Olympics - The End

In an effort to fill the gaping hole that is my post-Olympics life, I have been spending time with the kids and sleeping. Ahhhhh.... sleeping!

The morning of the Closing Ceremonies, I was up at 6am so I could pick up the car and go get a dignitary and his wife, pick up their luggage and take them to see Paco in the last Cross Country race. Back at WVL, absolute chaos reigned. We were helping them finish packing, checking them into their flights, packing carry-on luggage into the cars, and going through the checklist to check them out of their accommodation. (Making sure they weren't taking a VANOC coat rack home with them or something)

Paco and everyone watching him got back to WVL and we all had about 15 minutes to eat and get the athletes onto the buses to go to Closing. I drove the dignitary and his wife down, which was quite a pleasant ride. Right around Squamish, we realized that the Canadians must have won gold in men's Hockey, as all the police lining the road began honking and waving, and literally dancing along the highway. The president said, "Police don't act like that in our country!" I said, "Normally not here, either - gold medal hockey makes everyone act differently!" I got them to the hotel in Vancouver around 4 pm, then drove on to get changed and pick up a key at Ben's place. On the way to Ben's, I got stopped by a peaceful protest. They were walking down Hastings towards downtown, blocking all the traffic so we were stopped dead. I felt a wee bit vulnerable all by my lonesome in my VANOC car, surrounded by protestors. I took this photo while they were still far enough away not to realize I was taking pictures. I put the camera down once they were surrounding the car. You never know what a mob can do... After I left Ben's, I prepared the car for the turn-in by washing it and cleaning it out. I got to the Vancouver Athlete's Village around 7 pm. Here's BC Place during Closing (as close as I got anyway!) I watched about 5 minutes of the Ceremonies from the Vancouver Athletes' Village and then before I knew it, the team was all coming back to the village. They all got changed and off we went to downtown for our 9:30 dinner reservation.

Walking through Vancouver was 100% crazy. Red and white everywhere, people dancing, singing, high-5ing, screaming, honking, waving... NUTS! It was packed, wall to wall people. We barely made it to the restaurant without losing our athletes in the crowd!
I've got lots of great photos from the night, but only one's ok for posting: Here are me and Mariana at the restaurant: After dinner ended just after midnight, off we went dancing. We finally got back to Ben's around 4am (I am TOO old for this...) but I wasn't able to sleep due to his very inquisitive cat. She would NOT leave me alone. You try sleeping with a cat who is combing your hair with her claws. Even hiding under the covers didn't work as she found her way inside somehow, ending up meowing on my chest.

As of about 6:30am, we were on call as the first batch of Andorrans headed to the airport. They didn't need help, thankfully, and we are assuming they got on their flights ok as we didn't hear from them. We got to the village for 9:30 and on the bus to Whistler at 10. Once we got to Whistler, we finished packing our stuff and reported for our last shift. It involved simply turning in our cell phones and accepting our last shift gift - a Swatch watch.

Then we raced to the 4pm shuttle and Mike picked me up at YVR just after 7pm. It was SO good to get home! Now I've slept a little more, and we're getting back into our regular routine. We will really enjoy having Spring Break in the next two weeks! WIth Jack's party on Saturday (Big man turns 6), we are kicking spring break off with a bang.

Summary of Olympics: FUN FUN FUN. Most definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I will never ever forget it.