Snow, Ice, and Furry Creatures

Finally, Olympic pics...

Through an interesting routing, we managed to avoid the snow related delays in Texas to make a flight to Seattle and then a quick drive across the 49th parallel. I'm pretty sure the weather was more pleasant in Vancouver than in Texas that weekend, hence the reason they were having trouble with the ski events - too warm.

Check out the West Texas snow covered ground.

Entering maple leaf country.

Before hitting the main event - Pairs Figure Skating - we had an evening and a day to see some of Vancouver and the general Olympic highlights.

Couldn't miss the Olympic spirit - Downtown Vancouver was covered with everything "2010." And some fun photo-ops!

Can't go to the Olympics and not see the flame. Unfortunately, we couldn't get quite a close to it as we would have liked. But a bit of maneuvering and got a picture with which I can say "I was there." Mom opted for a slightly less real, but more impressive picture.

Of course, the Olympics celebrates countries and their unique cultures along with sports. Amongst the various country houses, they had some live entertainment and lots of artwork.

The city itself afforded some great views, like this one around the lake area.

It shouldn't be a surprise, but my favorite building in the city was the Vancouver Public Library. Now, that can be said for many towns and cities, but I'm pretty sure others would agree with me on this one. I'd call this a truly unique piece of architecture if it didn't so closely resemble another, slightly more famous landmark. Replica or not, this building and the shops housed in its outer walls comprises of a full city block and makes quite an impressive site. If I lived here, pretty sure this is where you'd find me.



Sightseeing and a bit of shopping complete, and we headed to the main event.

In case you missed it, the 2010 Olympics featured three furry mascots. Two of them were posing for photo-ops outside our venue. Fun pic!

I didn't get too many picture of the actual skating, but here are a couple of the pairs in their performances. I can say that no matter how high the seats (and ours were up there) it is a much different and more impressive sight in person than watching skating on TV. And it wasn't too hard to figure out the best skaters - they really wowed the audience.

And lastly, the most humorous sight of the trip. At least, if you are an accountant/auditor person. The sign didn't lie, Canadian red was out in force.

Now, London 2012 anyone?

New snow pictures

Comments were made regarding the lack of pictures of the actual snowball fight in the latest post. I've posted them here, provided by a co-worker, as I was too busy attempting to hit others to stop and take pictures. (I say attempt because few hit the mark).

And no, the Dallas snowstorm did not keep us from making our flights up north to the Olympics. A post and pictures are pending...

12:30pm Snowball Fight

N/A isn't always applicable

In case you were wondering, there is currently no weather in Vancouver, British Columbia. That is, according to weather.com there isn't.


Now, as an auditor, I frequently use "N/A" in my testing; there are thousands of ways something can be not applicable. But weather doesn't seem a likely candidate. Then again, maybe this is why they are having trouble with the snow for the 2010 Olympics. It isn't a lack of snow, it is a lack of weather!

Side note: I was checking Vancouver's weather because I'm going to the Olympics this weekend! Wahoo! Even saying that, it doesn't seem quite real. I've wanted to go to an Olympics ever since Mary Lou Retton won the gold in 1984 - yes, I was young, but I remember it. And had her Wheaties poster on my walls :)

Stay tuned for fun Olympics pictures and stories...