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):

Last night we took Audrey to the Four Seasons to listen to the Hairfarmers again, and this was the display in the lobby when we walked in:

I have a day off today ... I'll be putting a chicken stew in the crock pot, and curling up to knit until the Opening Ceremony comes on at 5 pm!

Yesterday my friend Audrey arrived from Calgary -- she'll stay with Hailey and I for the rest of the Games. She'll be stationed at the Athlete's Village, but not until tomorrow, so we had time to wander around (Whistler) Village yesterday.

First of all, the 'rings' finally arrived, to adorn the entrance to the Celebration Plaza, where medal ceremonies will take place every night...

(We're assuming that those colored stripes must light up at night ... otherwise these rings are pretty boring. :)

Audrey and I posed for Hailey...

By the way, that piece of plastic hanging around my neck is called my 'accreditation,' and it's THE security bracelet around here -- the info is all scan-able (is that a word, d'ya think?), and includes my 'number,' my photo, my volunteer job here, the list of venues where I'm allowed, and any restrictions on that access (for example, mine tells them that I'm allowed pretty much anywhere in Whistler's Olympic world, but ONLY if I'm in my official Olympic vehicle).


The athletes are starting to arrive from all over the world now -- I've seen Russian delegates, Czech delegates, French delegates... and yesterday I overheard a story about two Kazhakstan (spelling?)delegates who'd gotten hopelessly lost somewhere but were eventually found.

These German delegates were at the rings yesterday with one each of the Olympic mascots. There's Qautchie the Sasquatch..

Sumi the animal spirit ...

Miga the sea bear...

And last, but not least, MukMuk the marmot...

... who only existed in cyberspace until the Vancouver Sun intervened!

Yesterday this was my view from the 'Staging Area' at the Whistler 'Transportation Mall (where we wait for clients who need to be driven somewhere):

That's Whistler's Municipal Hall (unaffectionately known locally as 'the Muni') on the right.

Sadly, we are still spending quite a bit of time practising the routes, routines and procedures, etc, since there aren't that many folks yet demanding our services -- that will all change pretty rapidly after today, though, we've been told.

But today I actually have a day off, because it's the day that Hailey and I go to the Opening Ceremony dress rehearsal in Vancouver! Cameras are expressly forbidden so I'm not sure what I'll have to show for it, but we're pretty excited to be going, anyway!

A WHIRLWIND WEEKEND!

Barely had time to breathe, but at least we all managed to get together for breakfast this morning!

(From left to right, my entire family all together: Joshua, Hailey, Jason and Kristen, me and Michael, River, Mischa, and at the head of the table, of course, Gibson!)

On shift tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., so I'm off to bed!

O WHAT A NIGHT

I'm running on about 5 hours sleep, but last night was AMAZING. The torch relay, after some 12,000 miles and 99 days, was coming to Whistler! The day started with great huge snowflakes coming down...

... but it became rain and then tapered off to nothing by mid-day.

We arrived at the Village Square about 3 pm, where there was free live entertainment the whole day, and the theme, of course, was 'Paint the Town Red!' I even got the tattoo....

The mayor was there...

And this woman is the co-founder of the Whistler Film Festival (Hailey just completed a contract with them), and isn't her little guy red... I mean cute?

The crowds were huge...

... and the entertainment was fun...

Many of the participating countries have bought out existing businesses in order to have a presence here during the Games ... for instance, this is Switzerland House, in a space that, a month ago, housed a restaurant:

The restaurant would have been paid some exhorbitant amount to clear out for a few months!

We had intended to go watch the torch 'hand off' between two of the local First Nations at their Cultural Centre, but we decided to walk over to Skiers Plaza, where the torch was to be lit, first ... just to see how much of a crowd was gathering. We were able to walk RIGHT UP to the fence separating the crowd from where the athlete would run up to the stage!

Once we had that spot we didn't dare leave ... and sure enough, within minutes the crowd started to fill in, and we couldn't have left if we wanted to -- an estimated 20,000 people turned up to watch the torch arrive, and we had 'front row seats' not 30 feet from the podium!

Our Premier, Gordon Campbell, was schmoozing the crowd -- he passed me a provincial 'Torch Relay' pin, but by the time I recovered enough to get a picture, he was moving on...

Games CEO John Furlong was there, along with a host of other 'important people,' of course.

But the most important people got the torch there! Here's a cool local story...

Local athlete, torch bearer, and 'home town girl' Julia Murray, (21, and one of four Canadian women on the skicross team), tore some ligaments in her knee a few weeks ago. So instead of running, they had her go by snowboard up the hill behind where the celebration was taking place, to the top of this little ski hill..

There she passed the torch off to Steve Podborski, one of the original 'Crazy Canucks' -- another of whom was Julia's dad, Dave Murray (who died of cancer several years ago). When the alpine skiers take off down the hill during these games they'll be skiing on the Dave Murray Downhill, named after Julia's father and Steve's old team-mate. Here's Julia and Steve passing off the torch at the top of the hill...

Then Steve skied down that hill, and the crowd went crazy when he passed the torch to a young local mountain biker Tyler Allison, who hopes to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics...



It was an amazing and very moving moment, and I loved every minute of it!

Gotta go ... turns out that we're making a quick trip home to the Island today -- Hailey and a friend here are attending a mutual friend's baby shower in Victoria, so we get to go home just for overnight -- and the timing is perfect because Joshua will be down this weekend and Michael was slated to have River and Gibson overnight on the boat tonight anyway! We'll have a family breakfast in the morning, and be back here in Whistler by tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon. :)

HAIR FARMERS

We are still pretty much 'practising' on the driving team here in Whistler (because the whole world hasn't arrived yet), so not much to report about my volunteer gig -- but here's a pic of the team I was with today (it changes every day, they've been shuffling us around so we all get different experiences!):

The back row is a woman from Chemainus and a woman from Seattle, the tiny little woman next to me is from Port Alberni (yup, three Island gals on the team today!), then our 'team lead' who was from Vancouver, and the gray-haired fella in the front is a Whistler local (and 73 years old, I might add)!

There's lots of free entertainment going on around town, so last night we went to the fancy-dancy Four Seasons Resort to watch a local award-winning band called the 'Hair Farmers.' They were pretty good, and all for the price of a latte! You can watch and listen to a video of them here ...

Today the torch comes to Whistler, finally -- day 99! We'll drive south to watch it arrive in the district, then beat it back into the Village to watch the 'hand-off between the Squamish and Lil'wat Nations at the Cultural Centre, then beat it to the Skiers Plaza to watch the cauldron being lit -- I'm sure that will be a pretty emotional moment for Whistler, having waited for these Games for over 50 years! (By the way, there's a great Whistler history timeline here!)

ROAD TRIP :)

Whistler used to be about a 2.5 drive from downtown Vancouver, but with the improvements to the highway, it's only 1.5 hours now, and a lovely drive!

Here's a map of where I am...


So yesterday we had to drive in to Vancouver to pick up my FREE tickets to the Opening Ceremony dress rehearsal -- it was overcast but warm, and the road was bare and dry the whole way. We found the address easily enough ... this was a dead give-away:

Yup, the line-up was almost two blocks long, so we waited... and waited...

Hailey decided to go across the street to the Bay to get her red mittens:

... and then we waited some more. We'd heard the rumor that some of the folks nearer the front of the line had waited three hours, but we got in the door in just under two hours -- they were giving out bottles of Okanagan red wine, so Hailey got her reward for waiting with me, and I got my tickets!

Then we took ourselves to a lovely restaurant right on the water in the West End, with this great view of English Bay:

The 'Olympic spirit' is everywhere here...

... and so is spring...

And then we had to check out this art installation on the corner before we headed out of town!

Got back to Whistler just in time for a meeting Hailey had to get to -- a perfect day.

And I have to be on shift in 45 minutes.... talk soon! :)

DAY TWO

Here I am in my 'Beezlebub' costume.... :)


One of the most interesting sites here is the Athlete's Village .... and here is the 'eye in the sky' 360-degree camera watching over the valley that it's in:

Check it out closer up:

And whatever it doesn't see, this will:

Hailey says she's never heard a helicopter, in all the years she's lived here, as often as she's heard this one for the past few weeks!

Once you get past the three checkpoints from the road, in, and past the dozen or so RCMP officers who check everything from our accredition to our undercarriage, here's the 'staging area' for us to wait for folks we'll be driving:


Here is some of the team I worked with today (and those great SUVs we get to drive)!


We're still mostly doing 'dry runs' and practises, because the Games haven't started yet, so ...

... I've had time to knit! I'll be able to keep a pair of socks on the needles for 'mindless' knitting while I'm in the car, and at home in the evenings, I've started a Sivia Harding shawl in laceweight cotton:


Tomorrow Hailey and I will drive back down to Vancouver to pick up our tickets for the Opening Ceremony dress rehearsal, and then I'm back on shift on Thursday. It snowed this morning, for the first time since I got here ... and I'm having a blast!