With my day at the bobsled a success, I decided to go attempt a second trip to see a little bit of Vancouver, but mostly to see the famous Olympic Cauldron. I just couldn't imagine getting through this experience and never seeing "THE FLAME". (Insert your own Figure Skating joke here). I gave up on the whole "free transportation to Vancouver" route and just bought a ticket both ways. I got into Vancouver a little later than I wanted, as the bus ride wasn't "express". We stopped everywhere conceivable between WHistler village and main street Vancouver. But when we arrived, I attacked Vancouver like an old pro. I hoped on the sky train to the waterfront and just followed the people to the cauldron. If you haven't heard about the cauldron, it was a big new story here, because it was behind a barbwire fence. Not the way we invision our sacred symbol of peace and unity..barbwire just doesn't portray love like the Olympic rings. So, they cut a small hole all around the fence so you could take pictures. (ohhh ahhh..)..NOPE then people just took pictures of people trying to take pictures of the cauldron threw the ugly fence. The funny part to me is there was major construction of a new sky scraper right next to the cauldron. Funny how that didn't make the news. Back to getting to the Olympic cauldron. So now there is some sort of plexiglass..blah blah. Oh you can wait in line and go up a couple flights of stairs to the top of a neighboring building and take an unobstructed look/photograph which I had to do. I had heard the wait had been up to 2 hours, but I waited about 40 minutes. During which time I studies the seaplanes taking off and landing and stared at the Olympic Rings across the water. The time seemed to fly by. There were people all over the lines offering free coffee/hot chocolate or trying to get you to sign up for something. I think the "olympic flame" line was maybe one of the only places companies not sponsoring the Olympics could grab on to the Olympic visitors without getting in trouble. I took my picture and headed straight for my 2nd most important stop. The HUGE 6 story Olympic store. I heard all about it. There were all sorts of rumors going around Whistler. That you could get the precious red gloves there..that you couldn't' get the red gloves..that there were huge lines and it took hours to get in, and that it was open 24 hours a day. I just wanted to see what this store had. Well, it was actually about the same size as ours. There were a couple things that were on sale, but really not the superstore that I anticipated. It was a Hudson Bay store, that was 6 levels. the "Olympic Store" was part of one level. The fifth level was a store of all the country apparrel. Russia, USA, Italy Germany, Netherlands..(Not Austria Sarah, trust me I Looked!). I knew when team USA switched to Ralph Lauren, it was more expensive. But I guess I had no idea. All Touques (little hats the athletes wear) were $80. Scarfs ran about $100. Long sleeve shirts about $150 and the famous team jackets averaged $500. Guess I have to get my stuff the old fashioned way...make the Olympic team. After shopping around the store I heard some clerks talking about how Sears down the street had more stuff..cheap. So I finished shopping, checked out and headed down the street. I had become a bit of a master Olympic shopper. I knew most of the merchandise and where I could get official stuff on sale, But the Sears info was new to me! As it turned out it was a small assortment. I did get an olympic flag for my Dads grave so it was definitely worth the trip. I ate a great meal and then headed out for Robson street. That whole area was closed to cars. Mobs of people were all over the street. I spent about 2 hours wandering the streets. Checking out the street entertainers and people watching. What was so amazing to me was the people from different countries all decked out in their countries colors and gear and everyone was cheering for everyone. The crowd was so well behaved. I know as it got later, the people were more and more drunk. But the police did a great job of containing the crowd while staying out of the spotlight. This wasn't about what country was better or political ideals. It is about the Olympic dream and all the athletes coming together to compete. I had so much I hadn't seen. It would have taken me weeks to do it all, but I was exhausted and headed home to rest before working the next day. I knew I did all I needed for this Olympics.
I am running a couple days behind do to the computer glich..so I will update more soon!
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