Touches of Olympic Spirit

One thing is for sure, the Olympic spirit was everywhere in Vancouver.  The Skytrain was wrapped in the Vancouver green and blue, Tim Horton’s introduced a Canadian doughnut (plain doughnut frosted with red and white sprinkles), Banana Republic was sporting maple leaf screened Ts, and that’s just a few things.

Downtown was sporting is Canadian pride. The Hudson Bay Company hung enormous sized banners decorating the outside of the block long building. A building being refaced wrapped its scaffolding in the white and red Canadian flag. Other skyscrapers sported 10-story tall ads with Olympic athletes. Residents hung flags from their balconies and shop owners pasted “Go Canada Go” in the windows. The sense of pride was not only visible it was palpable.

While walking around downtown there were street performers. Now these performers actually had to be apply to the VANOC to be able to show off their talent.  There was a magician, street bands, jugglers on unicycles and a bronze cowgirl. I found that I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She had intense blue eyes and her movements were precise and fluid. Plus she always tipped her hat to her customers. It was just the cutest thing.

And for fun, there were cut outs for you to stand in and take your picture. I’m such a sucker for these.  Look it’s me cross-country skiing and taking flight in the jumping competition.

 What a fun time and place to be. What was a favorite Olympic memory for you? I know J and I won’t forget waiting in line at Hudson Bay to buy Olympic gear at 8 o’clock in the morning. After 45 minutes he noticed a group of girls that came out with bags walking down the long line of people. He told me to go ask them how they got in early. Turned out they had VIP tickets that allowed them in at 8 instead of 9. They asked how many were in my party and after I answered that there was 2 of us. The girl hand me her tickets. So, with 12 minutes until the onslaught of people poured into the store, we rushed through to find the sweatshirts and t-shirts that we had seen all week. I found 3 items to J’s zero. The sweatshirt he wanted was sold out. At least he got a USA hockey shirt just in time to wear for the Canadian v. USA robin round game.