Great music and fun on Granville Island

Granville Island is just a hub of activity every night. It's a wonderful place to experience a variety of entertainment and everyone should head down to check it out. Our first stop, when we were there on Wednesday night was The Candahar, which is part of the Cultural Olympiad. This is installation art meets pub. In fact, the artist has created an authentic Irish pub, with great beer. Learn more about it here.

Next we wandered over to the Place de la Francophonie. Here you'll find lots of places to eat and fun things to do. While we were there Karkwa was playing. They were loud and awesome!















We also saw an installation of breaking glass, an aerial performance with ribbons and had a great view of the Vectoral Elevation from the public market.

We didn't have time to visit the Atlantic House yet, so we'll save that for our next visit to Granville Island.

Enjoy the Games at a Pub

When the hockey game was on we ducked into Dix Brew Pub. They have really great microbrew beer and the crowd was really into the game. Of course, after the 10th goal the enthusiasm started to fade, but that's understandable.

CBC Visit

The new CBC building is great. I love how welcoming it is. They've got a few displays in the entry way, including the entries for the Sock Puppet contest they were running last week. It's definitely cute and worth the visit. As you can see I also just had fun playing with the lights on the ground! Small things amuse me. 

Vice President's car

The excitement of the day was that Joe Bidden was around...where exactly we don't know, but we did get to see his car! It stopped in front of the CBC for a while. And we spent a few minutes staring at his body guard. That was fun!

Bell Ice Cube

On Saturday we wandered through the streets just taking in the sites. We stopped at the Bell Ice Cube first. The line up looked long but it really only took us about 15 minutes to get through it. They were checking everybody's bag, which was the only hold up. We found out later that athletes are visiting the cube from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily, but unfortunately we missed it.

It's also a great place to watch the events if you'd just like to plug into your own TV. They give you a set of ear phones that can be used to listen to any TV that you would like.

Spilling into Georgia Street

I know that the torch relay is over, but I just had to share this picture of what Georgia Street looked like when the flame came by. A bunch a work-mates and I went to the corner of Georgia and Hornby to see it go by. The energy in the air was pretty incredible. Everyone had cameras out, above their heads, trying to capture the moment. As you can see I tried too, but it sure was hard to capture when you can't look through the lens!

Medal Counts (not that I'm counting!)

Holding the torch

Finally I have discover the name of the man that, so kindly, allowed me to hold the torch before he ran with it. His name is Mario Pescante and he is the Vice President of the IOC. Find out more about him here: http://www.olympic.org/en/content/The-IOC/Members/Mr-Mario-PESCANTE/

He seemed like a genuinely kind man and has had quite the long career in sports.

I'll update the previous blog entry to reflect my new found knowledge!

Torch Relay on Burrard Street

It was hard to decide what to do last night because it was raining quite hard when I came home. We wanted to head down to the LiveCity Yaletown but were worried that it would just rain and we wouldn't be able to take any pictures. So we made dinner and contemplated.

Then we saw the rain was letting up right about the time we thought the flame would be going down 4th Avenue. New plan! Let's go see it near the Burrard Street Bridge. And off we go... We took the Canada Line to Granville Island, the walked down 2nd Avenue to Burrard Street. It was super easy and quick, and it totally stopped rain! Must be the torch gods were smiling on us.

It wasn't even that busy right where we staked out a spot. But then we see the torch relay truck go by and suddenly there is a guy standing there with a torch. Everyone was very excited and were taking pictures with him. We lucked out because where we were standing was one of the spots where the flame would be exchanged from one torchbearer to another. Woo Hoo! Dave ran up right away and once I figured out what was going on I joined him to get my picture taken with the torchbearer Mario, who we found out later is the Vice President of the IOC. He was super nice and even let me hold the torch. Wow!

Now it's getting close and we've staked out a new spot in the middle of Burrard Street. We're ready and suddenly Dave says to me, "look behind you." And there, only two feet away is Diana Krall and Elvis Costello. OMG! I mean I was excited to see the torch, but to see them too... Wow again. But we didn't want to bug them so we left them alone (although we couldn't resist taking a few photos!).

Only minutes later the Mounted Police came by, then the big truck with all the camera crew and finally the torchbearer. I was so excited for Mario - he looked really happy. Then touched torches, waved and each other then parted ways. It was really cool and everyone was so excited. I'm glad I saw it.

Here are the pictures, enjoy...

Mario Pescante allowing me to hold the torch

Me, Elvis Costello and Diana Krall

Where's the torch?

Mario gets the flame

Go, Mario, Go!

Countdown Clock - One day to go

Some of the people I work with went down to the Countdown Clock. It's so amazing to see it at 1! Very surreal.

Picture taking on the way to work

Walking to work yesterday was really beautiful! Of course, it was really the calm before the storm because now it is raining. This may hamper our outdoor activities, depending on what's happening. We'll have to see.

Meanwhile here's some pics of the my walk to work, the shot to the to the above is very close to BC Place. Could this be the location of the of the cauldron?

Next is a shot of in front of the CBC. They have been working on upgrading this area for a long time and now it is totally transformed. I really love the space here and the colours of the  walkway. 

Below is the Four Host First Nations Aboriginal Pavilion. I think it is absolutely beautiful. The totem pole is amazing and I can not wait to get inside to experience the full show!

And the final shot is of the Canada flag that wraps around a building site. They are building a new hotel here. 

The city is dressed and ready to go

It's quite an amazing transformation that has happened over the last few months. Everyday I walk to work and see all of the changes happening but now it is all done. The city looks fantastic and the Games arrive in two days. Two Days, Wow! As you can see from the first picture to the right, the city banners are up and looking pretty and clean. This one is "With Glowing Hearts" and shows Biathalon. They've done a good job.

The other two images are of the Athlete's Village and Sochi House (which is in Science World). I hear they are calling it Sochi World. There are now police boats patrolling the waters and they have barricaded the inlet so that nobody can access the Village, I presume. The bonus for us is that it makes for pretty shots. No half-sunk boats in the way of a beautiful picture!

Tonight is the opening of BC Hydro's Power House, which we are looking forward to. We'll also get to Robson Square and hopefully a few other house. Check back tomorrow for more info!