Feb.17
It's been a couple of days since my last blog so we'll play catch up. Monday we were downtwon again, this time not as busy as Sunday but still busy and the atmosphere is the same and everyone is in a great mood with our first Gold Medal. Started off by running into to some friends and former athletes from Calgary John and Diane Jones Konihowski and after s short visit we were standing at the entrance to the Zip line and the sign said form here is a 5 hour wait for a 30 second ride. We then thought that lunch and a beer would be in order so we found a place called Joey's ( not the fish place) and it was great and all the guys would love the service. After lunch we walked all over the downtown area again looking for the Alberta Place and finally found it and the line up was also long so we headed down the street to "Dix Pub" and found some stools at the bar and watched the Moguls on the giant screen and another silver medal. It was very loud as I think that all the snow boarders that weren't on the hill were at Dix's. The beer and there seemed to be a few which later turned to rum tasted very good (just like home) and when we left everyone was getting ready to go to the medal presentations at BCPlace ($22 per ticket) and it was B.C night so it was going to be loud. Again we wandered the streets and watched all the people and be this time there was a lot more and the place was jumping. We found a little bar with no one in it and had a drink but when the music started and the YMCA music started we left thinking why there was one's in the place. Finally we got home safe and sound and I think it was very late.
Tuesday - Game day
We have 2 games today in Womens hockey and the first is USA and Russia and I don't remember ever hearing a large crowd cheering for the Russian's. The game itself wasn't much as the US won 13-0 and the crowd was over 5000 and the atmosphere was great. I felt sorry for 3 of the girls on the Russian team as they never played 1 shift as I was the guy keeping track of the Russian team time on Ice. The plus side for the 3 young ladies is that they ended the evening even while the other team members were all in the minus side of the scale. The second game was Finland and China and I found the game very exciting ( yes I said exciting) as well as entertaining. The chinese were outshot 45-5(I wouldn't have given the last shot) and the score was 2-1 for Finland. The Chinese goalie was terrific and the team plays just like an old NHL team(I wonder where they practice all year) as they played a great clutch and grab game and they blocked tons of shots. All the team were blocking shots from the stars to the defense and all the players played and this is what the OLympic is supposed to be about. This was another day out at UBC and we start with the men today and only one more day at UBC. I have to talk about our trips to UBC . As many of you know I'm staying in Burnaby with my buddy Don (so far he hasn't got us kicked out). We get picked up every day we go to UBC and I have to say that I have finally found the original Wilbur and Stadler. Since I have been at Sait (4years) I always thought that I was working with Wilbur and Stadler but I now know the real guys. They work on the Canucks crew and one of them even was on Coach's Corner with Don Cherry a couple of weeks ago and they are great. From the time we get into the car going until we get back home I laugh non stop. They have a million stories and for those that care I'm the youngest person in the car so these guys have stories and stories and I just listen. I think that if I stayed here awhile longer I could learn how to BS and I'll have to talk to Joe about that. They treat the pucks here like they are a gold brick so anybody that thinks of a puck will not be getting one. We are staying with friends in Burnaby and they a great hosts. Lorridawn is Alsask and has been a lifelong friend of Shirley and has the same personally and Tim just can't do enough for us. Now it's to the Men's with the Czechs vs Slovakia and then tomorrow we Canada vs US and Russia and Czech.
More in a couple of days