Tag: British Columbia

For this Sunday during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Rebecca was one of the judges in the first ever Mixlympics, a mixology competition at George in Yaletown.

To explain it better, think Iron Chef but with bartenders. Rebecca has all the details in her post, so I’ll share some of my favorite shots from the competition.

This was a lot of fun to snap photos of. All of the guys in the competition were always so loose and relaxed when they were introduced during the competition. As soon as the clock started, nerves kicked in and hands were a little shaky as they whipped up drinks while the clock was ticking. It attracted quite a crowd to just watch from the bar area.

Running across town with minutes to spare, we joined up with a gathering of True North Media House folks at The Edge in Gastown to catch the USA vs. Canada men’s hockey game.

None of my photos turned out from there, probably from the excitement of the game. I’ll be completely honest, and witnesses can attest, my American roots took hold and I cheered, quite loudly and visibly, each time the USA scored.

I want Canada to do well in these games, but there isn’t anything I can do about my years of a born and raised American. And if it weren’t for these games, a lot of people wouldn’t have known this about me. After discovering this fact, I’ve often been told that I’m the nicest American they’ve ever met.

Yeah, we’re all not that bad if you give us a chance.

Still, after the U.S. won 5-3 over Canada, it’s my fault. All of that Canadian hospitality you often hear about seems to disappear when it comes to hockey. But if you buy the next round of beer, you might be able to mend the international relations.

See more photos in the set, Vancouver 2010: Day 10.

At a certain point, you can only go so hard and see so much because let’s be honest, this is the Olympics. The games are what this is all about, so it was really nice to have a down day and watch some events like ski jumping, hockey, or cross-country skiing.

Denman Street in the west end of Vancouver has been pretty neglected during the games so far. We were able to have dinner at Poncho’s, normally very popular on Saturday nights, with very little wait.

I even did a photowalk down the west end loop over to Davie the other night to see what was going on. I haven’t posted any because I didn’t snap a single one. It’s pretty quiet.

Granville Street on the other hand…

It’s a party pretty much the entire night through.

I’ve quickly learned the popularity of pin collecting. I have a variety that I’ll gather together at the end, but it can be addictive. And now you find the guys on the street corner with tables and stands, looking to cash in.
Continue reading “Vancouver 2010: Day 9 – Granville Street crowds at night”

Getting caught up with some of Olympics adventures, it’s kind of tough to back track to everything that’s gone on. I have plenty of photos from the weekend to show how we kept pretty busy that making any posts or even getting through my photos proved tough.

Long lines. Basically this is what you get for pretty much anything you want to get into and has a price tag of free on it. The zipline is one thing, but various houses all seem to have a wait time to get inside.

Word has it that the LiveCity in Yaletown had people forming a line for the next day as it closes down at 11PM every night, but I can’t be sure one which days or for what acts.

Buskers and street performers are making a killing with as crowded as downtown has been and how nice the weather was.

I had a fairly standard work day but found myself working down at Robson Square with one of the stations for an afternoon drive live broadcast. Our view looked right onto the ice rink in the photo above.

During the afternoon radio show, our host wandered around with a wireless mic and found various people to talk to from all over the world. Sweden, Brazil, a Ukranian lady who lives in Vancouver but grew up back home as a trained figure skater, and even Langley.
Continue reading “Vancouver 2010: Day 8 – Working around the games”

Every night that we head home from wherever our Olympics adventures take us in Vancouver, we seem to keep circling around Robson Square. This is truly becoming the heart of the downtown core in terms of people gathering to celebrate, party, watch, or apparently throw down an impromptu game of street hockey in the middle of the street.

The crowds that we’re experiencing in Vancouver during these games are unlike anything else I’ve previously seen. The only thing comparable for me are the massive amounts of people we see during the Celebration of Lights. The million or so people on each of those four summer nights are often loud and rowdy, if not heavily intoxicated the whole night through.

These crowds have something different to them. Yes, there is plenty of drinking being done around these venues, hospitality houses, and bars, but there is still a common excitement, enthusiasm, and cheerfulness running throughout. I won’t say that the crowds aren’t annoying when trying to get through them, but let’s be honest, it could be worse.

In the thick of last night’s crowd, we ran across the now very popular Boxing Kangaroo, the Australian symbol of pride when it comes to anything athletic related.

Going back to what I’ve been seeing and saying about the sense of Canadian pride during these games is somewhat captured in the two photos above. People stop to watch whatever event is being televised on whatever screen they can find. In fact, while at work yesterday afternoon, the only reason I knew that Maelle Ricker had just won gold in snowboard cross for Canada was the amount of cheers that came from our special lounge we setup in an area of the building.

And you would have thought that Canada had already won the gold medal for men’s hockey the way they celebrated downtown. Just sitting at home, we could hear cars honking and people yelling something that involved the words “Canada” and “wooo!” numerous times, late into the night.

People are jazzed. They want to be out and about to experience this city. Even the now famous Japadog has a long line of people waiting to try their street side, hot dog creations, and I think we can point the finger at Anthony Bourdain for the well deserved hype.

No matter how much you do in one day or how many events you have tickets to, I have this overwhelming sensation of still feeling like your missing something or everything. You’ll never see it all, and I have come to terms with that. I’m just thankful to be seeing everything that I have and what’s yet to come.

I’m riding the vitamin C pretty hard today, trying to keep a cold from seeping into my sinuses. I think all of the anticipation, stress, and excitement has caught up to me. While I’ll do my best to take care of myself, I can’t forget that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and keep going as much as my body can handle it.

That being said, some photos from yesterday’s excitement.

The line for the ticket office at Robson Square continues to amaze me. It always seems to be at least this long, but what you can’t see is how it goes back and wraps around. And what else you can’t see if the scalper vultures waiting just out of frame.

Blue coats, green coats, blue and yellow coats… You see little groups of workers and volunteers like this all over Vancouver right now. I’m not sure what they’re doing, but I hope it’s important.

Riding the train to and from various places, you see all sorts of people dressed up to show off their country’s pride. I absolutely love this.

These crowds never seem to cease. A lot of chatter on various back channels is how they wish Vancouver was like this all the time. While that might be pushing it, it would be amazing to have more events where excitement like this can thrive maybe once or twice a year. It’s just an idea, but an interesting one.

Later on in this day, we made our way to Pacific Coliseum to watch the pairs figure skating finals from our row four seats. We thought they would be good, but what we didn’t know is that row four was the very front row. Talk about amazing!

Welcome to Canada! Buy our flags!

I love how VANOC set this up for people, but this wasn’t promising seeing this free bike parking and lock-up. But then again, with as crazy as traffic normally is in Vancouver and the influx of people in this city, I can see what people wouldn’t want to try to do the bike thing. Seems like a ton of people are using transit instead.

Pacific Coliseum looks great. Getting to the rink is a winding maze that takes you from Hastings for about 100 meters, a security checkpoint, then another 100 meters of walking before you get to the front doors.

I took all sorts of shots while inside the venue, but you’ll have to visit my Vancouver 2010: Day 4 set on Flickr to see them.

China took gold and silver while Germany took bronze. It was so cool to be surrounded by people all around us, cheering for their respective countries yet alone going outside to see CCTV interviewing people about what they just saw inside.

I sent word to my mom and dad of where our seats were and that they should watch the NBC coverage of the event. Sure enough, we were spotted in Canada, in Iowa, and even Illinois. The people right next to us were getting text messages from China that they were on TV in Beijing, so we probably popped up over there, too.

Hockey is starting up for the men on Day 5, so now it’s really game on!