Wrapping Up

The Olympics aren't over until Sunday but my adventures ended this morning when I crossed back over to the USA. Thankfully that border crossing was the nicest yet. Despite some of the chaos and frustrations I was sorry to see my Olympic trip end. But I am thrilled that it ended with seeing Speedy win his silver last night. I forgot to post the picture below with the rest after the event. I'm calling it the "Star Brigade" in honor of the freestyle uniforms. With that many members of the staff/team standing together to cheer on the guys you started seeing stars!

Star Brigade

The downside to attending the Olympics is that you miss a lot of the stories. I just saw tonight on NBC that Kris Freeman collapsed during his 30k race due to his blood sugar. (Kris is a type 1 diabetic.) One of the German coaches ran over to him with an energy drink. Kris refused to give up and continued to ski. He finished last but he finished! I also learned that the day I was at the Cross Country sprints that one of the athletes had fallen into a gulch on the side of the course during warm ups. She insisted on racing and won the bronze. It turns out she raced with broken ribs and a collapsed lung. That is some amazing spirit! In the news today it was also announced that Billy Demong (first Nordic Combined gold medalist) was elected by his fellow athletes to carry the flag in the closing ceremony. And my rookie, Hailey Duke, finished 30th in her first Olympic race. Way to go Hailey! For anyone who only follows skiing every four years during the Olympics you might have expected to see Lindsey Vonn become the "Michael Phelps" of these games. That is media hype that Lindsey never promised. (Just like Bode never promises to do more than go out there and give it everything.) Lindsey always said that if she won even one medal she would be happy. In the end she won a gold and a bronze and that ain't bad! I would also like to thank Sports Illustrated and Yahoo Sports for doing such a horrible job predicting the medal results. Maybe it gave our athletes a bit of motivation to prove them wrong.

The Olympics aren't over. Saturday there is Men's Slalom, Men's PGS and Women's Cross Country 30k. On Sunday there will be Men's Cross Country 50k, plus a great Men's Hockey final. But I am in Seattle now and heading toward home and my next adventure. I only have four years to figure out how to get someone to take me to Sochi so I don't have to plan that trip! See everyone in Park City!

GO USA!

SPEEDY WINS SILVER!!!!

Today was all about the Men's Aerials. After last night and the mess getting to Women's Aerials my goal was to get there early. We took the bus into town, got lunch and then headed over on the seabus. When we got to Londsdale Quay they said I was too early. But after we picked up some waters we tried again. One guy said we couldn't go until 4:35 which was almost 2 hours away. Another said we could go. We decided we liked him and went for it. They let us on the bus and off we went. When we got to Cypress though we ran into a huge line waiting to get up to the security area. Once again luck was on our side. When we got up close they decided that our bags bordered on the edge of being small enough for the Express line. We made it through quickly. Although once again the detector when off when I walked thru. No clue why since I wasn't wearing any metal. At least this time the second scan went fast.

Once we got in we headed straight for a place to stand. Mom had never been to an aerial event before last night. So she thought we'd be heading for the same area only hopefully closer up. I told her that our spot last night really hadn't been very good, even if we did get closer. This time we were able to get front and center. The only negative was that we were right next to a speaker. Sometimes you have to suffer for the good spots. We were standing next to two women from the Squamish tribe (or is it clan). I traded pins with one of them. Just down from us was a group of American fans with their flags. I'm guessing they got on tv a few times. And if you ever saw a guy with a red painted face and wearing a cow costume, we were on the bus with him. Once we were settled we were 2 hours early. Thank goodness mom is such a trooper. And they were smart enough to put the Canada v USA gold medal game on the big screen to keep us entertained. Too bad the USA couldn't even score. But it kept the Canadian fans around us happy. Turns out that our location was right behind the corral that had all the USA staff in it. Tschana saw me early on and waved. The rest were too focused to notice til later and I wasn't about to try yelling again. I also noticed my boss in another area. But since I'm on vacation I never bothered to wander over that way. Besides, I wouldn't want to lose my prime location!

The first round I wasn't sure if the judges liked our guys. After one jump Speedy was in 5th and Ryan was in 8th. Fortunately on the second jump things were going a bit better. Ryan jumped into first position with his second jump. It was so great to see him react as he landed. You knew that he was happy with it and just had the biggest grin on his face. His position held until Speedy came down. Then we got to watch Speedy throw down the Hurricane which had the highest rate of difficulty of the night. He nailed it! And of course he went into first position. I haven't been that nervous since I played soccer. I didn't want to wish bad things on any of the other jumpers but there were four more. For those of you who think I always hyperventilate in these situations it isn't true. I just stood there with my gloves over my mouth before the scores were announced each time hoping and praying that Speedy would stay in first. We finally reached the point where I realized that no matter what happened he was going to get a medal. Once he got passed for gold I started praying that he would at least get to hang on to the silver. I'm not sure what happened to the last Canadian but the crowd definitely thought he got screwed. He had placed first after the first jump and finished 5th after the second. His loss was Speedy's silver!

The place we had been standing all night turned out to be perfect for the flower ceremony. And while we waited I had the opportunity to say hi to Cheryl (team manager), Emily Cook (athlete) and Ashley Caldwell (athlete) and get some photos. When Cheryl saw me she brought one of the USA pins over for me. Of course when everyone around me saw that they all wanted one. Definitely started something there. I would have waited til we got back to the office. It was so great to see Speedy get his flowers. He was just so happy. Not that you can blame him. You couldn't keep the grin off your face watching him up there celebrating. This was definitely the highlight of events for me. I loved seeing Seth get gold and Lindsey get bronze, but it was special to see Speedy win silver. Mom and I met him in 2005 at some of the ski balls. He is just such a great guy and we were so happy to be there when he won his medal. It was the perfect way to finish our Vancouver adventure! (See pictures below.)

I was thrilled to get back to the condo and find out that Billy Demong had won gold and Johnny Spillane had won silver in Nordic Combined. What a wonderful and historic day for the Nordic Program! Congratulations.

Tomorrow is Women's Slalom and Women's Snowboarding PGS. Good luck to Lindsey, Julia, Sarah Schleper and Hailey Duke. Hailey was in our first rookie group in 2007. So in her honor--- "DARE TO DREAM HAILEY!" And Good luck to Michelle Gorgone in PGS!

Question of the day- After watching aerials I wonder why it is ok for women to compete in aerials (hurling yourself thru the air) but it isn't ok to have women ski jumping? I'd love to see the IOC explain it. I'm also pissed to hear that the IOC is now threatening to take out women's hockey. How hard is it for them to understand that if a sport isn't in the Olympics it won't receive support from countries so it can continue to grow? It would be great if they could use their brains before they speak.

Little easier to take pics tonight.

Speedy in 2nd!

Men's Aerial medalists

Mom and Me at Men's Aerials

Ashley Caldwell & Me (she competed last night in her first Olympics)

Emily Cook and Me (her 2nd Olympics)

Cheryl and Me

Women's Aerials

I forgot to mention that it is starting to look/feel like winter. It has snowed on us at bobsled and at aerials. Unfortunately at aerials it was really wet so by the time we got on the bus we were soaked.

We had some time to site see before we had to catch the bus to women's aerials. I took mom downtown to see the Olympic flame. Then we walked up to Robson Square where there are lots of things going on. We were hungry by then so we went to a Red Robin. As luck would have it they had the USA hockey game on. We ate slowly so we could enjoy the last period of the game. I knew Sweden was desperate when they pulled out their goalie at the end. That either works or it fails miserably like it did this time. Glad that USA pulled off the win. After eating we decided to walk past the Hudson Bay store so mom could see the big line for the Olympic store. I'm not sure why they still have long lines. There isn't much left except shirts that you can't afford. From there we went down to the Harbor Gallery Place. I was looking at things we could do and discovered that the Northern Territories House was across the street. We went to see how bad the line was and there was no line. So we went in and looked around. I officially have decided that I need to go up there and tour around. It looks gorgeous. They also seemed to be trying to convince people that it was a good place to set up a business. I'm sold. Now I just need to figure out what kind of business to start.

Me at the Northern Territories House

From we went back to the Mall to hang out until we needed to catch our bus. As I went around the corner by the elevators the person coming my way with their husband and two kids said hi to me. It took a half a second to realize I was talking to Picabo Street! I think the logo on my shirt (U.S. Ski Team) had more to do with her talking to me than her remembering me from 2007. But you never know. I was just so shocked to be standing there having a conversation with Picabo. I asked if she had been up to Whistler and she said she hadn't been there at all. She was ready to head home on Friday. I can't imagine that NBC had Picabo Street available for commentating on skiing and they never sent her to Whistler. That was probably the highlight of the trip for me that didn't relate to an event. I got to talk to Picabo Street. She is still my hero.

I can officially say that Cypress is my least favorite venue. It was even worse when we got to aerials than it had been for SBX last week. The security took forever. For some reason I set the security off for the first time. Then they had to wand me but couldn't find anything wrong which seemed to upset the kid. Finally the supervisor did a quick scan and let me go. We stopped by the merchandise tent but they were out of the aerial pins and had hardly anything good left. By the time we got to the standing area the place was packed and we had a hard time getting a good position. Plus the fog had rolled in and it was hard to see where the athletes would be flipping through the air. We shimmied our way through the crowd until we had a half way decent spot. It turns out that the 12 athletes only represented 4 countries, USA, Australia, China and Belarus. The Canadians didn't seem to mind much and were still out in full force with their flags. The Aussies really owned the night though. My camera hated the fog so the only picture I have is of Ashley Caldwell landing her second jump. I did take some video on my small camera but it is too foggy to be worth posting.

I was cheering hard for the Aussie girls once the USA was out of the medal positions. I have nothing against the Chinese but I really wanted Lydia to win the gold if we couldn't. She nailed her run and just had to wait for the final Chinese athlete to go. The last girl had the hardest difficulty of the night. The announcers said it was the hardest trick done by the women. I told mom she was either going to nail it and get gold or fall flat on her face. She fell flat. So Lydia had the gold! Most people starting leaving before the flower ceremony so we tried to get closer. We ended up next to the media area so we got to see the athletes as they walked by. I tried to yell hi to Justin Hunt when he was with Emily but he either had the radio turned up loud in his ear or just couldn't hear me. Ashley was so cute when she walked by. She was waving to everyone. I think she enjoyed her first trip to the Olympics. It is amazing to me that she made the team in December during selection events and was at the Olympics two months later. That should make rookie camp interesting for her.

Ashley making the media rounds.

Gold Medalist from Australia

If I thought getting into the event was hard getting out took forever. We realized we were in line for the bus around 9pm. We didn't get on a bus until 10pm. Cypress still hasn't figured out a quick way to get everyone loaded. A few of us in the lines had some suggestions for them. Since it had started rain/snowing on us it was a long, wet wait. It was a late return home. But on the seabus we got to watch fireworks above the skyline. My goal is to get there early for the men and hope we can get a good spot.

Waiting for results from Nordic Combined today. Hoping Billy, Todd & Johnny can bring home some more medals. It didn't look like we had great results from women's GS but hard to tell where anyone other than Julia finished based on the three line press release I saw. I was happy to read that one American bobsled got bronze. Way to go! Now I'm ready to go cheer on Speedy and Ryan at Aerials tonight!

Women's Bobsled

This morning our first stop was the Sochi House since we had been too late when Jen and I tried it. We got in line at 10am. Then we found out it didn't actually open until 12pm. I was ready to give it up but mom was willing to stand there so that I could see the Sochi preview. We ended up talking to some really nice people from Vancouver. We had a good time and the time went by pretty quickly. They have a clock outside the building that shows you how long we have until the Sochi Winter Olympics begin in 2014. The building they are using is on the water and it is usually the Science World Museum. I was already having doubts as to whether I still wanted to go in four years. After seeing the preview today I'm really doubtful. The fact that it is on the sea again makes me question whether I want to spend that much time and money to get there and then face weather related cancellations. Plus the mountain events look to be as far away from Sochi as the Whistler venues are from Vancouver. That makes for difficult planning. I'll probably wait until the summer of 2012 before I decide.

Sochi countdown

Sochi House

Fun tree trunk carving outside Sochi House.

After all that waiting we headed toward the waterfront so we could take the seabus and the shuttle up to Whistler for bobsled. I attended luge in 2002 and men's bobsled in 2006. I tried to get skeleton tickets so I could be done with sled events this year. It didn't work out but I did get Women's bobsled. This is (hopefully) my last sled event. They are just too difficult to watch in person. But since Shauna Rohback was a former soccer player I wanted to see her race. I had also been interested to find out that Elana Meyers had played softball in college before becoming a bobsledder two years ago. We debated where to stand and decided to stand in the lower section by the last couple of curves so we could also see the screens. I looked up when they showed the announcers and realized that one was Carl who was my downstairs neighbor in Park City when I lived in an apartment. Katie had told me he was coming up here to announce at the sled events but it had slipped my mind til I saw him.

Carl on the far right with the mustache

We started right up against the track. But I knew I wouldn't get a picture when they went by after seeing the forerunners. So when it was time for Shauna's run I moved over to the middle where you could see the lower track. When I heard the sled coming behind me I started continual shoot until after the sled went by. That turned out to be the best way. And since I have digital now I can delete the empty photos. (Much better than 2002 when I wasted a roll of film at luge and only got 1 picture of an athlete.) We had been standing with some nice people from Seattle that no matter what they tried couldn't get a picture with a sled in it. Finally the one gave up and used her phone to take videos. After two runs the Americans were all in good positions.

I think this is USA 3

Me and Mom at the Bobsled

I had been trying all afternoon to find someone who knew the Nordic Combined Team event results. On the shuttle to the parking lot to get the Vancouver bus I heard some people discussing hockey scores. I asked if any of them knew the NC results. Finally, one guy knew the answer. I was so excited to hear that our USA team had won silver!!! Congratulations to Billy, Johnny, Todd and Brett. It couldn't have happened for a better group of guys. Good luck to them on Thursday in the long hill event! It was not a medal day for alpine in the GS but I'm still happy that Tommy and Jake finished 26th and 31st respectively. This is only Tommy's first Olympics. He was one of our rookies in 2007. Good luck to our alpine girls skiing GS tomorrow. I hope that Lindsey, Julia, Meghan McJames and Sarah Schleper have a great day! You have to love a mom who is out there kicking butt on the World Cup and Olympic circuit. Go SARAH!

Odds & Ends:

Yesterday when I was driving to Seattle I was listening to the ESPN radio station. They interviewed Julia Mancuso and asked her if she was frightened going down an icy hill at 90 mph. She said you couldn't be scared and that really she finds going downhill at 90 mph kind of peaceful. I am now convinced that these athletes are certifiable. But I guess you would have to be to do what they do. They were also talking a lot about Scotty Lago and the photo that supposedly got him sent home. I will admit I have not seen the picture. I have only heard about it from a friend and on the radio. I feel bad that something like that could end an athlete's Olympic trip. But in this day and age it seems like you have to be careful of every little thing or it gets blown out of proportion. I'm sure this isn't going to hurt him very much in the snowboarding world. Congrats to Scotty on his bronze medal.

Wednesday night will find us at Women's Aerial finals cheering on Emily, Lacy and Ashley. GO USA!

Airport, Eagles and Old Teammates

Not the Olympics without a photo with the Mascots.

Today was an airport swap day. Jen and I got up really early and headed for the Seattle airport. It was time for her to head back to Indiana for work and for mom to fly in to join me. Fortunately this time I didn't get the third degree at the border. Last time I was worried they weren't going to let me back into the USA. This time was a lot less nerve wracking. We made it down in good time and I dropped Jen off. Since I had time before mom arrived I went to pick up some things. Including a bag with Graham Watanabe on it at the McDonald's. Who knew asking for a bag could cause so much confusion? I asked if I could have one of the "Sauce it" bags because that is the one that has Graham on it. They thought I was asking for sausage. It took 3 staff members before one finally understood what I wanted. By that time I had figured out it might be easier to just ask for the medium size bag with a snowboarder on it. So now I have my Graham Watanabe McDonald's bag. Hoping I can get him to sign it as a fun Olympic souvenir.

On our way back up to Vancouver right at the border I saw the first Bald Eagle for this trip. Then once we were across and headed for the city we saw two more. Jen and I kept looking for wildlife and only found squirrels. Two hours with mom and I get 3 bald eagles. Obviously Jen and I were not looking in the right places.

This evening we went and met up with friends for dinner at Monk McQueen's on the waterfront. Danielle and I had played soccer together in Australia before our senior year in high school. We have seen each other one other time since then when I was in Boston for the first WUSA Championship game. Now that she is on the west coast with her husband they decided to come up to Vancouver for the Olympics. They have something like 3 hockey games, curling and men's slalom. I'm crossing my fingers that they make it to slalom. After a week of weather that makes you question if you are at the winter games it is going to storm. They are saying Whistler could get 10 inches this week. Hoping that it doesn't start before our trip up there tomorrow for bobsled. I'd like mom to see the beautiful views.

Tomorrow we have women's bobsled and then we have Aerial finals on Wednesday and Thursday. I heard that Emily Cook, Lacy Schnoor and Ashley Caldwell made the finals for our women. Hoping that our men do as well. Tuesday is a big day for our ski teams. The men's GS and the Nordic Combined team event are both tomorrow. So, good luck to Billy, Johnny, Todd and Brett in NC and good luck to Bode, Ted, Tommy and Jake in GS. GO USA!

Touring Vancouver

First off, sorry about the videos on the past posts. They worked when I put them up. Not sure why they don't work now.

Today was a day off. Jen's mom knew someone in Vancouver who offered to show us around. We decided to take Darryl up on the offer. He picked us up this morning near our condo and we headed toward town to sight see. We started in the Granville Island area. There are lots of shops and restaurants over there. We went into one of the shops called Stone Age Art Company. I had to take a picture of the owner Peter Vickery with all the Go Canada things at their check out counter. We exchanged pins. He made me an honorary Canadian by giving me a flag pin and I gave him a U.S Snowboarding pin. Peter had it on within a minute. (There is also a guy in the Public Market at Organic Oddballs that has a U.S. Ski Team pin now. In return he gave me a Nova Scotia Olympic pin.) We had a great time talking to Peter and his wife Angie about the patriotism of these games. They are originally from Zimbabwe so this was the first winter games they have gotten into. If you have a chance to check out their store on Granville Island it is amazing. I would have loved to buy some pieces.

Eventually our wanderings took us to the children's area. There were some hockey guys on stilts that were pretty funny. And then we ran across a play house area that was doing "How the Raven Stole the Sun". Jen and I had heard the story when we were at Capilano Suspension Bridge from a member of the Raven clan on Haida Gwaii. We decided it would be fun to see the play. It was exactly like what we heard and so cute to watch. Especially with the little kids in the front piping in with their ideas.

From there we drove over to see the Inuksuk. This turns out to be difficult since there is only permit parking in that area. Darryl managed to find us a spot so we could get out. We had to laugh that they had put a pair of the red mittens around the statue. It is a beautiful area with the mountains and water in the background.

Steveston Wharf was our next stop. We had lunch at a great place with some wonderful seafood. They also had the ski cross finals on. I was sad to see that Casey and Daron were not in those races. I'm sorry we missed going to ski cross but I guess it worked out since there were no USA athletes in the finals. (Yes, I like cheering for everyone, but its nice to have someone from our country to cheer for.) After lunch we walked around the docks where people were selling fresh caught fish and shrimp from the back of their boats. You could buy 3 pounds of shrimp for $10. It was amazing. Jen was tempted but since she is leaving in the morning she resisted. From there Darryl took us to Queen Elizabeth Park which has some great views of Vancouver. We walked around the gardens. Obviously in February they are not at full bloom. But you would be surprised to see how many flowers there were. We saw crocuses, daffodils, pansies and a couple we couldn't identify. Plus the trees are in bloom. It was beautiful and I would recommend it in spring or summer if you are up here.

After that Darryl dropped us at the train station so we could go into downtown. Turned out we needed to try for a couple more souvenirs. The line went much faster and we were saved the torture of the cowboy singer tonight. Unfortunately the only mittens they have are in kids sizes. I tried them, they won't work for anyone. We are also not having any luck with much else. I wanted to see if they had the style pins we had been collecting at events because the hockey venue didn't have any. They were out so I settled for a different hockey pin. Then to be safe I grabbed a freestyle and bobsled pin. Hoping I can use those as souvenirs and get the style I want at the events. Anyone with any requests would have better luck checking online at this point. The store is a disaster and I'm hoping to not have to go back!

Today was another great day for the USA. Bode Miller won GOLD in the Super Combined. Congratulations to him. He now has a silver in Super Combined to go with the gold, a bronze in Downhill, a silver in Super G and a silver in GS. Julia Mancuso appears to be trying to keep up. She has a gold in GS, silver in Downhill and silver in Super Combined. (The medals have been won over 2 Olympics for both athletes.) It will be fun to see what happens in GS and Slalom next week. I hope that Andrew is ok after his slalom run today in the combined. And does anyone know what Ted was wearing in the downhill portion? I couldn't decide if my tv was having color issues or if he was really in green, white and orange. Looked again in the slalom and it was definitely green and orangeish. And there is nothing like being in Canada when the USA hockey team beats them. What an amazing game. Go USA!

Lindsey wins Bronze!

Today was our one and only Alpine event for this Olympics. I am really glad that our head coach, Jim Tracy, gave me a hard time when I only had GS tickets. He wanted to know why I didn't have speed. So I went and added Super G to my list. (Later we had to sell off the GS, so I'm glad we had one of the women's alpine events. Watch the USA get some medals though in GS now that I'm not going.) It was another gorgeous day in Whistler. To get up to the event you had an option to hike up or take the chair lift. Since Jen was already sounding bad (she has asthma) we opted for the chair lift. This was her first time ever on one. I think the idea was a bit nerve wracking at first but she ended up loving it. (We had to take it down too since it was like a fun ride for her.) We got up there early and found the best place we could in the standing area. We were not early enough to be on the fence so we made due in the middle. I think every tall person at one point or another tried to stand in front of me. Somehow I lucked out though and ended up being able to see most of the area. I was a bit worried that the "Vonncouver" sign was going to be a problem. But that group kept it down during the runs. I ran into Ernie and Troy (coworkers) before the race started but they looked serious so we didn't talk long. Ernie was surprised to see me there since he didn't think I would be able to make it. Little did he know that telling me that work won't take me doesn't actually prevent me from coming as a fan!

Julia Mancuso was the first athlete down the course. So of course we got to celebrate having her in 1st place. The course looked rough watching her come down. But it turned out to be worse for the athletes after her. She held on to that first position for quite awhile.

I really hope that first picture is Julia!

We had to wait until racer 17 to see Lindsey ski. In the meantime her best friend Maria Reisch from the German team came down and took the 1st place position. Then Elizabeth Goergl took it from Maria. Then Lindsey came down and took over first position! It was awesome to see her run. There had been so many scary crashes and racers skiing out between Julia and Lindsey (or even Maria's run) that you started to wonder if anyone was going to make it down quickly and safely. Lindsey had a great run but it didn't hold for too long. Eventually Andrea Fishbacher from Austria would get first and Tina Maze from Slovenia took silver. Still, we got to see Lindsey win a bronze medal. (In 2002 I got to see Bode win a silver in GS and in 2006 I got to see Ted win a gold in Super Combined. Already this year I have seen Seth win gold in SBX and Lindsey win bronze in SG. Hope to see more next week!)

Hopefully this one is Lindsey.

We had two other racers coming down for the USA. Leanne Smith was coming down 23rd and then Chelsea Marshall was coming down 27th. Leanne was one of the first rookies I got to meet in 2007. I was really excited to be there cheering for her today. She had a great run and tied for 18th at the end of the day. Unfortunately, Chelsea was one of the racers that was unable to finish the run. She had a crazy fall to watch. It looked like she was going to be ok though. Hopefully she will be back up and kicking butt tomorrow!

Leanne Smith's run.

Lindsey at the flower ceremony.

After the race we stuck around to see the flower ceremony. I was surprised when they announced that my boss, Bill, was going to be the one presenting the flowers to the athletes. I managed to finally work my way up close enough to the fence to take a picture of Lindsey when they walked back out with their skis and flags. Then I saw the coaches headed for the exit to the corral and headed that direction so I could say hi. I was especially happy to see Jim, Sarah and Lesli. It is always great to see Lesli since she lives in Australia now. I think the last time I saw her was last spring. Before we left we saw Lindsey come over and sign some flags/helmets/jackets, etc for some of the kids. We had the opportunity to congratulate her which was great. It has been such a great week for Alpine. I hope the results keep pouring in.

Jim and Me

Sarah, Lesli & Me

Love the sign (when it isn't blocking my view).

We got back to Vancouver early enough that we could run home and drop off layers before catching the bus to the hockey game this evening. We had a play off game between Russia and Slovakia in women's hockey. The arena was inundated with Canadian fans who did not seem to care that their team was not playing. They were still wearing their jerseys and carrying their flags. But they seemed to have a great time cheering on the two teams that were playing. The Russian team ended up winning 4-2 but the Slovakia team made it interesting. When you thought it might be a blow out they would come back and score. Their goalie had some unreal saves. It was a lot of fun. Of course what the fans in the stands were talking about was the USA v Canada men's game tomorrow. Should be interesting.

Tomorrow is a day off since our SX tickets were canceled. We are going sight seeing with a native of the area. Hoping we get to see Stanley Park. And of course we will have to find time to catch the men's Super Combined and the hockey game. Go USA!

Day Off- Capilano Suspension Bridge

This is my second day off. The original calendar called for one today and another on Monday. The rest of the time we should have had events. The weather has not been agreeable for that to work so we also have one on Sunday. But I did just get an email letting me know that my aerial tickets are still good! On the bright side, days off allow us time to sight see.

Jen wanted to go to the Capilano Suspension bridge so I said that today was her day and I would follow. We didn't start too early which was nice since we didn't get home til after 11pm last night. We headed downtown to get the free shuttle once we were moving. It is pretty handy that the buses are free right now and then there was the free shuttle to the bridge. (On our way back across I took some video. The best way to see what it was like.)

One of the signs said they could stand the Statue of Liberty up next to the bridge and it would be by her shoulder. It is also as wide as two Boeing 747's wingtip to wingtip. Pretty amazing. And even more fun to walk across and look down at the river VERY FAR below you.

Once you get across the bridge there are walkways on the ground and up in the trees. We tested the treetop walkways first. You are at least 100 feet up and looking down on the rain forest. It is probably every kids dream kind of tree house situation. After that we walked down around the ponds and big Douglas firs. I love the picture below looking up at the huge trees. Some of them are 300 years old. One broke under the stress of weather and fell onto the bridge. They said the force with which it hit meant they couldn't just cut it up and take it off or the bridge would have turned into a slingshot.

Of course after walking around the forest area we had to stop in the shop. I loved the big bear dressed as a Canadian Mountie so I had to get a picture with him.

When we got back to Vancouver we grabbed lunch and then went searching for the Irish House. Unfortunately when we found it the line was forever long. So then we went in search of the Coke Pavilion. That turned out to be a mob scene with at least a one hour wait. Jen wasn't interested. (*Note to anyone considering attending the Olympics, expect to wait in lots of lines and there are tons of crowds!) So then we walked along the waterfront until we reached the Science World Museum which is where Sochi House is located. Sadly when we arrived there at 4:40pm they were closed except for the store. It looks like we will have to try again another day. At that point it was time to call it a day since we have a very early morning tomorrow. Off to see Women's Super G in the morning and Women's Hockey in the evening. GO USA!

One of the most impressive things to see up here is the Patriotism of the Canadians. I have been in Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Torino for previous Olympics. I do not remember this level of excitement by the hosts. Torino gave the impression they didn't care. Up here there are signs in almost every store and office window. The people walking down the streets chanting for their Canadian teams and of course flags on the cars. While waiting to see the Olympic flame last night we knew the home team had pulled off the win in hockey when you heard a cheer go up around the city. And I am not kidding about that. You could hear it coming from all over. It is an amazing site.

U.S. Skiing and Snowboarding medal count: Total 15 ( in Torino 10)

Snowboarding- 2 gold (Seth & Shaun), 1 silver (Hannah), 2 bronze (Scotty & Kelly)
Freestyle- 1 gold (Hannah), 2 bronze (Shannon & Bryon)
Alpine- 1 gold (Lindsey), 3 silver (Bode & Julia x 2), 2 bronze (Bode & Andrew)
Nordic- 1 silver (Johnny)

Curling and more

This morning was a slow one, which was much appreciated. After getting up and preparing for the day I got Jen to sit through the women's downhill portion of the combined with me. It was great having live coverage on tv. I wanted to see how our girls did. Plus I wanted to see who besides Lindsey and Kaylin were skiing. I was excited to find out that Leanne Smith was one of the four USA skiers. She was in our Rookie Camp in 2007. When we left Julia was in 3rd and Lindsey was in 1st. Unfortunately for the rest of the day I had an impossible time finding out any results that did not relate to Canadian success. Eventually I discovered that Julia won a second silver! Congrats to Julia! I was also happy to see that Kelly Clark won silver and Hannah Teter got a bronze in Women's Halfpipe. Congrats to them!

We headed into town and went to the Olympic Store for Jen to check out. Plus I always seem to end up with new requests or needs. Once again while standing in line we ended up stuck next to the Cowboy singer. You have to give him an A for effort but he tends to butcher songs. If you can handle it check out the video. After picking up souvenirs we headed for curling.

When we got to the venue we found some of the Canadian Mounties so we had to stop for a picture. There were two options so we chose the one that included one female and one male. Turns out the guy has an uncle in Salt Lake City. Small world. After that we stopped for a picture with two of the mascots. Mine didn't turn out so I'll post one when I get a copy from Jen. When we got inside we had to stop to pick up our event pins and get food before finding our seats. On the way to get food I ran into a pin trader. We traded some U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Snowboarding pins for two of his. I got a Bermuda Luge pin and a Snowball pin with flags that spin around it. Trust me, they are cooler than they sound. Then a lady wanted to trade me for a ski team pin. Who knew they would be so popular? Then it was time for some curling!

We had USA v Denmark right in front of us. Then it was Great Britain v. Russia, Japan v China and Germany v Canada. The two best games ended up being the USA and the Canadian games. Denmark went up early but then the USA got the lead. Then Denmark got 3 points in 1 period and went ahead. The USA kept trying to come back but only got one of the points they needed. They ended up losing 7-6. The Canada v Germany match went into an extra period. Eventually to the crowd's delight the Canada team won by a point. Turns out that curling can be very exciting. And if that isn't enough you can always be entertained by the fans. We had some USA family members in front of us. They had great hats, crowns, sunglasses, pompoms, and the best was a bullhorn that played "CHARGE!" or the first line of some other songs. There was also a Canadian fan above us that really wanted to get the wave going. He did not have success until he got out of his seat and convinced the section near us to get it started. It took a couple tries though. This evening we headed down to find the Olympic flame. What a crowd. They have tried to improve the picture situation since there is fencing around it. We took some pictures through the fence and then stood in line for 45 minutes to see it from above. Fortunately there were some really nice locals in line who told us all the places to see. After that we grabbed dinner and watched the men's figure skating. On our way to Robson Square for a light and fireworks show we stopped by the CTV building to watch the final skaters go. After seeing the Russian we were thrilled when Evan won the gold for the USA. His performance was much better! The light show and fireworks were entertaining. The best part though was the attempt at getting out of the square when it ended. It was a mob scene and no one was moving. The Canadians were still celebrating their hockey win so they didn't seem to care much.

Cross Country Sprints

Today was Jen's first day at the Olympics. We got back from the airport late last night and had to be up early this morning to head up to Whistler for Cross Country sprints. We managed to find our bus easily enough. And this time they were happy to let me on rather than hitting me with bad news. It was a great drive up to Whistler. It really is a beautiful drive and I would recommend it for anyone who can get up here sometime. The best part was that the day was shaping up to be a sunny one.

We got up to Whistler and hiked in to the venue. I'm not kidding when I say we hiked. It was a surprisingly far walk in. When we got there the sides of the stadium portion were pretty full. We chose to walk up toward the upper loop. That way we could see them go by above us but also watch them come into the stadium for the final part of the sprint. It was so nice that I never had to put on my big jacket or my snow pants. I used them to sit on the snow between runs.

I have been out to Soldier Hollow for some smaller events but I had never seen anything like this. The crowd was nuts. Kikkan Randall from the USA had a huge fan club in black and bright pink. The back of the sweatshirts said "Kikkanimal Fan Club". I would love to know to get one of those. It turned out that Andy Newell's fan club from Vermont was behind us. First they send everyone out a few seconds apart to get a qualifying time. The USA had Kikkan Randall and Holly Brooks for the women and Andy Newell, Torin Koos, Simi Hamilton and Garrott Kuzzy for the men. Unfortunately, only Kikkan and Simi qualified for the sprints. I ran into John Farra (the U.S. Nordic Director) and he said that Andy had fallen. That was disappointing because Andy and Torin are the top guys for the USA, while Simi and Garrott have not been around as long. I believe this is the first Olympics for both of those guys. Despite that we were ready to cheer for Kikkan and Simi in the sprints!

John Farra and Me between runs.

If we thought the crowd was nuts for the qualifying runs it was even crazier for the actual sprints. Kikkan was in the first heat of quarterfinals. We had to wait through four more heats to see if she had made it to the semi's. Fortunately we heard her name announced last to make the next round. In the semi finals though our luck ran out. Kikkan did not make it to the final run. It was sad but still fun to watch the final race to see which women would win. Hopefully we'll see some Nordic medals in the next week or so. I never count these guys out.

Kikkan coming around the corner in the stadium.

After the women they moved right along into the quarter final runs for the men. Simi was in the fourth heat so we did not have to wait as long to see how he would fare. Unfortunately he did not make it into the semi's. The men's final was amazing. It was hard to tell who had crossed first. Both men pushed their skis across and ended up in a heap. It turns out that the Russians got the medal. But I believe they got gold and silver if I heard correctly.

Simi Hamilton on the far right at the start.

Simi #29 coming into the last corner.

Fun picture of Andy Newell going by in his qualifier.

Me & Jessica Jerome from the USA Women's Ski Jumping team.

(Hopefully next Olympics I will be cheering for her! She is headed to Japan to compete next week.)

Jen and Me at XC Sprints

It was a gorgeous drive back down the mountain to Vancouver. I enjoyed watching all the water falls coming down the mountains. We stopped at a grocery to pick up some things for our condo and then headed to dinner. Since Jen is the only person coming to Vancouver with me who will eat Sushi we had to get some this evening.

When we got back to our condo I turned on the Olympics but could only find the final run of Halfpipe in French. Fortunately I do not need English to understand that Shaun White kicked butt and Scotty Lago got third. What a great night for Snowboarding! It was also a great and historic day for women's alpine. They finally got to have their first race with the downhill and Lindsey Vonn won gold and Julia Mancuso won silver. Way to go Alpine!

Tomorrow it looks like the women will have the Super Combined so watch for Lindsey Vonn and Kaylin Richardson. Not sure who else might compete for the USA. There is also Women's Halfpipe. It will be great to see Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler take on the world along with teammate Elena Hight. According to the coverage in Vancouver the girls will have to watch out for the Chinese tomorrow night. We'll see what happens. Jen and I are headed to curling. We will get to see the USA Women take on Denmark.