Freestyle Moguls and Snowboard Cross

On Sunday, we had tickets for Men's Freestyle Moguls. This is the men's version of the same event won by American Hannah Kearney on Saturday night. We had to get to Capilano University to get an Olympic Bus System Bus to the venue: Cypress Mountain Ski Area, about 30 min. north of Vancouver. We were able to drive to the U, and park for free. But it was over a half-mile walk up hill to the bus circle. Then we got on the bus (had to buy a special bus ticket for each event) and rode up the mountain. The bus let us off and we walked another half-mile up to the security tents. The venue grandstands were about a 10 min. walk beyond that. This reinforces my earlier observation that spectators have to be pretty fit to make it to their seats.
Street performers lightened the mood at the Cypress Mountain venue.

We also passed by a huge crane helicopter close to the ski area. If you read about how the Olympic organizers have had to truck in and fly in snow to create the venues, this is one of the vehicles that can carry a 10-ton load each trip. We heard that 300 truck loads of snow were brought in from as far as three hours away.

A bouncing ball kept the crowd entertained during the break between qualifying and finals events

The Cypress Mountain venue has 2 major areas for events: moguls and aerials on one side, and snowboard cross and halfpipe on the other side. Sunday we were on the moguls side. Each competitor got a qualifying run and the top 20 got into the finals. These photos are dark, but the sun was actually out for much of the day. We came prepared for rain with umbrellas and ponchos, as well as wearing our ski clothes and heavy boots. Luckily, we didn't have rain.
Doing a back flip after the main mogul run.

There were extremely long lines for food and washrooms, so that was a bummer. We bought as much food as we thought we'd need for the 8 hours we would be there. I made one bottle of water last all day....
It was dark when the last run took place and the Canadian, Alexandre Bilobeau, got the gold medal, the first gold medal for a Canadian on home soil. This was an important milestone for Canadians, as this is the third Olympics Canada has hosted and they'd not won a gold medal
"at home" to this point.

We hoofed it to the bus line to avoid the long waits for buses back down the mountain. We stopped for take-out Chinese food on the way back to the condo and again watched fireworks from our windows as we enjoyed dinner.

Monday saw DH and I go back to Capilano U. to take the bus back to Cypress Mountain for the Snowboard Cross event. Paul and Jen decided to sell their tickets as Jen needed to be in touch with her office for the morning. We repeated yesterday's trek and bus and trek to the venue on the other side of Cypress Mountain.

This venue had the added bonus of 200 + steps up from ground level to the grandstands. It's hard to see in the photo, but that nice wall with the Olympic design is the back of the stands, and there is a staircase going up and up and up.
The snowboard cross has snowboarders going down a course that has jumps and tight turns. In the finals, 4 boarders go at once, racing each other to the finish. It is exciting to watch. Unfortunately, each boarder gets 2 qualifying runs on the course single, and there were 35 boarders in the competition. The first qualifying run took over an hour. And that isn't so exciting to watch, after you see the first 20 or so.....

As this is our last day, we decided to leave before the finals so we could do more shopping and sightseeing in town. So we didn't get to see American Seth Westcott win, although we did see his qualifying run.

We took the bus back to North Vancouver and got on the Seabus across the bay to downtown Vancouver. We shopped again at The Bay (official Olympic Superstore headquarters), although the line to get in was long. We walked to the waterfront to see the Olympic torch. This is PW's photo. You will see an empty plaza around the torch. There is a 8 ft. high chain link fence around the plaza, some say due to fears of vandalism. (There was some vandalism to downtown stores on Saturday by masked "protesters".) I don't know the real reason, but it is too bad that people can't enjoy the sight/site freely.

Each day the pedestrian plazas are more crowded and there are long lines to enter the pavilions set up by corporations and different countries. It seems that the city is embracing the spirit of the games!

Short Track (and more shopping)

First of all, I forgot to include Friday's step count: 13, 383.
Saturday was cooler and cloudier and a light rain fell most of the day. We weren't in such a hurry to get out there, but we really should have, as we got caught by the crowds that hampered our ability to get around quickly.

We took the Aquabus from David Lam Park on the north side of False Creek, about a 10 minute walk from our condo. It was $5.00 for a return ticket to Granville Island, just across the Creek. The ferries have plastic windows, so we stayed dry. After the quick trip down the creek and under the bridge, we landed at the Granville Island docks. We walked up the ramps to the Public Market.
There is a huge set of buildings with food shops and restaurant stalls of all kinds. We walked around overwhelmed by the beautiful displays. We weren't hungry yet, so we left the food market and walked across the street to the shopping area. More Olympic merchandise, as well as local art, crafts, and souvenirs.

We came back to the food hall to get lunch, but by then the crowds had arrived and we couldn't find a table. Since it was raining, everyone wanted to eat lunch inside.... We walked around for a while and finally decided to eat standing up. We all got something different (hot dog! lasagna! dumplings! fish and chips!) and were able to watch the crowds while holding up a wall. I tried the grape bread from Terra Breads. Interestingly sweet and savory at the same time.

Back across the creek via Aquabus and time to get ready for the next event.

We drove to East Vancouver and the Pacific Coliseum, home to the short track skating events. But there was no parking. Anywhere. We had been led to believe that people in the neighborhoods near the coliseum would be selling parking in their driveways, but this was not the case. Public parking lots were for permitted cars only, and there were multiple spaces in them, but we couldn't get in.
After about 30 minutes of driving around, we happened on a Holiday Inn Express that had a sign out that said $20 Event Parking. Bingo! And only a 15 min. walk to the venue. Of course, once in the gates, there was the security line, but as we were entering right as the event started, the lines were short. My gum was confiscated (no outside food allowed), but they didn't find my other pack of gum or my Kashi bar. Or Doug's trail mix. Then another 10 minute walk to the doors of the coliseum. Getting to the venues requires one to be in shape! Or have an access pass.


Short Track Speed Skating is an exciting event to watch. They run the races in heats, with four to seven racers in each heat. The track is a short oval, so laps add up quickly. We saw qualifying heats for Women's 3000M relay, Women's 500M Individual, and Qualifying and Finals for Men's 1500M. (1500 M is 14.5 laps).
The racers change position quickly and it can be dangerous. Several people were wiped out in different heats. The best Canadian racer, Charles Hamelin, was upended in his semifinal heat and was forced to race in the consolation final round, not in medal contention.

The best part is the 1500M is Apolo Anton Ohno's first race, so we were thrilled to be in the audience with the other Americans rooting for him and the rest of the team. The final heat was very exciting, with him being forced to the front and then being boxed out by three Koreans.

Two Koreans bumped into each other just before the finish line and fell down, so Ohno and the other American, Celski got silver and bronze, the remaining Korean getting gold.

The next 2 photos are copyrighted by PW, so please don't copy without credit.Apolo in the lead; Flower Ceremony

They have a "Flower Ceremony" to acknowledge the winners at the venues, but medals are awarded in downtown "Medal Ceremonies", which are in a large arena and a ticketed event.

After hitting up some more souvenir shops at the venue, we joined the crowd for the long walk back to the car.
Finding dinner was another adventure, as the perfect storm of Saturday night, Chinese New Year, and Olympic crowds made all the restaurants we tried full to overflowing. We finally ended up at a street tent near our condo and got hamburgers and hot dogs to go. Back in the condo we ate al fresco (always wanted to say that!) and watched reruns of the day's events. We got to see the nightly fireworks show on False Creek from our windows.

Step count: 11, 475. Not sure if the ped. was counting the whole time, as I noticed it hanging from my belt several times, due to jostling under several layers of clothes.
Hoping for better weather!

Opening Ceremony (and Shopping)

Out and about in Vancouver on Friday. Lots of street art and decorated buildings. There are numerous pedestrian plazas and people are starting to gather and take photos of each other as they cavort in the streets. We see many brightly colored jackets from different teams. There are large men walking around wearing signs hanging from their necks that say "Tickets Wanted-Buy or Sell". Not sure I'd want to deal with them, as they look scary.

Lantern Forest-paper lanterns decorated by children and lit up at night. Hudson's Bay Co. store in background to the right.
Canadian spirit is everywhere!

We walked up to the Hudson's Bay Company store where the Official Olympic Superstore has taken over about half of the first floor. We had to wait in line to get in, and once in, my goodness, so much to buy....A logo can be put on just about anything!
This is not my bag!

The hot item at this Olympics are the red mittens, worn by the torch bearers. In Salt Lake, the USA beret was the hot item. People were scooping up mass quantities of the mittens. We left the store after trying to see everything and figuring out which was the shortest checkout line. The person ahead of me spent $1941.00, so the lines were quite lengthy.

We were hungry after shopping and ended up at George/Brix Restaurant. On the Hamilton St. level, the lounge is George, but on the Mainland St. level the restaurant is Brix. Same kitchen. Excellent crab cakes there. I had the Caesar Salad with chicken (no dressing).
Later in the afternoon, we watched the Olympic torch finish it's run through the city. We were able to stand on the street in front of our condo building, so that was easy.
The Opening Ceremony was at BC Place, an indoor arena. We had seats in the balcony at the far end of the stage. Everyone got a box shaped like a drum with items in it for the audience participation segments. We got trained in using the flashlights and electric candles and we had to wear a paper poncho so that the lighting effects could be seen. If you watched the ceremony on TV and saw that the different flags were arrayed over the audience, that was the lighting effect. We used the box like a drum when the athletes paraded into the arena. During the k.d.lang song the electric candles were supposed to light up row-by-row from the bottom to the top, but people didn't follow directions very well.
Team Macedonia, one of the teams with very few members.
We really enjoyed the special effects, although I'm sure some of them looked better on TV. IT was a very long show, but the musical numbers really got the crowd going. There was a nice tribute to the luger that was killed in a training run. The athlete's parade is the best.

Team USA entering the arena.
It was an amazing experience to be in the audience for an event that I've watched so many times on TV. Afterwards, we walked to a nice fusion-type restaurant called Regional Tasting Lounge (rtl) for dinner, but it was very late and we probably weren't in the mood for such fancy/different food. It was also raining pretty hard after the event, so we did get quite wet walking to dinner.
We all received a card for this digital souvenir project, so I'm sharing it with you.

Thanks for all the comments! And more photos on Flickr soon!

Hello Seattle! Hello Vancouver!

The Road Show gets to go to the Olympics! This has been in the works since we went to the 2006 Olympics in Salt Lake City and had a blast. The planning started with entering the 2010 event ticket lottery in the summer of 09. We submitted requests for events we wanted and had to be willing to tie up that amount of money for the duration. We weren't that lucky on our allotment, but our intrepid traveling companions, Paul and Jen, were able to score big. DH and I are staying for 4 days of events and competition, while they are in for the whole 2 weeks.

So travel day, Feb. 11, was uneventful. A lot of rain and snow, but not the paralyzing kind. We were met by P&J in Seattle and spent a few hours touring this maritime city. We walked along the waterfront, went to Pike Place Market (where they throw the fish, but we didn't see any in the air), and then to Olympic Park Sculpture Garden. The weather alternated with light rain to just cloudy, but it wasn't cold. We ate lunch at Lowell's Restaurant in the Public Market. Great cod rolls and fish and chips.
Car ferries go back and forth from the many island communities to the big city.
Typewriter eraser by Claes Oldenburg.
The original Starbucks, near Pike Place Market. We also went to a Top Pot Doughnut shop, as I had seen the show on the best doughnuts in America and that is one of the places. The doughnuts were good, as was the coffee. Note happy customer:

We then got in the silver Suburban and headed north to the border. It was rainy and there was a lot of traffic at times, but we made it across the border in no time.

We drove into Vancouver and arranged to pick up our landlord so he could check us in to our condo. We're on the 25th floor with great views to the south, west and north.
We are in the neighborhood called Yaletown, so we are close to many pedestrian-only areas and the free events centers. We headed downtown to see the Olympic torch run by. Lots of crowds, but I did see the flame being held up by an arm. Didn't try to get a photo.
Went to dinner at Rodney's Oyster and Raw Bar and had excellent halibut. The waiters were amazed to see so many people walking the streets. And the festivities are just beginning....

Taking a page from my friend Trailerfulloftpix, I'm wearing my pedometer.
I walked 10, 335 steps; not bad for spending 5 hours on a plane and nearly 4 hours in a car.

I'm hoping to post more photos on Flickr, so follow the link.

Winter Travel

We spent a very chilly weekend in the Texas Hill Country in January. We're talking 10 degrees F. in the mornings and not getting much above freezing during the day. There was ice in the birdbath and small potholes along the river, and thin ice along the banks of the river.
Frozen grasses encased in ice in the small ponds.
We enjoyed the sun, and the thinner ice did melt during the day.
The air was crisp and fresh. It was very different from a spring or summertime visit to this area. We usually can sit by the river in the warm sun, wade and swim in the pleasant water, and look for shade in the afternoon! But not this time!

The landscape is very different in the winter. The live oaks still have leaves, but they are a dull green. The rest of the trees have lost their leaves, and their branches really stand out against the landscape. You can see the bunches of mistletoe growing in the high branches of various trees quite clearly. The fields are different shades of browns and dijon-mustard yellows.

People who travel to this area for hunting season are familiar with the more barren landscape, but others who just come for the wildflowers in the spring or to enjoy the lakes and rivers in the summer see something completely different.

The bald eagles return to their nests along the rivers and they are easily seen perched in the bare branches of the tallest trees. They can see potential prey much more easily in this season. By April, they'll be gone. We've seen them flying over the rivers, hunting for fish.

We're lucky if we get to see the same place at different times of the year. That's something to think about when making travel plans. Most of the time it seems we want to get to that next new place on the list. If you can return to a place in a different season, it may give you a whole new experience and a new appreciation of a familiar place.