The Jetpacker

Did you hear that sigh of relief?  That was us thankful that we survived another night beneath the dirty sheets of our crappy apartment.  For a while there we thought we’d be leaving with a rash.  Luckily, we left with only our baggage and a bad case of annoyance.

While waiting for the landlord lady, hereby known as Decepticon, to pick up the key, we went over to Boston Pizza for lunch.  We’re not sure if they have Boston Pizzas in the city of Boston — or anywhere in America for that matter — but we know they don’t have them in Southern California, because if they did, we would have sniffed it out a long time ago.

The food was good and our waiter was an entertaining guy.  At one point in our lengthy conversation, he slipped and called his home country “Canadia.”  Naturally, he blamed his error on Americans.  He said that the last time he visited the US, people kept calling Canada “Canadia” and eventually he convinced himself that that pronunciation was correct.

It’s official, a Canadian has given us permission to call his country “Canadia” from now on.  Score!  I’ve accidentally been doing that for years anyway.  It just rolls of the tongue so well.  Like Fantasia.  Or Utopia.

The guy said he had been on the news a few days prior because he and his friends have been walking around Robson Square wearing only one piece ski suits and he’s hoping the trend catches on.  We haven’t seen anybody in skin tight ski suits yet, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s these skinny Canadians.

After lunch, we dropped off the keys to the apartment, and went to the one place where we knew we could find free internet access… the Vancouver Public Library!

I am now the proud owner of a Vancouver Public Library card, which makes an awesome souvenir.  What’s really sad is that I don’t even have a library card for my hometown.

We were finally able to get you some updates before checking into our new apartment downtown.  Not only is our new place spectacularly nice and clean and modern, we’re only one block away from the heart of the action at Robson Square!  Even better?  A Japadog stand is right outside… and I can’t wait to try it!

We didn’t have too much time to enjoy our new place since we had a hockey game to get to at a night.  So went to Hamilton Street to pick up our tickets and stopped inside the Yahoo! Fancouver pavilion to grab a free cowbell and hot chocolate that tasted like somebody accidentally dropped a single M&M into luke warm bath water.  If we would have known that this place had free internet two days ago, we would have been so much better off.

People can stick pictures of themselves on the letters in the Yahoo! Fancouver headquarters.

We hopped on the SkyTrain and walked along the waterfront on our way to Canada Hockey Place for the Finland versus Germany hockey game.  The view of the pavilions from water’s edge was stunning, but we didn’t have much time to enjoy it just yet.

Sochi House

After passing through security, we talked to a fellow Ducks fan from Tustin as well as an older couple who were fans of the Canucks.  I love the way they started a conversation with us: “Are you really Ducks fans?”

It was hard for them to believe considering the Ducks don’t have a significant fan base — or at least nothing that compares the fan bases of Canadian teams — but they were really impressed that we drove all the way from California to attend the games.  We’re obtaining more street cred by the day.

The hockey game itself was fantastic.  Finland dominated in a 5-0 win and our favorite player, Teemu Selanne, got an assist to become the all-time highest scoring hockey player in Olympic history.

Even though the fans in the stands were from all different countries, they were all united by one thing… no, not their love of hockey… the wave!  By far the biggest and fastest wave we’ve ever had the fortune of being involved in.

Walking back to our apartment from the game was a blast.  The vibe in the city is amazing.  It’s like New Year’s Eve every second of every day.  People cheer and blow horns and dance in the streets.  There’s loud music on every corner.  And everyone is so sociable.

Two Canucks fans with painful memories of when the Ducks beat their team in the second round of the ’07 playoffs en route to a Stanley Cup were quick to strike up a conversation about how good our team was.

At first they thought we were Canadians who randomly chose the Ducks as their team — apparently some Canadians chose their teams based on pulling straws instead of rooting for the hometown — but when they found out we drove up for the Winter Games to support Ducks players, they said, “That’s awesome!  It’s great to have American hockey fans.  There needs to be more people like you.”

When we ran into a San Jose Sharks fan, a major rival of the Ducks, he said, “It’s cool.  It’s cool.  But just for now.  We’re not cool in the playoffs.”

Another guy ran past us chanting “Hiller!” — the name of the Ducks goaltender.

A different guy mocked us by chanting “Sharks! Sharks! Sharks!”

And one guy who saw us sporting our Ducks jerseys asked, “Anaheim?  That’s American.  Are you from America?”  When we said yes, he said “fair enough” and walked away.

We stopped into a 7-11 to pick up some goodies for the room and the woman in front of us in line asked if we were from California.  Every time we say yes to this question, people are always surprised, impressed and honored.  Our street cred cache keeps growing.

The 7-11 was decorated with cool looking “Go Canada!” car flags, and when we asked the clerk how we could get one, he gave one to each of us for free.  Perhaps he was trying to convert us.  Or maybe it was just another example of Canadian kindness.

Who cares?  We’re having a blast!  And so is this city.