Go Canada Go!

To start the day I showed Leena the lovely neighbourhood in which I have been living for February. We walked up to 41st Street and had a coffee and muffin at one of the dozen or so local coffee shops. The weather, once again, was gorgeous.

We then headed downtown on the SkyTrain to catch some sights before the hockey game. We waited about an hour to get into Sochi Place, the Russian pavilion for the 2014 Winter Games. It highlights their plans for the Games, the region of the country in which they will take place, the corporate sponsors who will help with the planning and cost. Their Olympic mascot is featured in the retail store and on some of their vehicles. I don't think she (I think) can compete with our Quatchi, Miga, Sumi, and Mukmuk.

By then it was time to prepare for the Canada/U.S. hockey game. We lined up outside Ontario House as I had heard that they had a large room where events can be watched on TV. One of my volunteer colleagues from the Venue Communications Centre was on that corner providing information to visitors so she took our picture while we waited in line. Like almost everyone else, we were dressed for the game.

While in line we watched the parade of "special" people move from Molson's Canada Hockey House to Canada Hockey Place for the game. Yvon Cournoyer, former star player with the Montreal Canadiens passed us with his entourage.

Fortunately just before game time we were allowed in. (The security guards were monitoring the attendance as the room was at capacity.) Inside was a room about the size of a high school gymnasium with eight large projection HD TVs on the walls. A bar at one end sold drinks and food while waiters also brought food around for sale. The atmosphere was electric with so many people crammed into a large echoing room. It was just an incredible place to watch the game. Cheers, foot stomping, cow bells, screams, arms waving, "Go Canada Go". The roars when Canada scored were deafening. I was texting my daughter the scoring for the first period as she was on a bus in Wisconsin returning from playing her own college game.

Alas, the outcome was not what all of us Canadian fans had counted on. The crowd for the rest of the night was somewhat deflated downtown. However, there are more games to come.

We retreated into the crowds and managed to make our way uptown ahead of most of the people flowing out of Canada Hockey Place. The spectators were already lined up for the third and last hockey game of the day. We managed to get seated right away at a restaurant. For two nights now we have been successful in this part of town where the crowds are a bit thinner.

During the Games many restaurants in Vancouver have taken the unusual step of automatically adding a gratuity onto bills. They reported last week in the press that they had too many instances where visitors from other parts of the world were not leaving a gratuity and they felt that their staffs were being treated unfairly. All the places I have been to that have adopted this policy have explained it clearly. I watched the bartender at the restaurant last night return tip money to a customer.

After dinner (it felt so good to sit down after standing for five hours or more) we walked over to Robson Square to get a seat for the early fireworks show.

This show is a mixture of fireworks, flames, lasers, search lights, music, and zip-lining people. It is offered twice each night. It is quite a spectacle. During the show a snowboarder, a skier, and a hockey player zip over the heads of the crowd on the zipline.

After the show it was back to the house on the SkyTrain to rest our weary feet and prepare for another day.