Vancouver 2010

Vancouver 2010

Last weekend we were lucky enough to head out Vancouver to take in some Olympic hockey!

I have been lucky enough to have traveled many different places in the world. This travel has helped me realize that I am one of the luckiest people in the world to live in Canada, and that it is but for the grace of God that I have been born in Canada. My travels to China to see the family home helped me truly understand that so many of our families have made difficult sacrifices to allow the dream of future generations to be Canadian, to have this amazing life in such a wonderful country!

My pride in being a Canadian, has been something that I have always tried to instil in the kids. The opportunity to go to Vancouver and see so many other people who are so proud of being a Canadian was AWESOME. The kids had the chance to make memories that I hope will last them a lifetime. I hope that they will be able to carry some of this pride with them all of their lives!

After a quick flight to Vancouver we headed down to Canada Hockey Place to see team Canada’s women play Slovakia. The atmosphere was electric! The sea of Canadian jerseys, the pride in our team, the amazing skill of the players and the joy in being there made for one of the best hockey games of our lives. While the score of 18 – 0 is controversial and its impact of woman’s hockey around the world, I can honestly tell you from being there that it score was not run up with malice. The Canadian woman played well, they scored often and that is what we expect at the Olympics. No one expects any other Olympic athlete to let up when they are ahead of their competition. GO CANADA GO

Sunday was Chinese New Year’s! To celebrate our family heritage we headed to the Imperial for dim sum after visiting the Olympic flame! The flame is beautiful. We were able to get some nice pictures of the flame and did not think twice about the fences protecting it. Imagine our surprise later in the week when we heard so many complaints about the access! Then again, maybe we were just happy to get there and see the flame; it is an opportunity of a lifetime.

We really enjoyed the festivities in downtown Vancouver. Seeing the skating rink in Robson Square, was fantastic for the kids after seeing it on television so many times. There are so many interesting things to see from artwork to buskers, it is truly a 24hr party in the streets. All of the people we encountered were so happy, helpful, joyous and filled with pride in their countries.

Then we were off to UBC Thunderbird Arena to watch Russia play Finland. The Russian fans at the game were hilarious! As the next hosts of the winter Olympics they already have their mascot and a strong presence in Vancouver. They had their drummer at the game to keep the Russian fans cheering, in fact BabyJ got in on cheering, Russ-see-yah, Russ-see-yah, with the Russian children behind us. What an awesome experience for the kids to see such pride in another country, a closer hockey game and such strong and powerful female hockey players!

Finland and Russia

Our time in Vancouver was fantastic! The Olympics are being run very well, we found things to go very smoothly considering the massive numbers of people at each event and there seemed to be people willing to help at every turn. Go CANADA, great job VANOC, congratulations to every athlete who has made it to Vancouver and especially to all of the Canadian athletes!

Enjoying the interactive street art!

The Olympic Rings from our hotel at night!

Imagine our final surprise in seeing BabyJ on the CTV news last night as part of a clip From Steven Brunt about "What these Games mean to Canada" and then finding out she is the link picture on the CTV website to video clip! http://www.ctvolympics.ca/video/index.html?assetid=c77be4cf-cadc-4b7e-a095-b22d4b1ec96f  Our Canadian BabyJ shows her pride! GO CANADA GO!

BabyJ walking on Robson on Monday Morning!