Headed Home

It was an early morning on our last day. We had to catch a bus back to Vancouver for our afternoon flight and with the precarious nature of Olympic traffic we needed to give ourselves plenty of time.

As we were leaving the village on the bus I spotted a sign in a restaurant window that represented the fun of the Olympics:

"Congratulations Jon Montgomery, Bring in your Gold Medal for a Free Burrito & Beer"

Our last Olympic experience was at the pin trading centre at the Airport. The kids got a hug from the CocaCola Polar Bear and placed one of their own pins on a world map in order to receive a new pin.

Then it was on to our flight for a trip back to reality.

Day Seven

This was our last full day of our Olympic Odyssey and our last event. We headed out early to catch the buses to the ski jumping venue which was located south of Whistler. The windy road did not sit well with Alex's stomach.

The Ski Jumping event was the Long Hill Qualification. As I have mentioned previously, Canada is no longer a strong contender in this event but the Qualification round did allow us to see some Canadian flyers. What was more entertaining though were the fans. The Polish particularly seem to be fanatic about Ski Jumping.

It was a great way to end our stay in Whistler.

Day Six

This was our last day of skiing but our first day of hitting the slopes with the kids.

Now, with two days of Whistler lessons under their belts, plus the Ontario ski 'bump' lessons, the kids were ready to attack the mountain. Don would start off as the leader and I would play clean up: scooping up skis, mitts, kids that got strewn across the mountain by an errant turn or surprise bump. Alex had more than one wipe out that made me go white with fear but after a few tears he would just brush himself off and continue his run. There were a few occasions where Alex yelled at Ainsley for making him crash when he was the one who was following too closely or almost cutting her off.

We spent almost the full day on the mountain, splitting our time between Blackcomb and Whistler. Alex really wanted to see the Inukshuk at the top of Whistler and he felt like we were at the top of the world while we took pictures.

Then, to top off the day, it was back to the pool!

Day Five

The kids went back to ski school today allowing Don and I another crack at the mountain. We immediately split up as I wanted to head over to Whistler again to watch the Women's Downhill while Don wanted to try a more aggressive style of skiing than he gets when he is stuck with me.

The Downhill was more like a crash up derby although I did not see a single spill. There were big pauses in the race while officials cleared the track of unsuccessful skiers, and there were many including major contenders! Lindsay Vonn stayed on her feet and ended up the eventual winner.

We finished the day with the kids with more fun in the outdoor pool and hot tub. They never really got over how they could swim outside in February with snow all around.

Day Four

LUGE!

Today was the day we took the gondola up the mountain for the women's luge final runs. We had chosen this event hoping that there would be some Canadians in the mix, but the Germans were completely dominating in Runs 1 & 2 and the Canadians had too much time to make up to be a factor on the final day.

We had grandstand seats but for the final run we made our way track side. This is where you really got a sense of the speed of this sport. Lugers whizzed by before you could even snap your camera and it became a little bit of a competition to 'get the shot', even among the professional photographers we had sat in front of in the grand stand.

The kids were more fascinated by the snow banks and spent the majority of their time playing rather than watching.

Day Three

This is the day we really experienced Whistler. Don and I have been here many times but for the kids, it was their first visit. We had booked the kids in ski school for the day and Don and I set out on our own for a little skiing and some more Olympic adventures.

The men's downhill was running that day and there downhill viewing areas set up for skiers - all that was required was a lift ticket. This offered us some amazing opportunities to see the race although there were no display boards or video screens advising us of the start order or finishing times.

After a day on the mountain, we picked up the kids who had an amazing time with their instructor that day. Before heading back to our condo, we made an apres ski pit stop to enjoy a hot chocolate by a fire pit and chat about all of our adventures.

Day Two

This was a quiet day after two days of running around. We spent our time checking out the Village and resting up before our 'ski vacation' was to begin.

The kids will probably say their favourite part of the day was choosing their own Valentine treat from Rocky Mountain Chocolate but that would be followed closely by swimming in the pool outside our condo in the middle of February.

Day One

Day One started off early as we made checked out of the Bed and Breakfast and headed to figure skating practice at Pacific Coliseum. This was the only event we had been able to schedule in Vancouver before heading to Whistler - we had tried for some long track speed skating but were not successful in our hunt.

The practice for that morning was for Pairs and Men. When we arrived there were some German and Chinese pairs on the ice going through their routines but the most fascinating time for the kids was when the official Olympic Zamboni took to the ice.

After the ice was cleaned the Men came out for their practice and this is when the crowd got excited as Patrick Chan appeared. He went through parts of his long program and had multiple discussions with his coaches before acknowledging the support of the crowd and moving on with his day.

That was when we also had to move on with our day as we had a bus scheduled to head up to Whistler. As we back to where our rental car was parked downtown we were a little concerned as there had been protests which resulted in significant vandalism while we were at the skating practice. Although we witnessed broken windows on some stores the police had cleared everything out by the time we arrived.

We had a smooth ride to Whistler with a quick stop in Squamish and were grateful to get to our rented condo. We didn't have long to settle in as we were fortunate to have tickets to the victory ceremony that night - the very first one of the Games as Vancouver was not having a ceremony that evening. We can confidently say that we are some the few people that actually witnessed the cauldron being lit in both Vancouver and Whistler.

The first gold medal of the games was awarded to Simon Amman of Switzerland for Ski Jumping on the Normal Hill. This was followed by the presentation of medals for women's biathlon. We left shortly after, not staying to watch the entertainment for the evening, the All American Rejects as we thought it probably was not something in which the kids would be interested. They had spent the majority of the Victory Ceremony dancing randomly throughout the crowd and we had managed to lose Alex once already, not something we wanted to repeat.

Let the Games Begin

I understand now that those of you at home were fully aware that there was a problem with the torch. This was not the case in the stadium. We knew they were taking an exceedingly (perhaps dramatic?) amount of time to light the cauldron and there was a hole in the floor but we really didn't clue in to the fact that one arm of the cauldron did not arise until we were back at the B&B watching the news. Our only inkling of a problem was when the music stopped for a split second and started again - perhaps to buy more time.

The torchbearers were all perfect choices and watching Rick Hansen wheel the flame into the stadium was very moving.

Opening Ceremonies: Before the Torch is Lit

The Ceremonies now seems like a complete blur and we are anxious to watch a recorded version so that we can remember it better and pick up a few things we missed. The thing about watching it live in the stadium is that you have no running commentary as you do at home. Some of the symbolism of the performance may be lost but that is more than made up for with the sheer excitement of being there.

My favourite part was the whales which I have no photos of and I'm glad I don't - if I was busy taking pictures of it I would have missed how brilliant it was. Photos of this part of the Opening Ceremonies have now been posted on the Picasa site.

Alex fell asleep during the speeches, carrying on his tradition of falling asleep in an odd place on our first day of vacation (usually it's during dinner). But, he can say that he was sung into dreamland by k.d. Lang. I woke him up to see the torch arrive though.