Vancouver

For a date, Ryan and I decided to head into Vancouver for some Olympic adventure. Turns out, so did most of the rest of the world! We figured as much since it was supposed to be fantastic weather and, well, it was the Olympics! We left Camia with my mother in law which, in the end, was a fantastic idea because of the amount of people walking around. We could barely maneuver sometimes with just the two of us, never mind trying to bring a jogging stroller along with us! We parked at the River Rock Casino and took the sky train into Vancouver. The line ups started here already, though we managed to wait not even 10 minutes to get on the train. By the time we got to Waterfront, we were squished like sardines in there, ready to have some fresh air and some room to move.

We followed the hoards of people to Robson Square and contemplated going into the Mint...which we decided against when we saw the line up that was about 1 1/2 hours long. So then we headed to the Bay because Ryan wanted an Olympic jacket. And turned around when we got to the end of the line to discover that it was about 3 hours of a wait. We left Robson.
And headed to GM Place where there were tons more people. We later discovered that it was for a hockey game that was to start at noon. (See that FABulous BLUE sky????)

So, we headed to the Olympic Village and walked around there for a while. We saw where people built Inukshuks along the beach. All these rocks are formed into an Inukshuk of one kind or another.

There were also globes made from different materials with information about recycling. This one is made from carpet and stone. I didn't know that carpet can be recycled! We threw our old carpet into the dump after we ripped it out.

After leaving the Olympic Village, we headed to Canada House to see the Stanley Cup. Man, what a lot of walking! Mainly because some of the Olympic people got our request to see the Canada House mixed up with the Canada Hockey House, two different places located about 4 blocks from each other in opposite directions. We went to the Canada Hockey House about 3 times before we got a map and figured it out on our own. While we waited in line, we saw these two guys on stilts. They reminded me of those two nutty Canadian figures of whom I don't remember their names quite right now. They were fun to watch. They made their way through the line, playing with the kids and then went in front of the Canada House where they had a game of hockey with a bunch of kids. They argued jokingly, it was quite amusing to watch.

The Canada House! We waited about 45 minutes in the lineup after waiting about that much time to get into the House to see the Cup.
The line to see the Cup:The Cup! While we were waiting in line, I called my crazy hockey loving brother to ask 'Guess where WE are right now??' He had wanted to go to Vancouver for his birthday but ended up cancelling it. Ryan and I still went. He only said 'Don't you DARE touch it.'. I almost considered it, just to spite him. But, being the awesomest sister that I am, I didn't lay a finger on it. And in this photo, I am not touching it, though it may look like I am. :)
After seeing the Cup, I really wanted to go see the outdoor Cauldron. See all the people who thought the same thing??? Yikes!It didn't take long to get there. There were cops and people directing people traffic like crazy, so it went rather smoothly.
We got close enough to see the Cauldron!
You can see people on the left side of this picture. They are on the viewing deck, something we thought of heading to. But it was about a 45 minute lineup. We thought against it since we really needed to head home at that point since we had a dinner date with my family in honour of my brother's birthday.
We started heading home at about 3:30. We got back to my mother in law's at about 5:45. We waited 45 minutes to get on the Canada Line. It didn't seem like 45 minutes since there was a couple from Holland in front of us with whom we chatted with the whole way down to the train. Pleasant couple. Made time go by quickly.

Ryan and I had a good day. It was good to be together. We walked and walked and walked and climbed a few stairs in there too, which I told him was a good thing because then I can work to having buns of steel. To which he responded by saying that it wasn't going to take 1 day of climbing stairs to get. Bummer. One can dream, right? :P