WARNELL (dot) canada

With the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games now officially concluded I finally have some time to unglue myself from the TV and to provide a few reflections on the time we spent at the Games.

First of all, our plethora of photos doesn’t effectively tell the whole story as they don’t capture the sheer electricity, excitement and joy that the entire city of Vancouver was experiencing throughout the Games.  It was unlike anything I have ever experienced and I would imagine that I likely will never experience that same joy on such a massive city-wide scale again in my lifetime.

Second reflection is that, as silly as this sounds, our trip would have been entirely different had we NOT brought those beer case hats with us.  Wherever we went, we were “minor” celebrities as everyone wanted to talk about our hats, take photos of us in our hats, ask if they could wear our hats…  it was hilarious.  A few days in people were reporting that they saw other people at events wearing these hats, but alas it was always us.

Third reflection is simply a heartfelt THANK YOU to the thousands upon thousands of Vancouver 2010 “Bluecoat” volunteers.  They were tremendous–always there when you needed them, unwaveringly happy, and the Games simply would not have been the same without you!

Here’s a quick recap of our 7-day trip so that you have some context to the photos in each album.  Enjoy!

Day 1 – Feb 16th – Travel to Vancouver & our first event – Men’s Curling with CANADA playing Germany (on the path to GOLD!)

Day 2 - Feb 17th – Finland vs Belarus Men’s Hockey; Granville Island Fun; Czech Rep vs Slovakia Men’s Hockey; Kitchen Party at Robson Square

Day 3 – Feb 18th – Our first Team Canada game vs Switzerland (Shootout Win!); Lanny MacDonald; Russia vs Slovakia (Shootout as well)

Day 4 – Feb 19th – Curling!  with Canada vs Norway; Finland vs Germany Men’s Hockey; finding the Olympic Cauldron

Day 5 - Feb 20th – Kitsilano Beach Day (yup, I said Beach); Short Track Speed Skating; Drink Up with Steve & Jen

Day 6 – Feb 21st – Patio Day; CANADA vs USA preliminary round (we sat in Row 4!); Victory Ceremony with Trooper & Loverboy

Day 7 – Feb 22nd – Our last event day for Men’s Aerials @ Cypress Mountain

Our days so far in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games have been unbelievable!!!!  I haven’t had much time to actually write full posts on the blog as I’ve been working on getting the photos online as fast as possible and throwing in the occasional Tweet.  I’ve managed to post Day 1 & 2 and I’m working on the Day 3 photos as I type this… I’ll add to the collection on Flickr each day so check back to see our latest and greatest photos: