February 17th, 2010
My wife and I took our daughter downtown yesterday after work (ours, not our daughter's :) ) to check out the downtown core ... basically, see what the centre of an Olympic town looks like from the inside.
Well, we had so much fun I could hardly believe it was my home town!
Getting off the Skytrain at the Granville station, we walked out into the street to music and people singing and dancing, waving flags and banners, and all happy and cheering. As we slowly rolled our daughter's stroller up Granville Street we passed some artwork in the middle of the street—faux totem poles glowing in bright colours, outlines of athletes that people could stand in and semi-pose in athletic positions, murals on many walls (some projected, some painted), and flags of every country with a heavy emphasis on Canadian flags (of course).
Because many of the streets were closed to traffic, people could walk all over the streets, and not just crowded together on the sidewalks. When we got to Robson Street we bought shawarma wraps for me and my wife, and our daughter had to contend with her own food. We stood and watched groups of revellers marching by celebrating the Canadian hockey team's 8-0 opening-game victory. People spontaneously burst into "Oh Canada" twice as we stood against a wall and ate.
Then we proceeded along Robson to the outdoor TV News set. No news people, alas, but we got to see their set and get a feel for their view of the cameras and teleprompters as they did their job. We continued past that and walked right down to the West End where we had a cupcake (first time our daughter's tried anything like it—unsurprisingly she enjoyed it) and we checked out the many store-fronts and merchandise. Robson Street was brightly lit with festive lights around all the trees, and a lot of it was closed to traffic, so we could walk on the street.
The people were everywhere, but despite the large crowds the mood was festive and celebratory. On the way back we caught the news doing a live broadcast nationally, and saw a loud cheering throng standing behind the reporter as she had a conversation with the national anchor. We walked back to Granville Street, and my wife talked with one of the Russian men's hockey coaches (in Russian) and then we ran out of steam and walked back to the Skytrain.
It was, as we agreed, like coming to another city, then returning home to our own beds! Our daughter is still too young to really appreciate it, and she'll never remember anything, but it was still great for her to get to see and experience some of the excitement. We are really happy we got the chance.
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