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!
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