I’m in Vancouver enjoying the Olympics. I had a fiasco with my work blackberry and was cut off from data, but it appears that everything may be back to normal. Let’s hope so and fingers crossed. Anyway, if you follow me on twitter, you can get some updates when I’m at Hockey and the Medals Ceremony tomorrow evening. I may even twitpic! Anyway, having a great time and more photos will come but here’s one to tide you over until then.
Tomorrow I will be heading to the PNW to begin my Olympic adventure for 2010. I can’t believe how quickly this date has arrived. I’m super excited and can’t wait until Friday when we head to Vancouver. Throughout my trip, I’m going to try and post a photo or two here for you to enjoy. Of course, after I return I will have many pictures and maybe a few videos to share. Vancouver 2010 is here!
Today I realized that there are only 15 days until I leave for Seattle on my way to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. I’m so FREAKING excited, I can’t stand it! This will be my third Winter Games and will most likely be the best ever. This time I’m going with a larger group of people that consists mainly of family but also includes my friend Rachel who went with me to Torino in 2006.
We’ll be spending 2 days in Seattle before heading up to Vancouver. My sister and her husband are coming along and they love Seattle so it will be fun to spend time with them there. I also hope to meet up with a former college friend who now lives there. We’ll see. This will be twice in less than 6 months that I’ll be in the PNW… maybe I should just move up there? ;)
We’re set to see Men’s Ice Hockey, Short Track Speed Skating and Curling (which rocks, btw). It should be some good times. We’ve got ourselves setup with a nice Canadian family that lives right outside of Vancouver but is next to a SkyTrain station for easy access downtown. So, the adventure is set to begin very soon.
The games begin 2/12/10 – will you be watching?
My thanks to Kaci for sharing this photo essay with me! I cannot wait!
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/olympic_torch_relay_heads_to_v.html
**DISCLAIMER**
I totally planned on blogging yesterday but the time just got away from me. I have back dated this post to reflect that fact. Don’t judge.
**DISCLAIMER**
Below are photos of the medals for the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. They are amazing. I’m aways interested to see what designs they come up with for medals for each of the games. Vancouver has to be one of my favorites so far. The fact that they are wavy makes them very unique and I also enjoy the artwork that is etched into them. An interesting fact, the artwork on each medal is part of a much larger work and, to see the whole thing, you would have to win every medal that is presented at the 2010 games. Kind of a nifty idea.
The IOC will vote tomorrow to award the Summer Games of 2016 to one of the 4 bid cities. The bid cities are Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, and Tokyo. The voting will begin at 8:10AM PDT and the announcement ceremony is scheduled for 9:30AM PDT.
Let’s go Chicago! America needs the games again. Atlanta 1996 seems like ages ago!
The countdown has begun towards my trip to Vancouver for the Olympics in February 2010. I’ve been working really hard to find lodging that isn’t going to break the bank and isn’t located out in the boonies of Western Canada. I think I have a few good options, but I’m waiting to see what my sister’s husband can find. His family is from the Seattle area and they have family friends that live up near and in Vancouver. Fingers crossed.
Anyway, Vancouver released photos of the relay torch and I think it looks pretty good. It’ll be interesting to see how large the flame really is. The past few torches have had very small flames. Did you know that if you’re in the torch relay you get the option to buy the torch? I think I would if I ever had the chance. I’m such an Olympics nerd.
Oh, and if anyone is interested, I have a pair of tickets available for the games. Why are people so flaky sometimes? Anyway, they’re available so send me a note if you want more details.
Vancouver 2010 tickets go on sale starting October 3rd to Canadian residents. As most of you know, I love the Olympics and going to the Winter Games is something I’ve done since Salt Lake 2002. Anyway, I hate how you have to purchase or commit to purchase tickets so far in advance. I find that most people that I try to recruit into going to the big event with me have no idea what they’ll be doing in 2010 or if they’ll even be able to afford it now. That’s fine, I totally understand. At the same time, we’re talking about something that’s a year and a half away, you can’t save $$? I digress.
Tickets go on sale soon and Vancouver has posted their Olympic Experience Packages, which are sports packages that the organizing committee puts together to make your trip planning much easier. I have gone through and chosen packages that meet my requirements and now I have to send them out to the people who are interested. I think I’m going to allow them to vote on the select few and see which ones come out on top. I’m also going to have to decide if I want to add some separate sports on top of the sports that are included in the packages. Some of the packages I like don’t include Curling and there’s no way I’m going to miss out on that!
Anyway, I’m hoping that the whole thing doesn’t end up costing too much $$. My good friend in Canada is doing me the favor of ordering the ticktes and what not for me since (obviously) I don’t live in Canada. After these ticket decisions are made, the next big issue will be lodging. That’s where the total price of the event will really begin to take shape! Here’s the tentative plan for that:
So much planning to do!
Congrats to Matthew Mitcham from Australia (and only openly gay athlete in Beijing) for winning gold in the men’s 10m platform diving event last night. The event was amazing and came down to the last dive of the night. He scored 112.10 out of a possible 114.0 points on his last dive, propelling him past the Chinese favorite. To read more about Matthew, check out his profile located on NBCOlympics.com. You can watch the final dives here. Video below of Matthew taking with reporters outside the diving venue in Beijing.
Seriously?!? Both the US Men and Women drop the baton during the qualifier race in the 4×100 relay!? This doesn’t happen!!
Maybe it was the handmade country tags that both teams were wearing on their chests? Seriously, what the hell was that about? Does Beijing provide those or do the teams themselves?
