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.