The Jetpacker

The weather has turned to the dark side… also known as normal Pacific Northwest weather.  After a week of sunshine and joy, grey clouds have covered the sky and rain has returned to Vancouver.

We consider ourselves fortunate enough to have been in Vancouver for one of their warmest winters ever.  Actually, we take responsibility for bringing the warmth of Southern California with us to Canada.  You can thank us, Canada, by giving up your hockey gold medal.  Fair trade, right?

It’s too bad because we had a lot to do on our last day at the Winter Olympics, but the weather interfered.

We started the day at Granville Island… which isn’t even an island.  It’s actually a peninsula.  The island/peninsula is full of artsy shops and clothing stores and a popular brewery.

Granville Island used to be entirely industrial. Today there is only one manufacturing plant remaining.

It sounded like there were a few Olympic things to do, but nothing manifested.  We asked a volunteer if it was worth it to wait in a line to get into Atlantic Canada House, and she said, “You guys don’t want to be here.  You don’t want to wait hours just to see a bunch of posters.”

So we walked over to the Switzerland House.  Turns out it wasn’t a pavilion like most of the other international houses… it was only a restaurant.

Again, nothing to see.  We’re changing the name from Granville Island to Deception Peninsula.

We ventured into the one thing we knew actually existed: the Granville Public Market.  I always enjoy wandering local markets to see what people eat, the quality of their produce — it’s exceptionally high in Vancouver — and the independent food and craft vendors.

Any stall that features food advertised as “Better Than Sex” has our attention.  I can’t judge if the flavored almonds at Dvorak were in fact better than sex (because it’s been a while), but they were delicious.  We particularly enjoyed the orange chocolate, and the almonds covered in Grade “Eh” maple syrup.

Near the public market was a toy store that had an adult-size door and a kid-size door.

That was enough to draw me in.  Once inside, I couldn’t believe my eyes…

I finally found the Quatchi beanie I had been searching for for days.  Every store I went into, the store owner told me they sold out minutes after receiving them.  I thought I would never find one.

I grabbed the beanie off the rack, protected it like a winning lottery ticket and purchased it without even checking the price tag.  By this point, it didn’t matter if I even wanted the beanie anymore; it was a matter of principle.  I know I’ll most likely never wear it — we don’t get beanie weather in Orange County — but I felt incomplete without it.

After lunch at Cat’s Social House, we were on our way to the Place de la Francophonie when we came upon 10-foot tall guys challenging little kids to a street hockey match.

If only I could grow a few more feet, I’d apply to be one of Duh Hockey Guys.

Four years from now, Sochi, Russia will host the next Winter Olympics… and they went all out to showcase their city.  The Sochi House was designed to introduce the world to the city and the culture of Russia, and give a sneak peek at what it will be like at the 2014 Winter Games.

And if the next Olympics winds up being anything like the preview, it’ll be a blast.  The plans for a downtown sports and entertainment complex are ambitious.  Not only will the facilities be new and cutting edge, they will all be located in the nucleus of Sochi so visitors don’t have to travel great lengths to get from one venue to another — they can simply walk from the hockey arena to the ice skating arena to the speed skating arena.

Besides architectural models, Sochi House also featured a Russian Hockey Hall of Fame, a small stage for Russian musical acts — we watched a Russian rapper — and a room where visitors could handle the Olympic torches from the 2010 Winter Games and the 2008 Summer Games.

From there we followed the water along False Creek to a concentrated area of assorted pavilions.  Any time we had passed by this area, it was packed.  Today… it was empty.

We walked inside Maison du Quebec to avoid the rain… only to find it was open air.  There was a small covered area with tables in front of a stage, so we took a seat to come up with a plan.

That didn’t last long.  There was a country band performing.  And if there’s anything I like less than country music, it’s country music in a language I don’t understand.  In this case, it was French.  And it was especially harmful to my ears.

So we went over to the Saskatchewan Pavilion.  We heard it was one of the best pavilions… and whoever told us that wasn’t lying.

It was one of the only pavilions that sold alcohol.  Which means it was one of the only fun pavilions (according to many locals).

No kids.  Rowdy crowd.  Big screens showing the Canada vs. Germany hockey game.  And, my favorite, an $8 bison burger.  It was surprisingly delicious.

We tried to check out some of the other pavilions nearby, but there were long lines to get into all of them and we didn’t want to stand in the rain.  Plus, we had to be at a hockey game in about 90 minutes.

So we went right back to the Saskatchewan Pavilion to hang out.  Some of our favorite moments:

A woman came over to Ashley insisting she was on the Canadian curling team.  After refuting this claim about 8 times, the woman finally said, “Congratulations.  You look just like her.”  And walked away.  You often don’t get congratulated for looking like someone semi-famous, but I guess it’s better than not looking like anybody.

Then, a man with an exceptional mullet said we looked American.  We told him we were.  He proudly bragged to his friends.  Then he sat with us to talk about his home town of Jasper, Manitoba.  After a few minutes, he left… only to come back and talk to us another 10 minutes about Jasper.

Visitors to the Saskatchewan Pavilion received a beach ball on their way out.  Disregard the fact that Saskatchewan is actually n the middle of Canada and all prairie.  Well, a few other people must have left and then came back like we did.  They blew up their beach balls and started a game of volleyball that spanned the entire tent.  A security guard didn’t like that people were having fun, so he confiscated the ball.  Everyone booed.

20 minutes before we planned on leaving, a band came on stage.  It was another French-speaking country band.  Apparently I’m not the only one who dislikes French country music.  A guy in a USA jersey walked up to the stage and asked them to play more AC/DC.  The band did not find it amusing.  Everyone else did.  They cheered for him.  This was the only time we ever heard Canadians cheering for Americans.

Once again, Canadian country music is our cue to exit.  But not before Jackie and Ashley insisted on taking a picture with the first Mountie we saw this entire trip.

After passing through security at Canada Hockey Place, two of the Olympic mascots — the good ones, which means Sumi was excluded — were setting up for a photo op.  I have a special frame reserved for this one…

Our last hockey game was a playoff game, and we didn’t know who would be playing in our game until the night before.  On paper, a Slovakia vs. Norway match-up isn’t that interesting.

But it turned out to be an exciting game.

It didn’t look that way early in the game when there was a devastating hit that knocked a Slovakian player unconscious and got the Norwegian culprit kicked out of the game.

The player remained motionless for a scary long time.  After he was carted off the ice on a stretcher, the crew had to scrape up a puddle of blood that formed underneath the Slovakian’s head.  (Fortunately, we later read that the player was okay and only suffered a concussion and head laceration.)

After that, things got interesting.  Slovakia looked poised to win, especially after jumping out to a 2-0 lead.  But with 0.1 seconds left in the second period, Norway tied the game at 3.  They weren’t even supposed to have a chance to win.

Everyone, of course, was pulling for the underdogs.  But Slovakia potted a goal late in the game and won 4-3.

Know how to say "goal" in French? BUT.

Norway giving Slovakia a run for their money wasn’t even the most surprising part of the game… it was the people we were sitting with.

The four people sitting behind us were Ducks fans.

The two people sitting next to them were Ducks fans.

And the two women sitting next to us were also Ducks fans.

But the strangest thing is that none of us knew each other!  What are the odds?

It’s hard enough to find other Ducks fans in Orange County… and we wind up sitting next to 8 of them in Vancouver.

I could understand sitting next to other Ducks fans at an Olympic game where at least one Ducks player was on the ice.  But there were no Ducks players on either team.  It was a completely random game.

Later in the game, we spotted two other Ducks fans in the next section and called them over to take a picture.  No one would believe us without photographic evidence of this serendipitous occasion.

The weather may have turned dark, but this was one of many bright spots on our trip.  What a way to end our trip to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  We can’t wait to visit again!