Day 4: Backwards Day

Today was backwards day for us. Kirsten and Julianna went to the women's hockey game between the U.S. and Sweden, and Bodie and I wandered around and did some shopping. We all took the bus into town, then split up after getting coffee and croissants. I'll let Kirsten tell you about their experience at the game in a minute.

After leaving the girls, Bodie and I jumped on the SkyTrain (Vancouver's version of the subway) and went a couple of stops down into the main hub of activity. My first thought was checking out the Olympic Superstore, the biggest souvenir emporium in Vancouver. We found the end of the line and it was at least an hour long wait, so we moved on. There is another part of this store that has some Olympic items, so we went there and found a hat for Bodie and one for Julianna. We found the USA clothes by Ralph Lauren, but there are none of the moose beanies that the team wore in the Opening Ceremonies to be had. I found something that said that they have been sold out since before the games started, and that when they had them, they were $75.00.

Once we finished there, we walked down to the pavilion where they have the zip line and the free ice skating rink. We found the end of the queue for the zip line and there was a seven and a half hour wait, so needless to say, we did not get in line. However, once again, it was very exciting to see all the people from around the world walking up and down the street. We saw a couple of Russian athletes in the store, and some Swedish athletes at the hockey game last night. Bodie and I finished our father/son time by going to the Roots Athletic store (clothing) and buying shirts for each of the four of us, then we had lunch at Red Robin while watching cross-country skiing on TV. Finally, we jumped back on the train and went back to wait at the hockey arena for Kirsten and Julianna.

Hi! Kirsten here! Julianna and I had fun at the game. We had great seats, down at one end, behind the goal and up a level. Neither of us had ever seen a women's hockey game, and it's quite different from the men's. There is no checking in the women's league, so it's somehow a more fluid game. There did seem to be more penalties though, than the average men's game. I think the referees probably just call them more often.

The final score was US: 9; Sweden: 1. The crowd was unabashedly supportive of Sweden from the beginning, but when it became obvious that U.S. was the much stronger team, Julianna and I were pretty much rooting for Sweden, too! Kinda felt bad, watching our girls win by that big a margin! The American win meant that they will be in the gold medal game on Thursday, which we have tickets to. Tony and Julianna will be attending that one.

After we met up with Tony and Bodie, we all took the bus back home, and got the car, to drive to the airport to pick up Laura. Then we drove to Granville Island to have dinner. Great meal all around, and as we left, the restaurant bar was crowded with people watching the Canadian Ice Dancers, so we stopped to watch the end of their routine. I gotta tell you, there is something special about a country that roots as hard for its ice dancers as it does for its hockey team! They were excited and cheering and clapping. I just can't imagine that in a U.S. bar. I'm sure that will be one of my standout memories of this week.

Tomorrow we head to Whistler for a very special day. No, not attending Olympic Bobsledding, but my sweet, beautiful, amazing daughter's 13th birthday. We can't wait to tell you all about it.

Thanks for joining us, and for praying for us.

We finally have a way to get our pictures off our camera, now that Laura brought her memory card reader. Here are a few.