Go Canada Go!
Olympic Hockey Game - February 16, 2010 - UBC Thunderbird Stadium

Yes, the day had finally come. The day we would get to go to the Olympics. We had purchased our tickets back in June 2009 and it has been a long wait. We have anticipated this day since then. Our tickets were not for a Canadian game but that doesn't matter. We get to be Olympic fans in our own 'hometown'. This is our once in a life-time experience that we were going to have fun doing. We had tickets to see a women's hockey game, USA vs Russia.

Our day was a full day affair. We took our time getting up in the morning...that's pretty typical of us on a day off. We all put on our Canadian garb and off we went. Because we kept hearing reports that the roads would be busy we decided to take the sky train from Surrey, Scott Road Station. After riding that for a while we would take the city bus from Vancouver to UBC - that's University of British Columbia if you don't know. We got a bit nervous once we arrived at the Sky train station as we had to park in the furthest parking lot...there were so many cars. We anticipated LONG lineups for the rest of the day but were pleasantly surprised at how smoothly our public transit rides went. Everything connected so well that we arrived at UBC 3 hours before the game was to begin. We read in our Olympic book to arrive 2 hours before our event but 3? That's unheard of for this Spoor family. Well, that must make up for all the other times and places we have been late for! We were at the beginning of the line to get into the stadium...that's a weird experience for us...we are usually at the end of the line or squeaking in just on time! Don't get any ideas...we have rather smoothly rolled back into our lateness already!!

The kids were excited to be on the Sky train. It's not something they get to experience very often. The best part of it all I think was the fact that they could stand up and ride. They didn't have to sit, and willingly gave up their seats for other passengers.

Waiting for the city bus to arrive. I had thought that that wouldn't be as exciting because the kids go on the bus to school every day but no, it was WAY more fun than the school bus! Once again....you could stand instead of sit...even though there were more than enough seats for all the passengers.

There were cool handles to hang on. Who would want to sit when you can swing on those. I am surprised we didn't get kicked off the bus.

Once at the end of our city bus ride we had to walk from the bus terminal to the stadium. We found a bathroom along the way and hung around some fun stairs to 'kill' some time. We had far too much of it. Oh well, it's all part of this experience we were having.

Getting closer to our venue things began to feel more and more Olympic. At every venue there is a large post thing. Of course we had to take some pictures near it.

This just might have to be our family picture for the year....don't tell Dave I said that because by the time we come close to September I am sure I will have forgotten that and want a different family picture to pass to all of you!

Flags everywhere!

The wait to get in to see the hockey game was SOOOOO long. You just need to find fun things to do. All the other people in the line up didn't need to find things to do.....they just needed to watch our 3 nut cases! Jake doesn't look too sure of the whole thing but he very willingly followed what Matthew started.

Oh....more things you can do when you have too much time is put tattoos on your kids' faces. I had gotten these from some lady at the Heineken House the day before. They are finally off their faces now....2 weeks later! Yes they do have showers but the kids would not let me scrub them off. Oh well....we were very Olympically patriotic for a couple of weeks!

The mass of people our kids entertained....we were the pre-game show I guess.

They let us through the screening tents...we didn't pack any hazardous and mysterious things. Thought we would play it safe today! On the 'other side' we met up with Wes and Jennifer. They didn't have seats near us but it was fun to meet up with them before hand.

When we parked our car at the Sky train station we saw some crazy Americans all decked out for something. We met them again at the stadium. The kids thought his hat was pretty cool and he let them put it on for some pictures. After seeing all those people throughout the day it was interesting to see someone we had seen at the beginning of our travels for the day. We didn't see him anymore that day.

Yes, pictures of our kids posing in front of the Olympic ice! Wonder if there were any lucky loonies under the ice.

Our tickets and the arena...proof were were really there! It's all kind of surreal going to an Olympic event. Watching the Olympics was a huge family thing for me to do as a kid. When we didn't have a TV we rented one especially for the Olympics. We watched them every time they were on so actually being able to go to the Olympics was just as big for me as it was for the kids...maybe bigger!

The teams at the beginning of the game.

One of the 13 goals team USA scored. We started out at the beginning of the game, cheering for the USA. They are our neighbors after all. But as the game progressed and as the score became more and more unreasonable we, and most of the crowd, began to cheer for the Russians.

Nicole and I had to go to the washroom during the 2nd intermission but the lineup was terribly long. I jokingly suggested going to the men's washroom but a lady behind me said not to bother. She had already checked it out and it was pretty much as long as this one. So...during our wait we played around with the camera. I am glad I have control over the delete button as some of the pictures were really not so nice but this one is.

After our hockey game it was back onto a city bus. We wanted to go experience Robson St. and downtown Vancouver. Experience it we did. We landed up finding a bus that would take us right to Waterfront so we didn't have to transfer part way from bus to sky train.

We say 'the flame' through the wire fence. It was a flame, not too exciting but we can say we saw it. Crummy thing was is that they moved the fence much closer and made it easier to see the flame that night after we had gone home. Figures. Oh, well...it's just a flame.

We managed to find a little sit down Ricky's in a food court near Waterfront. We even got a table to sit at with a TV right above it so we could sit, eat, rest our feet and watch the Canadian men win their hockey game. Fun to cheer with the crowds around us and listen to all the cow bells ringing! The kids wanted to have their own cowbell but I drew the line there...we had souvenir sweaters, got to go to a game but I would not buy cowbells. That would be way to much noise at home!

Downtown/Robson St were chaotic but really neat to experience. The Canadian men had just won a hockey game so it was LOUD. People everywhere. Jake even let us hang on to him. There were so many people. The crowd was singing Oh Canada and that was pretty neat. Just crazy. We didn't see any of the vendors, acrobats, street performers and such. I think they are mostly there during the day but that's okay. Seeing what we did was just fine.

There were some neat things for the kids to see. Here they are boarding off to their next event!

Lastly before we headed back to the skytrain to go home the kids walked or rather stomped the lane of lantern trees. All of these lanterns were done by many, many children. The trees were standing along a path of plywood that made a most delightful noise as you stomped your way through. Fun...for kids and even adults!

So there you have it....our Olympic experience. I am so glad we got to have it! What a day! I don't think any of us will ever forget it!

To top the day off....we were home and the kids were all sleeping in bed by 10:00....not bad for our usually pokey little family!