Vancouver Olympics: Day 17 (Final Day!) Highlights

- Ughh.. 8:30am after a late night was not pleasant after the luxury of sleeping in for the past week. A necessary evil though as we started what soon became a MASSIVE line at one of the MANY bars to watch the game. Yes, 9am for a 12:15 puck drop. But boy was it worth it...

- With our crew of 13 we kept the double-pitchers coming, made friends with our fellow Canadians, and got riled up as Canada took a 2-0 advantage. The equalizer from the US with seconds remaining put a hold on the celebration that had nearly begun already, but we didn't lose faith. We did lose it when Sid slid it home though! The place went off. I don't remember who I hugged - everyone in sight!

- Best. Street Party. Ever. Hands down, or more appropriately Hands UP, as mine are raw from the high fives from every single person who packed Granville Street. It was mayhem, I lost 11 of my 12 friends, but somehow found my way back to the apartment, as did Jon, so we could usher him quickly to the Skytrain with only minutes to spare for his flight (he made it).

- Winding back through the throngs of people it was such a joyous atmosphere. Canadian Pride.

- Over some much needed pizza nourishment, rejoined by friends at home, we called Nickelback, Lavigne, Hedley and Buble at the Closing Ceremony, but unfortunately no sign of Celine.

- Crash! Two weeks of non-stop concerts/games/party, a minor cold, a lot of beer and an early start culminated in zonking out mid-evening for a deep nap. Fortunately or unfortunately this resulted in being wide awake to check out the revelers still going (somewhat) strong 12 hours later. The Olympic flame now out, I stumbled upon a Closing Ceremony briefcase, complete with moose antlers, abandoned on the sidewalk which made the detour by the cauldron worthwhile.

Vancouver Olympics: Day 12 Highlights

- HOCKEY! We decided to hold onto our Switzerland vs Belarus tickets when we heard the Canadian game tickets were selling for $700/piece on the street. My first trip to the lifeless GM Place was alright as we scored front row upper deck. The first few periods were a bit of a yawn, but in the third Belarus finally got some fire and tied it all up. Ten minutes of overtime solved nothing, but we were all cheering for 'Game-winning Shots' ("Shootouts" to anyone but the Olympics) and got them. Unfortunately Belarus, my beloved underdogs for the day, lost on the final shot but entertaining nonetheless.

- Bursting out into the rain, with the delay of the shootouts, it was closing in on the real game time, so we ran up Granville popping into bars until deciding on the Moose for Canada vs. Germany. The precipitation, early hour and increased police presence (at least tripled) kept the revelers in line and so we only high-fived around for a little while.