Spring in Vancouver

For everyone back in Wisconsin-I thought I'd post a few pictures of some of the spring blooms here in Vancouver!

Go Fish!

This ones for you Jess! We decided to go to lunch today at a little place on the waterfront called Go Fish. Several people had recommended it, saying they had great fish and chips. It's just a little shack where you walk up, order and wait while they cook it up right there.


It took a while before enough space opened up for us to sit down, but the scenery was pretty. Lots of boats and waterfront.

We both had the halibut and chips. Really good and filling.

Keith wanted to make sure Dad knew he'd at least tried the homemade coleslaw. I wasn't that brave. Overall a fun place to dine and worth the trip to the waterfront.

Stanley Park

The Vancouver Aquarium is located in Stanley Park so we also took a little hike to see some of the other sights. The huge trees are pretty awesome. Several years ago a hurricane came through the area, rare for the Pacific ocean, but you can still see some of the major destruction it caused to these trees.

We also made a quick stop at the Totem Pole park.....

And walked along the seawall to get some great shots of the Vancouver skyline.

Vancouver Aquarium

This morning we visited the Vancouver Aquarium. We had to be up early to exchange our semifinal curling tickets with a Canadian fan, so we took advantage of the 1/2 price admission before 9. It's a nice facility and they had a wide variety of animals. They also had a great 4D show about the sea that was pretty entertaining. The best parts were the dolphin show, the beluga whales and the jellyfish.

Wednesday-Sightseeing & Victory Ceremony

Started out kind of late on Wednesday....it was nice to just sleep in! We did take a short trip to a local mall to search for the elusive red mittens. No luck, but we're still trying. After a short train ride downtown, we decided to walk over to the Olympic flame. Today there were very few people about, so we were able to get a decent picture.



We also saw the Olympic rings out in the bay. I think they're probably prettier at night, but still neat to see.

Later Wednesday night we also had a victory ceremony. This time we got to see the Canadian Mounties raise the Olympic flag.

Medals were awarded in women's speed skating and the local crowd was definitely excited to see one of their own receive the bronze.

Then a concert by INXS. Definitely better than the first victory ceremony, as we actually knew most of the music by this band.

Tuesday-Last USA Games

Tuesday was the final day of games for Team USA. We've had a great time here in Vancouver, and while we might wish for a different outcome for the ladies, we've also learned even more about curling.

We've enjoyed interacting with other fans, both from the US and an amazing array of other countries. Keith has enjoyed giving numerous curling explanations to people in the stands who have never seen the sport before. It was great to see so many newcomers to the sport talk about checking it out in their own areas.


A few more shots of the Tuesday games....

And Tuesday night we saw this great fan who painted his entire body red and held up his sign for the Canadian skip. I wanted my picture taken with him, but I was slightly afraid I'd be covered in red afterward! He was hilarious!

Monday-Granville Island

No curling yesterday-Deb invited us to join them and some friends for a trip to Granville Island. We finally got to eat at a seafood restaurant, which made Keith very happy. They only serve seafood that's in season, so the choices were a bit more limited, but he was happy to find oysters and a bowl of clam chowder. I stuck with the burger:)


We wandered around the stores a bit and took some pictures on the pier. There were many, many boats and several different tours that were available. We might go back and check it out later this week, but for now we were mostly browsing.

It's been very neat to see the way so many of the stores have gotten into the Olympic Spirit. This store had a great display where the stuffed animals were playing a game of curling. Totally cool and something you'd never see in the States!

We eventually ended up back downtown at the P&G house. We ate dinner and went to a little shopping in Gastown, before deciding to head back. Early draw in the morning-followed by a 7 PM game.

Keith had to try on my rockstar glasses and make his most popular pose! He's almost got it down!

Sunday USA Curling Times Two

Not too many pictures from Sunday. We spent most of our time at the curling venue. The 9 am session was US versus Canada and the 7 pm session was US versus Sweden. Both games were tough losses for the ladies. It was our first night game, so it was nice to see the Olympic signage all lit up.

During the break we came back to our rental, where the landlords were gardening! I was so jealous. All the doors on the back of the house were open to the warm day and the sun was shining. Keith decided to take a 3 hour nap while I posted and surfed the web, and watched men's curling on Canadian TV.

After the last game we ended up downtown at a lovely establishment called the Sin Bin. It was actually a pretty nice sports bar where we enjoyed a little social hour and some appetizers. The waitress assured us the train would be open 24 hours, but she was definitely wrong. Our cramped cab ride home was hilarious! Keith sure loves to make friends with everyone so he was more than happy to ask our cab driver his life story. Falling into bed at 2:30 in the morning meant we definitely slept in on Monday. I'm scared to think of how I'm going to adjust to the time change once we get back into Wisconsin!

Saturday-USA v Great Britain

Another win for Team USA. There were several very good games again this afternoon and we certainly enjoyed watching Team McCormick post another game in the win column!



We had to leave the curling venue right after the USA game was complete, as we had tickets to a Victory Ceremony in downtown Vancouver. The Victory Ceremony is basically a ticketed party where the medals are awarded. It occurs at BC Place, the venue for the Canadian Football League. There were many seats still available and it appeared that more people had purchased the "cheap" seats than the floor seats. The higher levels quickly filled up while the floor had many seats open throughout the ceremony.

Each ceremony opens with a presentation by one of the Canadian provinces. Last night was the Yukon province so we saw several different performances-a Yukon rapper and dance troupe, tribal dancers and a band featuring guitarists and an accordion player. Quite an eclectic mix.

No medals were awarded in Vancouver yesterday so we watched the Whistler award presentation on the big screen. Medals were awarded in the Skeleton and Super G Ski events. It was nice to see an American medal awarded to Lindsey Vonn-bronze in the Super G.

After the awards Stereophonics, a British band, played. They were great to listen to, if a bit on the loud side, but I think it would have been better if we'd have known a few of the songs. I felt bad for the band, as the crowds started to quickly clear out.

We made a quick stop at the P&G house, where Keith got to meet Vernon Davis of the San Fransisco 49ers. Keith thought he was very nice-if smaller than he seems on tv :)- and thinks he's a great public figure for the sport of curling.

We met up with some other Team USA curling supporters and took a short walk to see the Olympic Flame. Yes, it's surrounded by chain link fence and looks like you're in a jail! Not at all what I would have thought coming into the games. The beauty is definitely marred by the security features. I've read that there's a spot to get a shot of the flame without the fence in the background, but last night was not the night to try and get that close. There were a lot of people out and about so we plan on trying again later this week. The guys who had already been there also assured us it's actually prettier at night than during the day.

On the way back to the Olympic superstore, the guys felt the need for an impromptu YMCA photo shoot. It's hard to see in the picture but inside this building there's a huge orb of Earth. Everyone was stopping to take pictures, making it look like they're holding Earth in their hands. Keith, Brett and Brock (Jim didn't make it into the photo-he was the other photographer) decided to force the poor girl into being the Y for their photo. She was a good sport! The guys were hilarious and it was fun hanging out with them here in Vancouver. Sorry they headed back to Colorado today!

Our stop at the Olympic superstore was short, as they were completely out of the red mittens we were trying to get. I tried to fit my hand into the kid's size, but there's no chance that's going to work. Guess we'll be looking for other options. We packed onto the skytrain-nothing like standing elbow to elbow with hundreds of other partiers to make you wish you were driving :)

Sightseeing & Shopping

Friday we also spent a little time sightseeing & shopping, after we did laundry! For the first time, we took a bus from Main Street, near our rental, all the way downtown. I'm pretty sure we won't be doing that again soon. The first half of the bus ride was fine, but we ended up in an area of town that isn't very safe. Two guys got on the bus talking about drug dealing and there were several very intoxicated people who insisted on chatting with us and shaking our hands. This part of town was the subject of much debate leading up to the Olympics, with regards to the number of homeless people who congregate in the surrounding area and tent city. There was some type of issue with the overhead lines that the busses run on and we ended up sitting in traffic for a while waiting to move. We got off at the first safe looking stop and decided to walk from there. While I've been in big cities before, this was the first time we both felt a little unsafe in our surroundings. But it did lead to interesting discussions about life, circumstances and family.

We visited the Gastown area and did some window shopping. I really liked this Quatchi hat, but it was definitely designed for kids, though I did try to put it on!

We also stopped in a small store/cafe that sold Canada Maple products. We tried Maple Gelato which was awesome! I think we might have to go back there before we leave.

One of the highlights of the Gastown area is this steam powered clock. It plays a chime every quarter of an hour and we stayed to watch. It definitely draws a crowd.

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USA v Russia Part 2

To no surprise to myself, I am a popular fan to get your picture taken with. A lot of people from different countries came up to me today and asked if they could take my picture or have one taken with me. Who am I to say no! LOL

A nice picture with Jim Jordan and the CMP's.

Donnie Henry, Debbie's brother has a pair of game bibs as well.

Of course we had to adopt some Canadians and show them how to party.

A picture by our seats with the Ultimate USA fan! LOL

USA v Russia Part 1

Another beautiful Vancouver morning. A light frost over night but we are expecting temperatures to be in the low 60's by afternoon. Awesome! Melissa loves the Olympic characters and this morning at the curling venue they featured Quatchi and Miga. Unfortunately they were closing the line for us to get our pictures taken with them. Oh well, I am sure we will see them again.
We found team USA had a late practice that night to work through some issues for today's game. I told you a little soul searching was in order.

Our fans decided to bring out their best as well. In the picture above is Doug and Dawn from Omaha, Nebraska, friends of Debbie. We sat on the opposite side of the arena as them behind some cousins of Natalie's. They were just up for the day from Seattle and were ready to do some cheering. That kind of put me in the mood as well. It was a nice day for it as well because Canada wasn't playing. I started several USA cheers that were followed by all the USA fans. A couple of times the team had to look up at us and laugh. It was shaping up to be a great day.

Team USA put on great showing today and made several nice shots. BTW great sweeping was done by Natalie and Nicole today.

USA needed 2 coming home in the 10th to win and sealed the deal with a nice takeout by Debbie McCormick. I think if you look closely you can see a monkey running away from the team in the photo above.

The final score of the game in the photo above and it was well deserved. This team is starting to come around. Look out world here comes USA! In the words of Bill Ehlert, WooooooHoooooo!