Day 7: Two Words – USA vs. Canada!

Another day in beautiful Vancouver!  Kirsten here - Today was a very relaxed day, all things considered.  We went out for a nice breakfast at a local golf club.  Our hostess had left us a gift certificate for the restaurant there, so we took advantage of that.  I had the "Hole in One" which was pretty much an Egg McMuffin... But would you believe, the Canadian bacon here is really, really good!   But here they call it "Our Bacon".  (Kidding...)

After breakfast we came back home.  Laura packed up to fly home, and I did some laundry.  We left the house about lunchtime and drove to Lonsdale Quay.  Tony and Julianna hopped on the SeaBus to go downtown for the Women's Hockey Gold Medal game.  I'll let him tell you about that in a minute.

Bodie and Laura and I did a little souvenir shopping at the marketplace, and got ourselves a snack.  Something called a "beaver tail" which is a very flat, oblong pastry, with any one of a dozen toppings.  I chose blueberry.  They spread it on, then sprinkle it with powdered sugar.  The pastry is very thin and crisp.  Quite good.  I would love to try it with other toppings. Maybe I'll see if there's a recipe online...

Then we drove Laura to the airport, which is a bit tricky.  There's really not much in the way of highways here, so it's 45 minutes to the airport via surface streets.   The busy streets are two lanes on each side, with no "turn pockets" so if someone is turning left, they are holding up everyone in that lane.  The neighborhoods don't look terrifically well-off, but they are clean and nice-looking.  Anyway, we dropped off Laura, then stopped at Subway to get a sandwich for a growing 9 1/2 year old boy....  He and I came back home to watch the hockey game, after which we went back to "LQ"  (That's what those of us "in the know" call Lonsdale Quay.  Especially when we're sick of typing Lonsdale Quay....

Dinner was back to the Memphis BBQ.  We knew it was something we liked, and they had TV's in there, so we could watch the Ladies Figure Skating.  Then back home to get to bed early.  We've got to be at the bus bright and early for the Snowboarding Competition tomorrow!

As Julianna and I got on the SeaBus heading to the women's hockey game with 20,000 of our closest Canadian friends, you could feel the tension in the air. Wearing my USA hockey jersey through town, I could feel a lot of people looking at me, especially because, for every USA fan on the street, there are 100+ Canadian fans, and they are all wearing red hockey jerseys. You would think that every Canadian man, woman and child was given one for Christmas. But, as we've experienced here all week, Canadians are really very nice people, so I never felt like my life was in danger.

Maybe you haven't heard, but Canadians take their hockey VERY seriously. They may be friendly, but make no mistake, they invented hockey, so they feel that they should be the best at it. Much as most Canadians like the USA and American things, that had no intention of letting our girls take home the gold medal in THEIR sport. Based upon how loud things were inside Canada Hockey Place tonight, I can't believe there is anyone in the greater Vancouver area that has any voice left. If I can step away from being an American for just a second, the amount of red in the building and the number of Canadian flags and maple leafs everywhere was really quite impressive. We Americans are quite used to overt acts of patriotism and outward love of country, but Canadians I've learned, are quite a bit more restrained with their national emotions. I've overheard more than a few people say that they have really loved how the whole country has gotten behind their athletes and how love of country has become so widely accepted among Canadians. From my standpoint, you would never know that that is such a stretch for these people. It is impossible to count how many Canadian flags we've seen everywhere: in windows, flags on cars, on flagpoles on people's homes; they're everywhere. It is really very impressive and inspiring. I could definitely move here and be a Canadian...well, if I weren't already an American.

Once the game started, the tension level soared. I knew that these were the two best women's teams, and that this game was a bit of a foregone conclusion, but once the gold medal game started, anything could happen. Our ladies are extremely skilled and pretty fast skaters. I really thought that they dominated the Canadians for most of the first period. Julianna and I were sitting close to the goal that Team USA was shooting against in the first and third periods, and it seemed as if most of the action was right in front of us. Unfortunately for the red, white and blue, Canada's goalie, Shannon Szabados, played the game of her life and didn't allow a single puck to get past her. Our girls peppered her with shot after shot, but she stood strong. Without her in net, the Canadians would all be wearing silver medals right now. I gotta tip my hat to her. The Canadians put two nice shots past our goalie, Jessie Vetter, in the first period, and each time the noise in the building was deafening. Much to the dismay of all American hockey fans, and the players, we had to settle for the silver medal.

Even though it was not my country, it was quite a thrill to be there when an Olympic gold medal was awarded, especially to the host country. It really meant a lot the Canadian people, so I'm happy for them. Plus, it was a great experience because I got to share it with my daughter. She cheered her heart out for our girls and tried to break into every shout of Go Canada Go, with her own U.-S.-A.! U.-S.-A.! While she's still not interested in playing hockey, I think she enjoyed watching Team USA play for our country.

Friday is our last Olympic event. Sadly, our adventure is almost over. We are waking up very early to head back up to Cypress Mountain for the women's snowboarding parallel slalom. So, if you're watching the Olympics on Friday, look for us in the stands. Kirsten will be looking very stylish in her purple coat with bright pink gloves.