Vancouver 2010

First up for us was a preliminary round hockey game between Sweden (yellow) and Belarus (red)

Attended with my great Canadian hosts and soon to be parents of my niece!

Local Swedish Sedin twins (20&22) were right at home, they star for the Vancouver Canucks

It was better hockey than I was used to seeing....but somethings are about the same on every level!

The two photos below show the save of the game for the Belarus goalie. A slapshot hits the post as shown in the first one, notice Sedin there for the rebound with the left side of the net wide open.

But a split second later the goalie shuts the door on the putback. You can see the puck between his pad and the post. The Belarus goalie played great.

Belarus played an inspired third period and made it a close game. Maybe they were inspired by these clever fans.

The streets were full, and as much as I considered cutting in front of these Koreans......a little taste of how they tend to speedskate....I just smiled instead. Most everybody else was smiling too, even as they bumped along in a sea of humanity.

Speaking of patience....these folks waited 6 to 7 hours for 15 second zip line ride above downtown. A person should never underestimate the power of the word free.

No patriotic unrest with my easy going bro in law.....he accepts his US relatives with grace.

That evening we watched a medal ceremony for the ladies snowboard halfpipe where Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark got silver and bronze for the US. Australian Torah Bright got the gold. Which brings a person to the question just where in the world does she practice? She must have friends in NZ.

Remotely we also watched the Whistler ceremony where Bode Miller and Andrew Weibrecht got silver and bronze in the alpine skiing Super G event. Aksel Svindal of Norway took gold.

Athletes village.......where the Athletes live for three weeks. Soon after that, the market will be flooded with a bunch of slightly used condos!

The next morning it was off to curling! We watched 8 countries compete. If you haven't heard of it before, think of it as chess and shuffleboard played on ice.

Our front row seats gave us an excellent view of the curling pants of the decade...Team Norway! They are good too.

If you are one of those people who thinks the silver money you cast into a fountain goes to a good cause. I present the following evidence for your consideration.

Seems like there is always some yahoo sticking his hands up and ruining your perfectly framed picture. Ahh....nevermind, there's a chainlink fence in there anyway. Oh and he's my family.

It was a fabulous time up north!!!!