February 2010

Family and the Olympics

Marcus

My Cousin is "gliding" - walking by holding onto furniture and scaring his parents as he tries to go from one island to the next. He isn't quite up to independent walking yet, but you get the feeling it is coming soon.

2010 Olympics

The Olympics have been a long time coming and they are finally here. I decided to wander around and check out some of the features. It's the Vancouver I remember, but a little different. The zip line across Robson Square is cool - apparently the line up was 6 hours on Saturday. The line up to get into the Bay (olympic store) was steady at 30 to 45 minutes.

The Olympic cauldron was nice to see - you can't get very close, but perhaps that makes it look better.

Granville Street around Robson is closed and people mass there to see the "lanterns". The sea wall swarms with tourists.

On some of the old expo site (soon to be condo's) there are a number of "houses" - Quebec house (the giant Q), Saskatchwan house (the dome) and Ontario House (the string art). The houses don't have that much inside - usually some sort of food service showing off local wine and food. There is usually a photo display of local tourist attractions. Sochi House (Science World) has a large display by the 2014 winter Olympic site in Sochi, Russia. My favorite house was Northern Canada House - they had taxidermy models of northern animals you have your photo with.

Every night there is a small fireworks display in False Creek. The fireworks happens in concert with a laser display that shines images onto a spray of water. It's all very impressive.