Day 15 - Women's Bronze Curling

Friday I got up really early for my Women's Bronze curling game. It started at 9 am, so I left the house by 7:30 (whoa, I'm supposed to be on vacation!) took the subway and then walked over a kilometer in the rain to get to the curling rink. After going through security, I was inside by 8:30, so it all worked out.

This was a much smaller venue, only holding 6,000 people, so I enjoyed the smaller crowd. I was much closer to the ice and it was colder, but I again experienced this feeling of "I can't believe I'm at the Olympics!!" when I sat down, as they had the medal podium already set up to use after the gold game later today. The bronze game was China vs. Switzerland. I must say the Chinese team outplayed the Swiss and the Swiss skip looked like a deer in the headlights throughout the game. It was great to watch, constantly changing, but finished very suddenly. The score was 8-6, then the Swiss gave up another 4 points when they made a bad last shot at the end of the 8th end, so all of a sudden they conceded the game!! Shown below are the two skips.

Later watched the gold game, and was sad that we didn't win against Sweden, but it was a very exciting game to watch. Silver is a nice colour, too!

On the way home, I stopped for groceries, as there are too many events to watch to go out much over the next couple of days. Today we watched men's bobsleigh, hockey, curling, but the most exciting was the men's 500 and the 5000 relay where Charles Hamelin won two gold medals. Speedskating is so exciting, I wish that I had been able to get some tickets for it.

Yesterday and today were the only medal events I had, and Canada was not in either game. If I were to do it again, I would think about getting medal events that would include athletes from many countries, including Canada; but live and learn, right?

Day 14 - Women's Bronze Hockey

Thursday arrived and I had a ticket for the women's bronze hockey game, so while Jen went to work, I walked over to GM Place, where the Canucks play, which has been renamed for now as Canada Hockey Place. I had a great seat, at the end of the rink, and it was an exciting game, with Finland winning 3-2 in overtime against Sweden, who I had seen back on Day 2. Shown below is the Finnish team posing for a team photo. On the overhead screen is the female president of Finland, who had given a cheer during intermission. You can also see all the red Team Canada clothing in the crowd.

In the late afternoon, I met my first cousin Jenny for high tea at Secret Garden. This was the first time I've had high tea there, and it was complete with linen napkins, a tea cozy on the pot, sandwiches, scones with cream and tiny squares on a 3-tier tray. Lots of fun! I had seen Jenny on my last visit to Vancouver last July, but we didn't get together on our own that time. We made plans to meet up again before I leave.

In the evening, Jen and I watched the Ladies figure skating finals. What courage Joanie Rochette had to skate, and then winning a bronze, wow!

Days 12 and 13 - Loose ends!

Tuesday Jen was sick and I needed to take it easy, so we stayed home all day. Wednesday I was up and off to the downtown around 10:30, to make a stop at an art supply store in Gastown. Later I met one of my colleagues, Susan, for lunch at the Transcontinental in the Waterfront subway station. I then walked up to get in line at the Bay's Olympic superstore. The line outside looked long, but it only took 8 minutes to get inside. There were lots of shoppers, employees and merchandise, so it seemed a bit crazy, but I did get some mementos to take home.

I then headed over to Caffe Artigiano in Robson Square, where I've wanted to go ever since Bob Blumer went there for a barista contest on his TV show.


I had a cappuccino with a leaf design in the crema on top, and got some coffee to take home as well. My next stop was the Thomas Haas store. He is a local chocolatier, originally from Belgium, whose chocolates I first discovered at Vij's. So I bought some for gifts and of course for me, as well as two small desserts, and headed home for the latest on TV. One great thing about the Olympic events here, is that many exciting things start around 4:30 or 5, so that they can be shown live back east, meaning that the evenings are the best time to watch the Olympics and especially now, it's hard to miss anything. We saw the women's medals in speedskating and bobsleigh tonight. They are doing great!

Days 9, 10 and 11 updates - Taking it easy!

Saturday, Jen and I went to Granville Island to see the various pavilions there and also get some groceries. First thing we did was line up for the show being put on at the Altantic pavilion. We waited about an hour to see a 45 minute show, but it was a really good show, which included Meaghan Blanchard, and three other musicians from Atlantic Canada, with a beautiful slide show about life there. We later went to the Altantic, Swiss and Francphonie pavilions, but they were not too exciting. We also hit a few stores or artisan's galleries. We had snacks along the way, including the best mini-donuts ever! Finishing our day at the farmer's market, we bought a beautiful roast beef for Sunday, as well as a few salads for Saturday's dinner. We relaxed at home in the evening.

Sunday was another low key day. Jen had invited several of her Vancouver friends: Erica, Jackie and Lauren over for dinner. Erica in particular had been interested in learning how to make Yorkshire pudding. So I made the roast beef dinner with the side dishes, while Jen did some tidying and looked after dessert. We kept an eye on the Canada-US men's hockey game, shared some wine with the meal, as well as some great conversation. It was lovely to meetJen's friends.

Monday, I set off about 10:30 to meet up with my high school friend Kathy M., who came over from Vancouver Island on the ferry for the day, to meet up with me and other friends. We met at Robson Square, then walked over to Gastown to have lunch at Salt. It was great to try a few new things there, and we had a good chat, catching up on the last 13 years. After lunch we went over to the Aboriginal Pavilion and lined up for awhile, but realized after a few minutes that it was going to take too long to get in. Kathy then proposed that we have a glass of wine at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. It was great to get away from the crowds, and at 4:00 another friend arrived, so I left them to chat. Jen had been feeling under the weather, so I went back, made some salad for dinner and we watched the ice dancing finale. What excitement! The top two teams were wonderful, and it was so great win gold in that event - first time for North America!

Later this week, I have tickets three days in a row, so right now I am trying to relax a bit as that is going to be hectic. Plus, there is so much that is wrapping up on TV that I don't want to miss.

Day 8 - Dinner with nieces and nephew

Friday was a relaxing day at home. In the evening, Jen and I took the Canada line to Richmond, to meet with all the Collins relatives who are in BC right now, and their friends. We went to Starry Night, a new restaurant where Christie works, for some delicious food and wine. Here are some photos of our night.
Megan and Joce

mom jen

Chris and Joel



Brooks, Katie, Christie and Jarvis

Kev Cassie

Days 5, 6 and 7 updates- We are getting cultured!

In the last few days we have been watching the Olympic sports on TV like you and getting excited about how well we are doing, and some special moments for the athletes and teams. It was exciting watching Canada's hockey shootout with Switzerland!

Day 5, Tuesday, Jen, Dave and I met when they got off work at Vij's Indian Restaurant on 11th at Granville. This is reputed to be the best Indian restaurant in North America. We had gone in 2007 with Connor, and Dave and Jen had gone back once, but I wanted to visit again. We got there before it opened and by 5 pm, there were 30 people waiting to get in. They don't take reservations. We all agreed it was the best meal there ever. We shared 4 appetizers, 2 entrees and 2 desserts, so wonderfully spiced, not really hot, but delicious. The lamb popsicles were a standout! Following this, Jen and I went to the Yaletown Roundhouse Community Centre for a music show called New Songs, New Voices. We really enjoyed two of the performers, Meaghan Blanchard from PEI and Dan Mangan from Vancouver, whom Jen had seen before. Very good and I'm sure that we will hear from both of them again.

Day 6, Wednesday, Jen worked and I went to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens. This was the first such garden in North America, but there are now 4. I wandered around and took the tour, and then walked all the way back to Jen's. Wed night Jen was going out to see Hawksley Workman with the Collins cousins, so I took the opportunity to turn in early and get a good night's sleep - hard to keep up with these 20 somethings.

Day 7, Thursday, I did some shopping and went to a great tea place in Kerrisdale, The Secret Garden, for lunch. Kerrisdale is the neighbourhood where my relatives on my Dad's side, including his parents, and now my aunt, and cousin Jenny, have lived throughout my life. Secret Garden is an old favourite that I have been to several times on previous trips. In the evening, Jen and I went to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre for Hal Willner 's The Neil Young project, which was a tribute to his music by about 30 artists, including a surprise appearance by Elvis Costello for 3 songs. It was very good; amazing and talented musicians.

Day 4 - Victory ceremony - Canada Gold!

Monday was a relaxing day. Jen made us some waffles (our traditional Valentine's Day fare, a bit late), and later Shawna and Emily left for the airport to fly back to Edmonton.

I walked them to the subway station and then went to the Choices grocery store on the way back to pick up a whole chicken. Jen and I relaxed and watched the men's downhill and snowboard cross on TV while the chicken roasted.

At 5 we left to walk to BC Place for the victory ceremony. That was nice as we didn't have to allow for bus transit taking longer than expected. It was just over a kilometer, so didn't take long.

I had ordered those tickets when they first became available. I wanted to get them for a night just before or after our other tickets. I was thinking that we would see the medals given for the pairs figure skating, not knowing at the time that a) the event wouldn't be over and b) they were awarding the figure skating medals at their own venues. So that didn't work out as I had hoped. Then they announced the concerts to go with the victory ceremonies, and some were really fantastic. The date I had was always "to be announced" until 3 days ago, when they said it would be Gregory Charles. (???)(who?) So it was amazing to later find that something I bought cheaply, and was never really sure I would use, turned out to be for the most special historic event! Some things just work out so sweetly!

BC Place is where the opening and closing ceremonies are and is beautiful and huge, but they had blocked it off to only use half. Our seats were pretty good.

Some bands from Quebec played ( it was Quebec Day) and then they had the medal ceremony.

That was a truly thrilling moment, to see Bilodeau get Canada's first gold medal with my own eyes. I felt choked up, as the entire crowd was on their feet cheering, clapping, and even more so when our voices rose for the beloved O! Canada, while we watched the huge flags, carried in by Mounties in their red jackets, rise. It was a proud, happy moment for all Canadians!

We left right away, did not stay for the concert, and cabbed back home in time to watch Davison and Dube and the rest of the skaters, and Jeremy Wotherspoon in the 500 m speed skating.

Nice to see what happened live, too bad the results weren't better.

There is a bit of a lull for awhile, so my posts might not be as frequent. Enjoy watching everything on TV just as I am, and check back later on. Let me hear your comments.

Day 3, Downtown, Torch and Figure Skating Pairs

Sunday we left home around 10, it was a beautiful sunny day. We walked down to Robson Square. We tried to go to the Olympic store at the Bay, but they were lined up outside, with about an hour wait to get into the store (Seriously!!) We then got in a much smaller line up for the Vancouver Art Gallery, free during the Olympics, and where the BC Pavilion is also housed. We passed CTV, who is broadcasting from the middle of the street.

After the AG, we watched people ziplining across Robson Square, then we walked with a large crowd to the waterfront to see the torch. That was a bit disappointing, as it is behind a tall fence, so if you stand back, you can just see the flame. This photo shows Jen, the fence and the top of the cauldron.

We then caught the bus about 2 to go to our venue in Burnaby, the Pacific Coliseum. Lucky we left early for the 4:30 event, as our very full double bus has to be rerouted because of protesters, and so we cut through Chinatown during the Chinese New Year celebrations, and that was no quick shortcut. We got to the venue about 3, and since we hadn't had time for lunch, were forced to eat the venue food. It actually wasn't bad, and only $4 for a water bottle and $9 for a sandwich. The food was actually decent though.

Our seats were laughable. We were on the side of the rink, in row 26, the VERY LAST row. These were the cheapest seats, but they were still over $100 each. Since we were higher than the control booth and the lights, we could only partially see the big screen. Going up and down those big stairs with no railing was a huge challenge!!
This photo is taken from our seats and shows the loooong trek down to the ice.

We had a great view of the ice, sort of like from an airplane, and enjoyed the event very much. There was some beautiful skating! The team in first place skated first out of 20, so by the end, I could really remember them, and it was hard to compare what they did to the other great skaters who were at the end, but I sort wished the Germans had been first, with Send in the Clowns. Too bad Dube fell, it ruined their medal chances, but otherwise our two Canadian pairs did an excellent job.

During the event, the girls beside us got a text that we had won our gold on the men's moguls, so that was very exciting.

Afterwards, they had a lot of buses waiting, so getting back wasn't too bad, and we went home to watch more Olympics on TV. We learned that the gold medal would be presented on Monday night to Alex Bilodeau, and guess what??, we happened to have tickets to that victory ceremony. Talk about dumb luck!

We had been thinking of not even going, as we did not think the concert that night was going to be great. We would then be able to watch the pairs long program on TV, but then at the thought of watching Canada get their first gold ever in Canada, a historic moment for sure, we knew we had to be there....

Day 2 Hockey Game/Salt

Saturday we were up early to leave at 9:00 for the 12:00 hockey game at UBC. Having Jen along as the tour guide sure made it easy as I didn't have to figure out buses or anything. When we arrived at the venue, we were sorted into two groups (big bags vs. little bags). Dave, Shawna and I were in the big bags group, but since that line was shorter, we got through faster. We went through having the bags x-rayed and the metal detector just like airport security, except the volunteers were nicer.

Inside the UBC Thunderbird arena, it was decorated nicely for the Olympics. Our seats, in section 219, were at the end. We could see well, but instead of seats, we had steel benches. so it wasn't the most comfortable seating. You couldn't lean back and your personal space was small. But everyone was friendly and in a good mood.

They had great music, just like a regular hockey game, and had us doing the wave, chicken dance and YMCA. It was very exciting to be there, thinking, "We are at the Olympics!!!!"

The game itself was good, but Sweden had a bigger, better, team. Switzerland put a lot of effort into it, but in the end, the Swedish women outshot the Swiss by a lot and the final score was 3-0. Not like the 18-0 slaughter of Canada's first game, so the teams were not as unbalanced, and the whole game was exciting to watch. I look forward to following the series.

We all wore our Olympics clothes, mittens, etc., and looked like real Canadians, as did most other people. It was a sea of red, except for the pockets of yellow and blue (Sweden). You couldn't tell who in the stands was Swiss as they are red and white. It was definitely fun to be part of. Being polite as Canadians are, we cheered for both teams. In the 3rd period, after Sweden's last goal, you could tell the crowd really wanted Switzerland to get a goal, as we cheered for every little thing they did.



After, we took a bus down 4th Ave to the Kitsilano shopping area and had lunch and wandered the shops for awhile.

For dinner we all went to Gastown, down Blood Alley to a little place called Salt, which was really unique. They had a blackboard with a list of meats (mostly pork, with a few beef), cheeses from all over the world, and condiments.

Each person orders 3 meats and cheeses in total (tasting portions). I went together with Shawna and Emily, so together we tasted 9 meats and cheeses, with all 10 condiments. We let them pair the condiments up with our selections, and we ordered flights of wine which they paired up with our selections. For example, I had blue cheese from France with real honeycomb and a deep rose to go with it. It was delicious. We had baskets of bread with all this. For dessert we had a trio of pear and a trio of chocolate desserts.

This picture shows the two plates Jen and Dave shared.

Day 1 - Granville Island, Torch Relay

I arrived in Vancouver Thursday night, to be met at the airport by daughters Emily and Jennifer and friend Shawna. Luckily they were there to help with my luggage and we took the new Canada line subway to Yaletown, where we walked to Jen's place. For dinner we went to a great place right on False Creek called NU. They have organically grown, local food. We all like trying different things, so we shared 14 tasting dishes, including 9 different creatures!

Friday was the day of the opening ceremonies, which we were watching on TV like all of you. Pretty fantastic! So while Jen went to work (boo) the rest of us took the bus to Granville Island, a group of stores and farmer's market under the Granville bridge. We wandered around and picked up some beautiful wild BC coho salmon for dinner at home (in front of the TV) and then headed back to the bus stop. On the way, we saw a crowd gathering and while under the Granville bridge, where we were not getting rained on, we saw the torch relay go by. That was a cool and unexpected thrill!

After dropping the food off at home, we went down to Denman and Davie, where we could walk along the sea wall looking at English Bay, as well as check out some shops along Denman.

Day 2 is a hockey game, so check back for details later!

What events am I going to?

Here is what the hockey and figure skating tickets look like. Aren't they beautiful?

Lots of people have asked me what I'm going to see and when, so I thought today I would give you a list:

Sat., Feb 13: Women's hockey, Sweden vs. Switzerland, with daughters Emily and Jennifer and friends Shawna and Dave;
Sun., Feb 14: Pairs figure skating short program, with Emily, Jennifer and Shawna;
Mon., Feb 15: Vancouver victory ceremony, with Jennifer;
Thur., Feb 25: Women's hockey bronze medal game;
Fri., Feb 26: Women's curling bronze medal game;
Sat., Feb 27: Figure skating gala exhibition, with Jennifer.

So watch for us in the stands! You know what I'll be wearing!

I am all finished work and getting packed now. Tomorrow is a travel day. Talk to you soon!

Getting ready

I am getting ready for my three week trip to Vancouver. Stay tuned or check back to hear about my Olympic adventures.