Feb 16-18
2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC
For this Cheap Camper excursion we employed the use of Craig's List rideshare. The result worked out fantastically! We met Lucy, an outgoing British woman who pitched in for gas and was surprisingly chill with us departing Portland at midnight (less traffic). We rolled into Vancouver at about 6am and dropped her off, making plans to meet again two days later for the ride home. Then, in true cheap camper style, we napped in a park in our car for about 6 hours.... It SEEMS like a good idea to leave for a road trip at midnight until you remember the fact that driving does not in fact equal sleeping.
After our nap, we ventured through downtown Vancouver to explore the festivities. And boy, were there festivities! There were street performers, vendors, food carts, streets closed off, and all-around celebration.
Above is a picture of "Basketball Jones," a quirky Australian juggling unicycle who put on a great show for the crowd. This was my third time hanging out in Vancouver and I've never seen so many people! The streets were as packed as New York City. There were signs, volunteers, flags, TVs, and general displays of Olympic pride everywhere! Vancouver spared no expense in making visitors feel welcome. Public transit was free on the day of our event and there were literally information volunteers everywhere to guide you. It was fun to see Canadians cheering on their own country as well.
Despite the fact that we had a rideshare person to pay for our gas and that we were staying with a family friend to save on lodging costs, we still spend a hefty chunk of change. Every food and drink jacked up their prices by at least 40%. The going price for a burger and beer was about $15! But---- on the the exciting part:
Olympic Curling!!!!!
Watching the game was fun! We watched the men's qualifying round which pitted 4 teams against 4 other teams, all playing at once. The US vs Switzerland game was intense and ended up going into Overtime! Who knew curling was so edge-of-your-seat?
Above is the American team, struggling down the ice. We ended up losing but only by a hair. The whole round took a solid 3 hours and we were seated up in the nose bleed section. Yes it's curling, yes we had terrible seats, but well, sheesh, we got to see an Olympic sporting event. How many people can say that?
The next day we decided to drive along the BC coast. It was a lot like the Oregon and Washington coast except that the mountain are really right there at the ocean. Look to one side and you can see tall, snow capped peaks, turned the other way and you can dip your toes in salty, ocean water.
These are the mountains overlooking an ocean straight. This spot is along what they call the "Sea to Sky" highway, which is a scenic stretch of road that goes from Vancouver up to Whistler. Several spots along here strongly reminded me of the San Juan Islands in Washington.
Great trip!
