TODAY'S THE DAY

.. that Whistler has waited for, for almost 50 years!

Yes, I went to the opening ceremony dress rehearsal night before last, and yes, it was AMAZING. And that's all I'll say about that ... for now. Watch TV at 5 pm PST tonight, along with the other estimated 3 billion viewers around the world, and you'll see what I was privileged to see at the rehearsal. :) Sorry, but I really want to honor John Furlong's words ... "This opening ceremony is a gift Canada has spent almost 3 years hand-crafting to give to the world when we open the XXI Olympiad on February 12th. We're giving you a sneak peek tonight, but then we're wrapping it up to present it to the world on Friday night. Please don't spoil the surprise..."

The trip down to Vancouver was uneventful, but we did notice the ramped-up security all along the route, including a military aircraft circling overhead (in addition to the pretty much constant helicopter patrols) all along Howe Sound, and this military boat ...

And, of course, the streets all around the venue were closed off, so we had to find a parkade several blocks away, and walk.

But stopping at the look-out to get that military boat picture meant I also got to read these interpretive signs about the First Nations:

Now here's a security story for you!

Everyone had to empty the contents of their bags into bins, and the bins were then passed through a security scanner. I had my camera with me, and there were signs everywhere forbidding them. I also had socks on my needles, of course, and the needles were stainless steel double-pointed needles...

Oh, well, into the bin went the contents of my bag!

Hailey was next ... she dumped the contents of her bag into the next bin, and they passed the two bins through. I was waiting, imagining that my camera would be confiscated (I had forgotten to leave it in the van, which was 6 blocks away, and by the time I remembered it was in my bag, I wasn't about to walk all the way back...) -- and, of course, I was hoping that I could knit during the two hours we would be waiting for the show to start.

Well! My bag contents passed with flying colors, apparently, because they passed the bin back to me immediately and wished me a great evening.

Hailey's bag contents, on the other hand, made all the bells and whistles go off, and they started to search through it. The culprit?

An almost brand-new hair spray, which had been a (relatively expensive) Christmas gift from Mischa, got confiscated! I *guess* Hailey could be a terrorist, and even though she had no means of lighting that hairspray on fire, I *guess* she could have planned to have an accomplice sit nearby with a lighter (even though it wasn't me because I didn't have one, and the tickets were randomly assigned and dispersed!) and I *guess* they were just doing their jobs, but it seemed a little bizarre -- after we got done cracking up laughing as we walked away with my camera intact, and my stainless steel weapons ... er, I mean knitting needles!

Here's BC Place, which has a capacity of about 60,000 people -- there were probably 50,000 at the dress rehearsal.

On the way home, we witnessed the incredible light display that's taking place over the whole city right now...

I couldn't get a decent picture of it, but it was pretty amazing!

We got home and to bed around midnight, and I had to be up by 4:30 a.m. for my shift. We're still 'staging' more than actually driving, but I spent most of yesterday sitting in the staging area outside the Whistler Athlete's Village, and watching these cute little red shuttle buses disgorge athletes all day...

And don't tell my hubby I said this, but mmmmm mmmmm.... lots of nice, young, good-looking 'eye candy' there, I can tell ya!

And this map appeared in the lounge area of the compound I work out of every day, showing where all the volunteers are from (remember that you can click the pic to enlarge it):