Beautiful British Columbia

~ Olympic Ring Barge in Vancouver, British Columbia

I finally got around to writing my post on Vancouver and British Columbia.  It was a heck of a trip and I had tons of photos to sort through.  I narrowed it down to about 30 pictures which was really super hard to do, but I managed to do it.  While we were in Vancouver as all of you know the Olympics were going on, therefore I did not get the Vancouver feel of the city and got more of the hectic fast paced Olympic feel.  It was a remarkably beautiful town with spectacular views, which I suppose semi justifies the prices to live there.  Pretty much the only down fall to the entire city was the cost of housing there, otherwise I am certain that Jen and I would live there in a heart beat.  I can tell that after the Olympics were on television, no matter the cost of living there, people are going to be moving there in waves after the terrific camera shots and videos of Vancouver.  The most amazing thing of the whole trip was the transit system.  It was more efficient than any transit system I have ever been on in my whole life.  It was much more efficient than anything in Denver or Chicago and Omaha and Oklahoma City don’t have 1/10th that type of transit.  Additionally, the food was excellent and the hospitality even better.  It was nice to see the city from the local residents perspective.  I think this was the first place we have traveled other than where we live that we have gotten a more local type of tour.  We had the most wonderful tour guides like Simona, Julie, Christina, Markus, Brigette, and of course the wonderful Jen herself.

~ Alex Fraser Bridge                       ~BC Place

The first day was mainly about Olympics for Jen and I.  We headed down to the stadium early and got in line for the USA vs. Switzerland game.  It was amazing to see so many people wearing Canada stuff.  The reason for this is all the other times I have been in Canada you had to search just to see a flag never mind the people and what they were wearing.  It was so awesome to see the Canadians buying stuff as fast as they could produce it and wearing it all over the city.  I hope that continues because Canadians have a ton to be proud of and they should show their patriotism a little more often.  Anyway, we waited in line early because we heard about all these horrible security lines and did not want to miss part of the game because of them.  However, arriving two and a half hours early alleviated the long lines and we were right near the front all three days of hockey games that we went to.  The curling was a different story, but I will get to that.  The first hockey game was amazing as the USA won 3-1 and we had amazing seats.  It was a great time and a great atmosphere.  I couldn’t have asked for anything more for a first Olympic experience.

~Line up Day 1                               ~Seats Day 1 USA vs. Swiss

~ B with his USA flag in the seats on Day 1

After the hockey game, Brigette and Markus came downtown to meet us and walk around with us.  We visited a bunch of neat locations that are must see during the Olympics.  The first was the Olympic flame, then we moved on to the Olympic ring barge, downtown and some of the shops and important Vancouver tourist sites.  We then headed back home exhausted, but so happy to be on vacation in such a beautiful location.

~ Olympic Flame in Vancouver

~ Site from one of the piers     ~Picture toward downtown from the pier

Day two was a bit more relaxed because we did not have any Olympic events to attend.  We first hustled over and were late to join Mel for coffee at Starbucks on the University of British Columbia campus.  I must say though that it was a beautiful campus and I was sad that Jen really did not get to spend much time with her while we were there.  There was just so much going on and so many people to see that some people really were cheated out of time with Jen.  Hopefully, the next time we go there will not be fifteen other things going on.  Next we went back toward downtown and went to see another of Jen’s friends, Karen.  It was great to be able to see the inside of the buildings and relax for awhile in such a great atmosphere.  Her home was very cozy and she had two wonderful cats that were quite friendly to my surprise.  She also took us up on the roof for a few pictures of downtown which was wonderful because up until that time I kept getting power lines in all my good photos.  Not that I am a professional photographer as you can tell by my photos, but even I know that power lines running through landscape photos looks bad.  The only downer during this whole day was the fact that Karen could not come with us to eat because of a plumbing issue.  It was really too bad to because the Mexican food that we had was fantastic.

~ Vancouver Skyline from Karen’s Apartment

The third day we went to another USA hockey game and this time they were paired up with Norway.  It was a great game as the USA won 6-1 and we had another set of magnificent seats.  In fact the seats were so good that in order to get to them the security checked our tickets three times to make sure we were in the right place.  We were right below the media and they were spectacular, ten rows off the glass.  It was a ton of fun for me and I really could not thank Jen enough for the tickets, but I wish we could have gotten tickets to something Canadian.  It was sort of more of a USA Olympics for us because we couldn’t get any tickets to any Canadian events because they were all sold out.  However, I really do appreciate her sucking it up and allowing me to smile with pride as the USA took it to Switzerland and Norway.

~ Hockey Day 1                          ~ Flags inside Canada Hockey Place

~ Scoreboard before the game vs. the Swiss

~ Seats Day 2                             ~ USA vs. Norway warm-ups

After the hockey game on Day three we again met up with our wonderful hosts Markus and Brigette and walked around down in Granville Island.  Jen and I had some wonderful desserts at The Keg and then met up with Markus and Brigette at the Granville Island Brewery.  I tried their sampler and it was pretty decent.  They also had the sampler, but got them all whereas I just went with half of the sampler.  It was about 4 oz. of beer in each sampler and it really gave the feel of the Upstream Brewery in Omaha, Nebraska.  It was a lot of fun to sit there and have some casual conversation with them before heading back toward their home in New Westminster.  We stopped and ate at the pub right by their home before heading off to sleep and it was amazing.  The food was to die for, much better than any pub food that I have had anywhere else and during that dinner we got to see Sean White land his infamous McTwist that won him the gold medal.  It was a great day for Olympics and Vancouver food tasting.

Day four was yet another day of hockey.  This time we were sitting center ice and it was Belarus vs. Sweden.  It was really heart warming and amazing to see all these people travel that far just to watch their country play.  Belarus was the underdog and I really wanted to see them pull one out, but they were unable to do so.  However, it was easily the best hockey game that we saw while we were in Vancouver.  Belarus came back and got within hitting the crossbar to tying the game up.  It was a lot of fun and so awesome to see so many patriotic passionate fans.  After the game we headed out to meet Julie, Simona, Markus, and Brigette for food at the Yaletown Brewery.  It was another place that Jen thought I would really enjoy and man was she right.  The food was very fresh and reasonable and the beer was good again.  You really cannot go to Vancouver without trying the micro breweries there.  They were pretty awesome even if you only get the sampler.  After the Yaletown Brewery, we walked to Simona’s house and along the way we crossed the Burrard Bridge.  It was awesome because it was just turning to night and we got some great pictures off of the bridge.  Then Simona took us to Christina’s house where we got to meet her cat and dog and then head out for some sushi.  It was so awesome that she was able to meet up with us on her busy schedule, but it went by way too fast.  The whole trip went by way too fast.  Jen got to see her friends, but it was only a short time and I hope we get back there sooner rather than later.

~ Granville Island Bridge               ~Flags from our seats Day 4

~ Seats Belarus vs. Sweden        ~ Landscape from the Pier

~ Taken from Burrard Bridge

~ Taken from Burrard Bridge

Our last day in Vancouver took us to Vancouver Olympic Stadium for some curling.  I had always watched curling on television and wanted to see what it was about in person.  It was awesome, by the way.  The Canadian fans made it a lot of fun to watch because they were really into it.  It also helped that the USA won one of their only two wins while we were there by going to an extra end with Sweden.  Shuster and the boys did not fair very well, but I have confidence that they will only get better.  Compared to most of the good teams the US team seemed to be a bit young and more inexperienced than the other countries and it showed on the ice.  However, the facility was amazing and if we would have had slightly better seats it would have been some of the most fun I had while at the Olympics to be honest.  The only downfall to the whole thing was the amount of people they were trying to shove through only eight security lanes.  I would have thought Canada Hockey Place would have been like this, but man the security at the curling was slow and really tested one’s patience.  We made it inside after the first end though and got to see the rest which was great.  After curling, we rode around with Julie and Simona and ate at one of Jen’s favorite restaurants when she used to live there.  I finally got my poutine here and then we went to look for red mittens.  No luck, but what followed was probably the highlight of the landscape views that we had.  Simona took us to a wonderful spot overlooking all of Vancouver.  It was an amazing spot for these people to live at and I would have given anything to sit there for hours.  We were only there ten minutes, but it was the best view of Vancouver we had the whole time we were there.  After our site seeing trip, Simona took Jen, Julie, and I for the best Caesar I have ever had and then to the Amtrak station for our trip home.

After reading all this you probably thought man they were there for a long time, but let me tell you we were there not nearly long enough.  Canada has a ton to be proud of and I hope they continue to sport their Canadian gear and fly those flags.  A huge special thanks to all our wonderful guides and friends in Vancouver especially Simona for driving us around, Julie for showing us her apartment and buying us a Caesar or two, Markus and Brigette for letting us stay in their wonderful home, Christina for taking the time out of her busy schedule for sushi, and Mel for meeting us for coffee and being patient while we were running late.  It was awesome and I hope we get back again soon.

~ Curling Line-up for Security      ~ Curling Arena

~ Curling Arena                          ~ Shuster from Team USA

~ Vancouver from Simona’s special sightseeing spot

~ Jen and I in Vancouver on Saturday February 20, 2010