Vancouver! Part 2

Tuesday, the 16th: Woke up Early. I woke up early because I had a terrible night sleep thanks to my stuffy-yet-running nose. Totally annoying. Dad woke up early because he had been invited to an early Rotary Club meeting close by. Again, shoring up International relations! I took advantage of Canada's health care system, in a manner of speaking, by picking up some medicines at a nearby drugstore. Coffee and decongestant . . . the breakfast of Olympians!

The shower of the community center was broken, so we showered at the Japanese/Canadian Center next door. I took a wrong turn when I first walked in, and wandered into a dojo . . . pretty cool. The Japanese have a long and rich history in Vancouver, and make up a surprising amount of the population. I'm thankful for that, because on this morning, taking a shower was godsend (buddhasend?) Pops found a tiny bar of soap hidden in his bags, and we were good to go.

It was a beautiful day in Vancouver, and while we had our big jackets, it was almost shorts weather. The bus/train ride down was abbreviated by a quick stop to stuff my pockets with kleenex, and before we knew it, we were down in the thick of it again. No event tickets today, but a few things on the hunting list . . . the first being the Olympic torch. The walk to the torch was fun . . . again highlighted by international fans, costumed streetpeople, pin-hawking Bedouins, local commuters, and general good feelings. The torch was on a bay, although much of Vancouver is on a bay, and we were separated from it by about 500 yards and a tall chain-link fence.

Guess they weren't taking any chances! (We read in the paper that, due to general public outcry about terrible picture opportunities, they moved the fence closer and lowered it the day after we were there.) I couldn't explain the design of the torch, but it was pretty cool to see it!

From there, we wound around a riverwalk past waterplanes, floating gas stations, harbors (holding some of the most adorable houseboats ever!), and still more fans. It was a bit of a hike, but we found our destination of the Saxony House . . . Germany's party place for the Olympics. Housed in Vancouver's Rowing Club Building, it was a beautiful location, but I was sort of surprised that there wasn't more to it. I guess I sort of figured that the Houses of the Nations would have more displays or history exhibits, or even tourism associations! In fact, from what I could gather, they were more about post-performance celebration . . . stages set up for

bands/presentation of medal winners, food courts, and of course, libations. Don't get me wrong, it was cool . . . just not what I expected.

After asking directions, we made our way by bus across downtown towards Chinatown. Our third destination: ex-olympians reception house (I can't remember the actual name of this place-ask dad). Again, it was a long hike, and the destination was not as expected. It was cool to see a bit of Chinatown, and the house was pretty cool-it was basically an art gallery with some awesome photos from the last summer games, but it wasn't quite as comfortable as we were hoping after trekking across town a couple of times. The pictures were pretty spectacular, and they did have a small lounge area where we sat and watched some of the games on a big screen while wolfing down some energy bars, m&m's and vitamin water. But all things considered, it was a pretty quick trip.

Sometimes you wanna go-where everybody knows your name . . . back to the USA house for us. Somehow, we made it. Jumped on a mystery bus, and hiked through the bedlam, and we made it. Just in time for the salmon. Or was it the crab cakes . . . I can't recall. I do recall that I met Eric Heiden when we got it. That was pretty cool.

From here, if memory serves correctly, we made a couple of micro-trips-to the always-rocking Irish house across the street (where we watched riverdancing and the women's 1000), and to the Olympic merchandise mecca a few blocks away. Spend-fever was rampant and addicting in that place. Aside from those trips, we ate, drank, and talked the night away as more faces from the past came out . . . at some point in the evening, they introduced the gold medal winner from the Men's Snowboardcross. It was pretty cool to see the Vancouver Gold medal up close and personal.

I'm not exactly sure what time we made it back to the RV, but I did have my first restful night sleep in 3 nights!