Nice to Have Company

I walked up to the coffee shop to read my Saturday paper. One of my neighbours was out cutting his grass ... in February ... in Canada. Goofy, but gorgeous weather.

My wife Leena was flying in from Kelowna to spend the rest of the Games in Vancouver with me. I spent some of the morning tidying up the house after 25 days of bachelor living. I also ran to the mall to pick up some groceries. The Apple Store at the mall was giving away cool Olympic pins in the shape of a red iPod with a maple leaf on the screen. One more for my collection.

It was very obvious at the airport that a huge number of Olympic visitors are here with sponsors and the Olympic Family. I could not believe the number of greeters in their corporate jackets with signs and clipboards working at meeting guests and escorting them to waiting transportation. NBC, Visa, Samsung, Panasonic, Acer, etc. It makes the individual traveler look like a small part of this event. 

We dropped our little-used car back at the house and headed downtown on the SkyTrain. In the early afternoon on a Saturday the SkyTrain was busier than rush hour. It continues to carry record loads. We just managed to get our two bodies inside a door and into the crush.

Of course downtown was just the same. Like last weekend it was a beautiful day and a weekend so the crowds were unbelievable. We walked across downtown and I showed Leena where I have been working. We wandered around Robson Square and walked over to the waterfront to see the Olympic Cauldron. The changes VANOC have made to the fencing are a definite improvement. You can now get must closer to the cauldron and the fencing has been removed at eye level to allow folks to get a decent picture.

It was much more fun to have someone to walk with and share the sights with.

We walked past the Hudson's Bay Company store. The Olympic Superstore which takes up half of the main floor of the store is now open 24 hours. According to the paper over 3 million pairs of red mittens have been sold and overall they expect to set an all-time record for Winter Olympics merchandise sales. They are shipping in merchandise from other stores across the country.

We met our university friends from Grimsby, Ontario for dinner at one of the Olympic Family hotels overlooking False Creek. We had a good view of both a television to watch the Canadian men and their disappointing results in skating as well as the Olympic rings out in Burrard Inlet. 

I felt like I was in civilian clothing after six days of working and walking around in my Smurf outfit. I was only asked one question all day.

I guess I am not the only volunteer who has been helpful to visitors. This was in Friday's Vancouver Sun:

“My wife runs a B&B in the suburbs … and we have guests from all over the world. At night they return from their outings … and fill us in on their day’s experience. They all say they cannot get over how friendly the people are in the streets. (The blue Smurf volunteers especially.)”

After dinner we walked back to Yaletown to see the fireworks show. It is such a great show it was well worth seeing again.

After the show we rushed back to the SkyTrain but at our station came up just in time to see our bus pull away. The next bus was in 30 minutes and only went about two-thirds of the way to the house. Once on the bus, when we reached the short-turn stop, the driver asked where those of us still on the bus wanted to go. Everyone stated their stops on the normal rest of the route. He proceeded to drive us all home. Such great spirit.