Olympic Adventures - downtown again and gold medal curling

A few weeks ago, James won tickets to see women's bobsled up in Whistler. We were excited about getting to see an Olympic event but were worried about the logistics - how we would get up there, who would take the kids for the day... Then, one of James' coworkers asked if he would trade his tickets for the gold medal women's curling. James jumped at it - it was in town and we know a lot more about curling than bobsled. So, today was the day of the event. James took the whole day off so the kids and I took him downtown in the morning to see a few of the Olympic sights before we dropped the kids off at Gramma and Grampa's.

It was pretty rainy today so we put on our raincoats and brought our umbrellas. The crowds were much smaller than when the kids and I were there on Monday, so we were able to get a bit closer to the cauldron.

We walked up to Robson Street to see the zipline (the boys were still in awe of it) and saw their friends, Sumi, Quatchi and Miga on the side of a building.

We then found a sheltered area near the ice rink at Robson Square, watched a juggler and had a hot dog lunch.

After lunch, we dropped the kids off with Gramma and Grampa and headed to the curling rink. (While we were there, Grampa took the boys swimming and they had the greatest time - supposedly they were in the water for almost two hours! Gramma happily stayed home with Sarah, where it was warm and dry!) James and I got to the rink almost an hour early, sailed through security and wandered around the venue for a while. We found our seats, which were quite good, even if we did have very cold air blowing on us the entire time!

Canada was playing Sweden for the gold medal.

Sweden came on strong at the beginning of the game but Canada started to take over around the fifth end. It was certainly exciting! The crowd was amazing - there was a sea of about 5950 people in red, cheering Canada on to victory. Those 50 Swedish fans cerainly held their own, though! In the tenth end, Canada was up 6-4 but let Sweden tie it up. They certainly knew how to keep us all on the edge of our seats! It was close but Sweden ended up taking the last point and won the gold. A tough loss but still a great accomplishment to get silver.

The results were gold for Sweden, silver for Canada and bronze for China.

What a neat experience to go and feel the Olympic experience for ourselves. Although it was pretty obvious that many in the crowd did not understand curling, the excitement and patriotism was pretty amazing. It was really cool to be there. And I don't regret giving up those women's bobsled tickets, even if Canada won gold and silver in that event!