Saying so long to Vancouver

Monday was my last day in Vancouver, as I was set to depart early Tuesday for the cold and snow in Ontario. Most of the day was spent getting organized and packing. Jen and I went out for a special farewell dinner at C Restaurant. This is a fine dining establishment devoted to sustainable sea (C) food. http://www.crestaurant.com/

We had a beautiful meal with wine pairings (almost) too numerous to count, including my first raw oyster, and many other special items. I think I tasted 8 different sea creatures. Shown above was the bacon-wrapped sardine dish. We finished off with a beautiful vanilla poached pear. Our table was right by the window, directly across False Creek from the Granville Island food market building. We had lovely service and during our 4 hours there managed to recap my visit.

Jen and I spent 19 days together and got along extremely well; it was wonderful: the wine sommelier gave us a gold medal for a successful mother-daughter visit! It was great to have Emily there to participate with us for a few days; only too bad Connor wasn't also able to be with us.

During the time there, we also spent time with many other friends of mine, and friends of the girls and also relatives, making the visit to Vancouver a wonderful balance of the athletic events, cultural events, excellent meals, fun and laughter, and celebrations with family and friends.

I have looked forward to this trip so much for the past two years, but as excited as I was, I could not possibly have anticipated the wonderful winter games Canada was going to have, our excellent medal count (Go Canada!), the superb hosting by the City of Vancouver, and the warm welcome we Canadians gave to the rest of the world. Hopefully everyone there or watching got to know a bit about the qualities and values we Canadians hold dear. I certainly saw everyone treated with respect, politeness and friendliness everywhere I went. I travelled by bus and numerous times I was offered a seat by a younger person. I never saw people pushing and shoving, as busy as it was. We are a very decent lot! I am so proud of Canada and Canadians for our performance at the Vancouver 2010 winter Olympic games!

It has been a pleasure writing this blog. Please let me know if you enjoyed it. This is my last post. So long for now. Linda

Day 17 - The Grand Finale!

Today we were up early to meet cousin Jenny and her husband Dennis for brunch at Figmint in the Plaza 500 hotel. We arranged it early enough to be home for the start of the 12:15 hockey game. It was great to see them and they gave us a ride home since the subway was too jammed going into the downtown to take back. When we left home at 9 a.m., the crowds were huge, even lined up on the streets to get into bars to watch the game. It was extraordinary!!

The hockey game was so exciting, but I'm sure you all watched it like us. When it was over, people were leaving the outdoor Yaletown Livesite just down the street, so we went out on the front steps and cheered as people went by. It was such a happy moment for all Canadians to celebrate together. See almost everyone wearing Team Canada clothes and some even wearing the Canadian flag as a cape has become the norm over the past two weeks. There were some mounted Vancouver police who went by as well.

Later, watched the closing ceremonies, which had some good moments, and felt a bit of a letdown. The games couldn't have been better; I couldn't have enjoyed my time here more, but now it's come to an end.

Day 16 - Figure Skating Gala Exhibition

This afternoon at 4:30 was the figure skating gala; this was the ticket I was most thrilled about getting! We saw 5 skaters in each of the 4 types of skating, plus some gifted children and group performers. It was a lot of fun as well as some beautiful skating! The highlights for me were to see Patrick Chan, Evgeny Pleshenko, Evan Lysacek, Yu-na Kim, Joanie Rochette and Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue. Here are all the skaters in the finale.

I liked seeing the skaters skate when they were relaxed and not under the pressure of a competition.

We also watched and enjoyed seeing our 3 gold medals today, in men's curling, men's team pursuit and men's snowboard slalom!