Olympics: Day 4

The first stop of today, after sleeping in of course, was the cauldron. So here is Vancouver's Olympic cauldron.

I thought it was pretty cool, but this was as close as we were allowed to get to it. Due to some threads or something from some protesters, the Olympic committee erected a beautiful chain link fence around it, so most peoples pictures look like this: Notice the nice cut out in the fence for camera to fit though to take pictures?! There was also the option of standing in line for a couple of house to go up on a platform that was above the fence and next to the cauldron to get unobstructed views and photos, but thanks to a little scouting by me, we found this little stop that created fun pictures like this:

No, not right in front of the cauldron and yes, if you look you can still see the fence. But I think it looks pretty good and it definitely beat standing in line for hours to be able to have 20 minutes to take a picture from up above.

Cute picture of the two of us in front of the cauldron...check! Then Brian had some fun with the camera and this is my favorite shot he took:

Can you believe it was taken at the exact same time of day as the others...about noon or so?! Due to our busy night schedule, we didn't think we would have time to see the cauldron at night, but Brian, being the wonderful husband that he is, still managed to get me the amazing shot of the flame at night. There happened to be an air show over the harbor behind the cauldron at 1pm, so we hung out and let them men (Brian and his dad) enjoy their planes.

Notice the Olympic rings in the background.

This is the only picture we got of them due to the fact that we didn't come to visit at night when they are actually lit up and there is no way to fake them lit up during the day, but at least I can say that I saw them (and did get a post card of them lit up at night. Apparently there are absolutely no postcards of the cauldron...I guess they figured who wanted the chain link fence on a post card, but I did manage to find ONE of the rings, so I was a happy camper).

It started raining after the show, so we got the outdoor sight seeing in just in time and thought we would head in doors.

The Olympic Superstore was next agenda, but on our walk there we passed a fun old church that was open for tours and went in to take a quick look. It had been beautifully renovated and I would have loved to show you some of the absolutely beautiful woodwork that is throughout it, but highly not appropriate to take pictures in a church, even as a tourist, so I refrained...you'll just have to take my word for it. We finally made it to the Olympic superstore for a little shopping to find the line to get in the store was over a block long, but thankfully moved quite quickly and 20 minutes later we were inside looking for fun things to take home to those we love. Cute hats and mittens for the boys....check.

Hat for Papa and shirt for Nana...check.

Lanyard and posters for Brian...check.

Shirt for me...check.

Maybe a few other things as well, but you're only at the Olympics once, right!

For an early dinner, we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory which is one of our favorites and one that Brian's parents had never been to before, so it was fun to share that with them.

After dinner the boys headed off for a Men's Hockey game between Czech Republic and Latvia which ended up being quiet a good game that went into overtime, but Checks would come out one top.

While the boys enjoyed their game, my mother-in-law and I enjoyed some more shopping of course.

We found some more fun tourist shops to visit along the water front and happen to pass by Vancouver's famous steam clock just as it went off.

My camera was apparently still set a little dark from Brian playing earlier, but I thought that was a cool shot still. Then I adjusted the contrast back to normal, so we also have a real shot of the clock as well.

It was fun to see it in person as well.

After a little more shopping, us girls called in a day and decided to go home and made brownies for treats with the boys when they got back. Though they weren't traditional brownies as we used applesauce instead of oil (too expensive to buy oil for one thing) and for eggs as well since we didn't realized until we were already back at the condo that we were out of eggs...not wanting to return to the store we hit the internet to see what can replace eggs and that is right...applesauce can. So brownie mix, water and applesauce mixed to together and baked...and yes they turned out good. We didn't even tell the boys until after they had eaten and like them!

Topped off the day watching the classic Miss Congeniality (one Brian's parents had shockingly not seen, so fun to share those laughs) and called it a night.