True North

Two weekends ago, Teri, Farrow, and I headed north to Vancouver with our friends Palee and Jess (pictured) to go experience the Olympics. We had no tickets to any events but we thought it would be fun to hang in the city where everything was happening. We had a place to stay and an agenda of free things to do.

On the first day we battled the rain and traveled to Granville Island, Robson Street, and Yale Town. Palee and Jess patiently tolerated Farrow protesting against the stroller which eventually just became a way for use to push around coats and bags. Farrow could not see throught the crowds down that low and repeatedly demanded to be higher.

Vancouver was packed. Many of the streets downtown were closed and turned into pedestrian boulevards. The red maple leaf was everywhere. We hopped around international houses and free viewing sites trying to take in the Olympic spirit.

Here I am hanging with some Swedish fans. This guy thought I was Che Guevera.

Palee and I ran into this guy after not getting into a free Wilco concert. We wandered the crowded streets of Vancouver one night and watched Canadians celebrate their women win a hockey game 15-0. The bar we were at ran out of so many Molson's that they were forced to serve us Coors Light. We also ran into an impromptu version of "Oh Canada" being sung in the middle of the street with about 50 people participating at midnight.

The next day the sun came out and we had a day of scouting to see where we should spend some time wathcing speed skating. And here we are hanging at the German house. Brats and Pretzels. And Speed Skating. The German house was a large tent whose inside was set up like a Bavarian beer garden. Picnic tables, music, beer, saugage and sourkraut.

The experience was worth the rain and crowds. It was fun just to be there with nothing to do but see what an Olympic city was like. Though we didn't see anything cool like snowboarding, we did see the flame. That was good enough (even though Vancouver tried to hide it behing a building under construction and some fencing.)