Vancouver was beautiful as ever, though a wee bit hindered by the plethora of tourists.  Actually, no, the tourists were kind of cool, in a cultural-once-in-a-lifetime-this-is-the-Olympics-there-should-be-loads-of-people kind of way.  Yeah, they were cool.

It’s kind of fun to play “spot the Canadian”.  I have this theory that there’s some unspoken rule that Canadian’s must have some sort of representation of the Canadian flag affixed to any and all bags they carry.  Which is actually kind of adorable, I love how proud Canadians are to be Canadian.

Anyway, in the spirit of Olympic festivities, Amy and I tracked down the giant-firey-cauldron (ooh, sounds scary).  The weather had been absolutely gorgeous, until the one day we happened to select for Olympic adventures, and the cold, rainy, windy weather seemed to have other tourists in shock?  Not sure, but the crowds were down and the clouds were beautiful and we were happy.

I didn’t get a chance to get up to Whistler itself or to any of the actual game events, but there was tons going on around town.  The central part was at Robson Square, which is basically the center of Vancouver city.  There was an ice skating rink, free zip-lining over the square (with a 7-hour line, ouch!), street performers, food, free art gallery, the list goes on!

The Vancouver Art Gallery has an exhibition on Leonardo daVinci during the Olympic span, and had free entry, so we popped in there for a bit.  I never realized how… slightly creepy daVinci’s work was.  Immensely detailed and kind of beautiful, but I don’t guess I ever paid attention to the fact that he actually, you know, dissected people.  Slight oversight, I s’pose.

They also had a giant screen projecting the games at various places around town, so people would hang out and watch there. It was kind of funny, because you’d be walking down the street – pretty much anywhere in Vancouver – and you’d suddenly hear this massive roar of cheering and applause, and know Canada had just scored in some event.

The trip, of course, also included revisits to my favourite coffee shops (Wired Monk!  Cuppa Joe!) and hanging out with friends (who hadn’t vacated for home), and eating the world’s best Cinnamon Rolls (Grounds For Coffee, seriously).

Oh, also, I still find this immensely entertaining.  Amy and I spotted it in the paper on one of our many bus trips.  Best headline ever, no?

So yeah, it was a lovely trip!  Quite exciting to have been there for such a big event, especially in a city that I briefly called home.