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The second day of our Olympic adventure was actually crazier than the first. We headed downtown to check out all the hubbub on the waterfront.
Vancouver has an amazing light rail train system that funneled event goers and tourists down to the action. It was so easy to park and walk right on.
Our first stop was the Olympic Superstore. This was one huge store where they sold everything licensed for the Olympics. This place was huge and crowded and busy so it was all hands on deck to keep track of the kids. Allen and I really needed some walky talky’s to hit this store efficiently but we managed to spend plenty of money inefficiently.
A snafu with our Visa and a wait on the phone for an hour with Bank of America (they blocked our card because we were using it outside the country) left plenty of extra time for the girls to pick up a new hobby. Pin trading. This is my idea of hell. I’m so bad at negotiating that I’d pay sticker price for a car. Allen, on the other hand, loves the thrill of the hunt.
Here’s a shot of Allen and Ellie’s first deal. Ellie had a Canadian freestyle moguls pin that we had gotten on the mountain the day before. We didn’t know how valuable it would be at the time, but THIS pin trader was Canadian and really wanted that pin. Ellie was able to trade her one pin for 10 Calgary panda pins. A whole set! Once Jill and Kate saw this transaction they were bitten by the bug too.
After our pin trading we wandered down to the cauldron to check out the winter torch. This torch must have been quite squirrely. I can only assume that they were worried about some sort of jail break because the torch was kept behind a chain link fence. Look, I have a lovely shot of a lady taking it’s picture…
We finished our day by wandering down Robson street checking out Spandy Andy (a creepy looking guy break dancing in 80’s spandex), some jugglers and live music. The strangest part of the day? We ran into some good friends randomly on the street. What are the chances, in such a huge city, with so many tourists flooding the streets, that we would run into our friends? I’m not even taking bets on that one!
I am so glad that we had a chance to take our girls to this once in a lifetime event. One more item checked off the bucket list!