Day Off

We had no events today so we decided to walk around in the beautiful weather before it starts raining on Wednesday.  We started walking towards the water (I think it is called False Creek) and then we stopped at Tim Horton's for a quick snack.  Walking down all the streets we saw street preformers everywhere.  We stopped to watch a bunch of teenagers jumping rope and raising money for a competition.

Walking through Yaletown we stopped in some shops and got a few little momentos.  Closer to False Creek we stopped at Plaza of Nations where they had tents with vendors set up with some unique gifts. 

Across False Creek is the Olympic Village where most of the Olympians stay.

On the bank of the water rocks are all stacked up like statues.  You could walk right up to them and stack some too.  It was really cool.

Then while walking we stumble upon:

Of course we went in and lost $30.

We walked around almost 4 hours and there is always more to see.  The city is great!

Do you believe in somewhat unlikely events?

The tone of the Games changed last night when the US shocked Canada to win their pool and sent Canada to 6th place overall and a potential quarterfinals match-up with Russia. We watched the game from our hotel room (since it was nearly impossible to find a place to watch the game in public without wasting our whole day waiting) but when goals were scored, we opened up our door to the balcony and you could hear people screaming either way. As soon as the game ended, we headed out and downtown was like a morgue. It was honestly a lot less busy than I would have imagined, which I think was due to people being inside to watch the game and no one walking out to celebrate. As we made our way to the arena to see Finland vs. Sweden, the fans were exiting and we only heard a few cheers for the US. We did hear a bunch of angry fans yelling un-Canadian things about the US but mostly it was shock.

The Finland game stunk. The game was boring, Finland played terribly and Pitkanen got kicked out for checking the head of some Swedish player in the 2nd period. We were also next to some a-hole Sweden fan (though I'm pretty sure he wasn't Swedish and probably American) that pissed Jess off so we ended up leaving early to avoid the crowds back to the hotel. It may be that the insane crowds were just here for the weekend or the party atmosphere kind of died when Canada lost but it was so quiet last night even at midnight. You could even walk down the street and move freely. Luckily we caught up on our sleep yesterday morning so now we can get out and walk around for the next couple of days while the weather stays nice. This is our first day without an event so we'll do some shopping and check out some of the Olympic celebration sites.

The other piece of good news for us is that it looks like we'll have tickets to the Canada/Russia quarterfinals game on Wednesday. That was predicted to be the gold medal match-up and to have it happen so early (which means one team that was a heavy favourite - it's a law here in Canada to write it like that - won't even medal) will be crazy. This of course assumes Canada beats Germany which if they play Brodeur may not even happen. The Canadians honestly thought that they could "Own the Podium" and win the medal count at these games and they have had a couple of successes but so far it's been an overall disappointment. People here are complaining there was too much pressure and crying about certain athletes whining about it. I think the fans who visited here are all having a good time but the country as a whole may be disappointed with the way everything went by the time it's all over.

As the curlers say, "Keep the hammer for the last end". Note: No one says this.