering this weekend.
• Would also like some items from the Canada Post Vancouver 2010 collection. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Really nice stuff. Need to find the time to put in this order.
• Find Canada flag lapel pins to give out to my new international friends I meet in Vancouver. Someone finally sent me a link to a place in Toronto (Globecraft) that I can order these from. (Thanks Hardeep)
• Ordering some Flag Walk pins (buttons) in case I can't find Canada flag pins. These are nice because I can order countries in addition to Canada. I made sure to get a USA one for my Mom.
• Researching where to go and what to  do in Vancouver when we have spare time, if any. Checking out and bookmarking the LiveCity sites and making notes on locations of the country sponsored houses and pavillions.
• Try to find images for a future blog post. Robson Street Business Association helped me out and I have everything I need. Thx Tomarra.
• Final condo payment went through. Now working on final arrangements for arrival and key pick up.
• Entering lots of contests so I can win free stuff and have to spend less money on buying things. It is also a great way to learn more about the Olympics and meet some people along the way.
• Plan next few blog posts. Trying to make sure all the ones I want are done before February 12th.
• Work on uploading all my photos to online albums. I got a late start on this and hope to be caught up soon. This will be ongoing until I get all my pre Olympic photos uploaded and update my blog posts with links to the corresponding album.

I swear all of that happened last week.  I'm not sure what this week will be like. It is likely to include frequent blog posts so that I get all of my pre Olympic thoughts and activities documented. I have a few guest posts coming up that I think you will really enjoy so stay tuned.
I would love to hear about your Olympic preparations, whether you are making the journey out to Vancouver or getting ready to host an Olympic party at home. What are you doing to get ready for Vancouver 2010?