We took the whole family up to Vancouver yesterday. We didn't have tickets for any events but we thought it might be fun to see all the people and take in some of the free things that were going on. It was pretty amazing! There were people everywhere!!! Most of them had something on that was red. They were cheering and happy and friendly. I've never seen anything like it. There were big TVs set up all over the place; in shop windows, in restraunts, and huge ones at the differant gathering places. We had thought that the kids would like to go ice skating on the free outdoor rink but Sophie was the ony one interested and there were so many people we would have had to wait 2 hrs. 'till the next session. So, we watched the skaters for a while before we wandered on. We found a "toddler hockey game that was out of the rain and right next to a giant TV that was playing the US/Finland semifinal hockey game. I watched Connor, Laura and Sophie play hockey while Pat watched the end of the semifinal game out in the rain. There was a big zip line set up over the area that all this was going on. It looked like a lot of fun but not something that you could do wih little kids in tow. The people that were doing it had to get all harnest in like for rock climbing. (Made me think of Diana) From ther we wandered through town looking for some were to eat. There were long waits eveywhere. We ended up finding another "celebration site" and after anothe wait, got in. We got food there and were able to go inside and warm up and sit down to eat. They had Canadian womans curling and the 4 man bobsled events on the TVs in there. It was snowing up werethe bobsled event was going on. I was glad to see that there was some winter weather during the winter olymipc. I had heard that tickets were being refunded due to the unstable condition of the ground where spectators would have been standing because it had been so warm. Anyway.... From there we checked out the CANADA house and the Manitoba house (they were at the same celebration site) The CANADA house had lots of neat displays and interactive things for the kids to do. The Olymip mascots showed up and we could have gotten pictures with them but them kids were too scared. (especially Connor who hid his head in the back of Patrick's sweatshirt) I didn't go into Manitoba house but sat outside with Tyler who was rather hungry by this point! The volenteers were all really good (with the exception of one security gaurd) and gave the kids pins at each place that we went.
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