The Jeff R Project

Today is the 5th day of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The title alone is a mouthful.

Vancouver is alive with people. It’s pretty crazy how busy things are. Even tiny hole-in-the-wall places that locals avoid are busy with tourists. And of course the popular places are even busier.

Sunday, Chris and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather (Yep, sunny and warm in February) and took in some of the Olympic sites. We’d been out Saturday but other than Robson Square didn’t “do” anything Olympic.

We went down to the jail cauldron to see what all the fuss was about. Wow, did someone screw that up. “Too keep people safe” they erected an 8 foot security fence over 100 feet away from it, completely obscuring the view. People were climbing on concrete crash barriers to get a 1/2 decent photo that didn’t look like it came from Guantanamo Bay.

We tried to visit the Royal Canadian Mint display, but it was closed for a private function, so we hopped on the Canada Line Skytrain and went to Olympic Village with the intention of taking the Olympic Line train to Granville Island. 45 minute line up. No thanks, so we walked the seawall – a much better choice.

Granville Island is known as “Place de Francophonie” or “The fake French area” during the Olympics. Honestly, I wasn’t feeling it. The eastern end of the island is blocked off and there’s a large area devoted to French culture and displays, but they were pretty uninteresting. I hear Quebec House is worse. That’s for next weekend.

We then did get on the Olympic Line train (courtesy of Bombardier) since there was no lineup to get BACK to the Skytrain. Cool. It was a nice ride, but not all that exciting. The Canada Line Skytrain back to downtown was lined up out of Olympic Village station! What!

So we walked over the Cambie Bridge and Chris got some great photos of the athletes village and Sochi House on False Creek.

We actually forgot we couldn’t get home our usual way from the Cambie Bridge and detoured up Beatty Street past BC Place, Alberta House and the Bell Ice Cube (huh?) and a huge crowd of people gathering around that area.

On the way home, we encountered a fleet of Mini’s that we had seen before. Canon has outfitted a fleet of 12+ Mini’s with camera lenses on top, and for some reason they really intrigue Chris and I.

After 4 hours on our feet and moving constantly, we finally got home and crashed. The dog was happy to have us back.

This week, we’re going to try to get out in the evening and enjoy some of the excitement and crazy during the evening. This will be “tricky” with having the dog at work, and the fact that Chris is working at 6:00am during the Olympics.

On the weekend, we’re hoping to make it to even more venues. Canada House, Northern House and a bunch of province ones too. I’d like to visit Sochi House as it’s supposed to be impressive, but Chris is disinterested. Considering the Russians tried to kill him last time he encountered them, I don’t blame him, so I may have to go with someone else. We’ll see.

Many people have written about the start of 2010 and what it means to them, so I figured I’d throw my hat in the ring too.

Last year got off to a bad start. I don’t remember why exactly. A lot of things went wrong but I didn’t whine about them on my blog hear so I have nothing to go on. I do remember talking to people about how I wanted to start over and that lasted for about 2 weeks. If you remember what I complained about, let me know.

2009 did get a lot better, things were good etc. And then it came to an end much the way it started. I had a headache and was generally “out of it” for a couple of days, including New Years Eve, leading to me being in bed between 10:30 and 11:00. Yep, hardcore party people in the house.

I was actually asleep by 11:10 and woke up not feeling too well again. But it passed.

And then we were in 2010. Corey Monteith of TV’s Glee ran a quick check on Twitter and said it’s officially ‘aught ten’ which I’m not going to pick up. The Olympic branding, which hasn’t taught me much, but has engrained Twenty Ten into my brain, so that’s what I’m going with. It may not stick either but I gotta start somewhere.

Vancouver is roughly 40 days from Olympic Chaos. I could complain about how much it’s going to mess up my commute, but it won’t be too bad (I hope). Considering Rumble and I will mostly be walking. I will have to change my bus route though. It won’t be too bad. I think the 50 False Creek will keep running from the Keefer Street side and end up on or near Granville where I need to get off.

I’m also hoping for nice weather for the Winter Olympics, not to be mean, but just because I don’t like winter.

Oh – and a rant.

Chris and I went to The Bay downtown and I wanted to buy us each a pair of the Red Mittens to wear during the Olympics as we wander around. Apparently the Olympic store in The Bay only accepts Visa and Cash.

Yep, no debit cards, no MasterCard, no American Express. Only Visa (the official card) and Cash (the official cash).

We left without mittens… For now. We’ll be back, oh yeah, we’ll be back.

Screw you 2010, I’m going to win.