Vancouver 2010

On Saturday we took a spontaneous little trip up to Vancouver to experience Olympic fever. Us and about 2 million other people. And I am not kidding. We read online that 1.6 million people rode the SkyTrain with us and I’m guessing there were people who took other modes of transportation into the city, so we can safely say there were MILLIONS of people walking around us. And though I normally don’t like crowds, there was something different and special about the Olympic crowd.

First off, about 95% of them were wearing Canadian hockey jerseys and the other 4.99999999% were wearing red. We weren’t, though. Second, everyone was friendly! People talked and asked you where you were from and gave you advice about where to go to find washrooms or what radio station to listen to for border crossing reports on the way home or whatever you needed. And third, everyone was happy! No one standing in the 7 hour ziplining queue was complaining. I only heard a few kids whimpering in their strollers and while I had some whining from my own kids, they kept letting themselves be pulled around the streets and seemed excited when we saw new stuff.

My favorite part of the day was when the sun started to go down. We went inside the hotel attached to Canada Place and looked out on the waterfront. We saw the Olympic Rings, the moon, Mt. Baker, the mountain ski areas, etc. Then we walked down and saw the Olympic Cauldron in the dark and it was beautiful. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I am so glad we went.