And the Beat Goes On

Day 10 of the Games and another incredible day in paradise.  I understand we hit 11 this afternoon in the sunshine.

The games are now more than half over and I am betting that the folks who live in Yale Town are counting the minutes.  Last nights Colin James concert on the water front was the loudest yet.  For those of you who are regular readers, you are aware I live, as the crow flies, less than half a kilometer away across the water.  I heard the music as clear as if I had been in a loud night club. 

My brother, sister-in-law and I took off to spend the day strolling around town.  We started at Granville Island where we rode a water taxi across the harbour to the site of the concerts in Yale Town.  It was 12:30pm in the afternoon and the wait to get inside was 45 minutes to wait for the first concert to begin at 5pm.  No thanks.  As mentioned previously, I wait for no one (except perhaps the fine Mr. Clooney and by the time he met me, he would be the one waiting for me).  Off we went for a stroll around the waterfront seawall.  It was more like a people wall to wall to wall.  As we made our way to what was once the Plaza of Nations of the old Expo 86 sight.  I hadn't been down there before and was surprised to discover that it had been converted into a huge market place.  Not only was there plenty of international types of food but the market had stalls from all over the globe selling interesting little trinkets.  I was offered the opportunity to purchase 7 year Ginsing.  If I understand, the taking of Ginsing is supposed to improve your memory.  I am pretty sure I will forget to take it every 7 years.  Better I should just buy one bottle of 'take me now' Ginsing and see how that works.  If my memory improves then most likely I won't need anymore in 7 years.

After the tour through the united nations market place (which I thoroughly enjoyed and will go back), we headed off to find Molson Canadian Hockey House.  We found it in the centre of Canada Place and were incredibly surprised and relived to discover that the line was relatively short - only one hour and that was only because they hadn't opened the doors yet.  As we stood there, I noticed the fellas in front of us were wearing some sort of pass and I noticed the name of Molson on it.  We asked and these kind men told us we needed tickets to get inside.  I went to check out the situation.  A rather flamboyant man opened the door and gently, although perhaps a little patronizingly (and those who know me know how well I handle being patronized) explained the only tickets they had left for that days festivities were the VIP ones for $525.00 - FOR THE DAY!  However, it would cover my food and alcohol and the hockey player who would show up for the evening.  I could watch the games on their big screens and be entertained by BTO.   After I stopped goggling at him in sincere disbelief, I was offered the opportunity to go online and check for any available 'fan' tickets for any other days of the games.  Those tickets could be had for a paltry $100 for the day but so sorry, that will not include the cost of food and beverage.  Beer is being reasonably offered for $10 per bottle.

As you can imagine, we left in disgust and headed toward the Russian House located in the former Science World.  It would have been very interesting and I was looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, it was now 2:30 and the exhibit would be closed by the time we got through the line.  Instead, we marched across the street to hop on the train to head back up town.  After we were shoe- horned in along with 20,000 other fine folks, (including the man who just ate a pound of garlic and was now sweating it out of his pores) we made it to our new stop where we all poured out like the yolk leaving a cracked egg.  I had to bite back the urge to start screaming at people the inadivsability of stopping dead in the road to decide where to go next.  Last year when I was in Lima, Peru, a city of 14 million, I noticed that people knew how to move.  Rarely did I run into anyone who decided to come to a dead stop in the middle of a crowd to pull out a map and gather their group around them to decide where to go for lunch.  They moved off to the side and kept the other 14 million moving.

About this time, I recieved a phone call from my cousin who announced that he and 4 other cousins happened to be in the city for the hockey games and wanted to meet for lunch.  We arranged a place and set off.   We fought through the immoveable objects, formerly known as people and made our way - slowly.  Along the way, we passed by the zip line.  They had a fun sign posted - only 5 hours to wait for less than 30 seconds of fun.  Perhaps tomorrow.

We had a wonderful lunch and a great visit.  After about 2 hours, it was time to part ways.  They, to return to the arena for the next hockey game and we to make our way home.  Transit was out of the question.  I had no desire to get groped in the crush of people pocked in a tight space so off we went for the walk home.  It was about a 4.5 kilometer walk and along the way we were treated to some great sights.  It was such fun to see such patriotic people.  A group of Canadians decked out in full red and white broke into a spontaneous rendition of the nathional anthem.  Buskers were on almost every corner.  We can across Irish House.  It was set up on the corner of Nelson and Seymour and is a giant white tent with IRISH HOUSE and a shamrock spelled out in front.  The line for this one stretched around the corner and down the street for over 2 and a half blocks.  Holy crap!  All this for the chance to see a leprechaun and drink some green beer.  If I wanted to see that I could go back to my poor ex-husband and just add a little food colouring to his nightly brew and he kind of resembles a leperechaun after the 5th or 6th bottle of Bud.

I almost collapsed when we made it home.  My foot was on fire and it seemed the walking cast hurt more than the actual fracture at this point.  It was almost more exhausting than the 15 hour days of volunteering at Whistler.

Well, off to the mountain tomorrow.  Today's picture is of the ski jump.

Stay tuned.