XXII Olympic Winter Games

On Sunday, February 14th, Eric and I left for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC. Our trip didn't start off great unfortunately. DFW airport put a hold on planes landing because of fog in Dallas which resulted in us missing our 10:30 flight to Vancouver. We arrived in Dallas at 11am but ended up having to wait until 5pm to board the next plane to Vancouver. We tried to make the most of our time in the airport. Eric worked on homework for grad school and I purchased a Nicholas Sparks book, curled up in a some what comfortable chair and read and read and read. We finally arrived in Vancouver at 7 local time. The airport was so nice and welcoming. We didn't really even wait at customs. Our hosts picked us up at the airport since our flight had gotten in so late. We were really sad to have missed a whole day in Vancouver. We had planned on going to Grouse Mountain (this is where the Today show is at and NBC headquarters for the games) and viewing the city and taking in some winter activities. But we made the most of it and finished the night by sitting up at a local golf course taking in the view that way. We were exhausted but ready for a day of excitement. Our hosts surprised us with red mittens waiting for us! I was sooo excited about the mittens! Eric and I woke up really early, 5am pacific time, and prepared for the day. However, our day didn't start out as good as we had hoped. Our hostess informed us that she had just heard on the news that some of the seating for Snowboard Cross (our event) had been cancelled. We thought maybe the "C" seating had been cancelled, we had "B". Sure enough, our seating ended up being what was cancelled. I'm still not exactly sure why, but they had said it was a safety issue because of all of the slush caused by warmer temps and lots of rain. If I hadn't been in the same room as our hostess, I probably would have cried. But what can you do? I was 1 of 4,000 people that weren't going to be able to go and I knew plenty of other people had sob stories too. So we just made plans to go up to Whistler and do some extra exploring of Vancouver. Eric and I took the Sky Train to BC Place (where the Opening ceremony was held) so that we could get our tickets and see what we could do about our seating being cancelled. We were starving and realized quickly that outside of downtown our American currency was not going to cut it. After a breakfast at Starbucks we began walking around. We walked to the sea wall area and were able to see the Olympic village. It was a pretty walk around and we finally located the American ticket sales office. We were still out of luck with tickets and just sucked it up. We then headed through Yaletown and took in the sites. We stopped at Yahoo's free "booth" that had free hot chocolate, photos, Wii, and even a live stream. Eric texted our families so that they could watch us on the live stream. Our girls got to see us! After that we went to Robson Square in the middle of downtown. It was CRAZY there! We had to pick up our Victory Ceremony will call tickets there. The line wrapped around a building and when we asked how long the wait was, we were told 4 hours! We only ended up waiting 2 hours but had to eat street vendor hot dogs instead of a nice meal that we were hoping for! Oh well! After waiting, watching the Olympic mascots ice skate, watching the zip line above us, we moved on out. As we were crossing a busy area, several tickets scalpers were yelling out that they had tickets. Eric took a chance and asked, and sure enough the guy had seating A for Women's snowboard cross. I was nervous and at first said no. I didn't want to pay more money or have fake tickets. The guy of course assured us that they were legit and offered us it at face value. So, we used all of my "spending money" to get this ticket, and Eric said he would just find something to do while I went. I didn't want to go without him, so the next street corner we were able to pick up another ticket for $25 over face value. I was really nervous about doing this, but Eric helped me to see that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we couldn't leave the Olympics without going to an event. We walked around some more, grabbed coffee, and then went and ate an early dinner. This ended up being our only nice meal because all of our other meals were on the run or concession food. We ate at Earl's and just relaxed outside with blankets and a heater. We also were able to watch the Olympics live on Canadian TV. Its not like the US where we are forced to wait for NBC to actually televise the events, this was live as it was happening and had no commercials. After dinner, we tried to go buy souvenirs but realized that the wait time just to get into the ONE official Olympics store was 30 minutes and we were pretty tired of waiting. We caught the West Coast Express back to where we were staying, only to find out we had to walk up hill a little more than 1.25km. We were exhausted, and couldn't help but laugh at our trek up the hill that far. We felt like we were in the Olympics.
Tuesday morning started early again. We caught the Olympic Bus from SFU to Cypress Mountain. It was a pretty drive and also allowed for a little nap to prepare for the day. On the way up, we were excited to be passed by the official athletes vehicles that shuttled them to the event. They got there when we did, but had a super secret entrance of course. When we finally arrived, we easily went through security and made our way up the mountain to the venue. We probably walked a mile and then hit the steps. 215ish of them in fact. It was very high up and very steep. When we got up to the top it was covered in fog. We weren't even sure which course was snowboard cross. We sat in the pouring rain for about an hour, when they announced a one hour delay. It stopped raining at that point, but was still foggy. We waited about another 30 minutes when they announced another delay. So, we marched down the 215 steps and indulged in some expensive concession food for lunch. When we came back up to the venue, it was a totally different scene, and we could actually see. The excitement was amazing! Once the contestants started practicing, it was sooo exciting and so fun. We watched Lindsey Jacobellis (Silver medalist from Torino), Faye Gulini and Callan Chythlook-Sifsof from the USA ride for the qualifications. There were lots of falls and at one point the fog was so bad again that you couldn't even see a rider cross the finish line. So we endured about 3 more 15 minute-ish delays. Callan went out but we still had two USA riders to go. Lindsey Jacobellis did awesome and was riding so smooth. Another top contender fell and went out, so it was looking good for Jacobellis, but in the semi-finals, she caught an edge and went out of the course and disqualified. It was sooo disappointing. She was able to ride in the small final (or loser's bracket) and really dominated. We know she could've had gold or at least silver. However, Maelle Ricker from Canada won Gold and did awesome. It was exciting to hear a Canadian win and how the place erupted in cheers and craziness. We left right away, and it was crazy. People were running down the stairs! I was really nervous we were going to be trampled. Everyone wanted to catch the buses back down the mountain. We had to get back downtown for the Victory Ceremony (But in hind site I wish we would've just stayed at Cypress for a while so we could've seen the contestants and because we really didn't have to be at the Victory Ceremony as early as we had thought). Anyway, we took a bus back to downtown and sprinted onto the SeaBus (ferry) to get back into downtown. We tried to eat before the ceremony, but couldn't find anyplace to eat because every place was packed with people watching the Canada vs Norway hockey game. So we once again settled on "fancy" concession food at BC place. The Victory Ceremony was amazing. We were able to watch Seth Wescott (USA) receive the Gold medal for his race in Snowboard cross the day before. It was really neat to be part of and witness. We were exhausted though and ready to get back. At about 7:30 we left the venue early ready to go to bed, unfortunately we didn't end up in bed until 11 that night due to public transportation. I had a horrible head ache and was way beyond tired, it wasn't a good way to end the trip but it was how it was, and we were just ready to be home. We woke up at 4am and headed to the airport. After waiting for 3 hours we finally boarded our plane and slept on the way into Dallas. Not surprisingly, our flight into Amarillo was delayed a little, but we finally made it home. It was soooo wonderful to hold my girls and love on them. It is good to be home, but we had a once in a lifetime experience and it was amazing. I'm so thankful to everyone that made it possible for us to. However, we will now greatly enjoy watching the Olympics from the comfort of our own home. And what is funny is that I've seen a lot less of the Olympic events by actually going to the events! Right now I"m watching Women's Half pipe and knowing we were just right there! I'm a little envious that their weather is so great compared to what our's was, oh well! These are just a few pictures, there are so many pictures of our trip. Check out my pics on Facebook.