My view of the win from Robson Square…a perfect close to an amazing Winter Olympic Games for me.
Archive for February, 2010
Another random interview/photo opportunity popped up yesterday when Rebecca & I met up with George Stroumboulopoulos, from CBC’s The Hour, outside Robson Square and we shot a quick interview with him:
I love how he dealt with fans while we were shooting the interview…very cool guy.
Canada’s favorite Skeleton man, Jon Montgomery discusses how he originally discovered Skeleton and what steps he went through to get involved in the sport:
While not directly Olympics related, it happened during the games so I’m going to include it here as it’s all part of my experiences in February. This event was a nice diversion after a week of Olympics related activity.
My good friends at Molson invited a bunch of local folks over to their brewery to check out their latest beer offering, Rickard’s Dark. Unlike other beer events I’ve been to, this one featured a food pairing that we got to experience blindfolded! To make it even more interesting, the food was prepared by the Irish Heather’s own Chef Lee Humphries.
I haven’t figured out how to let you taste their new beer yet via this website so for now, here is some food porn:
English sticky toffee with BACON ice cream!!!
I can only hope that the Irish Heather starts to offer some of these amazing dishes.
Dave Olson even had a chance to record an Olympic Outsider podcast with Gord Rickard himself:
As I mentioned, the food tasting was done via blindfold and was held around lunch time….it wasn’t until the dinner hour that I realized I had managed to drip some food (not even sure what it was, possibly the sticky toffee) onto my True North Media House badge and had been walking around with it stuck on there for most of the afternoon.
I don’t think anybody noticed…
Here’s some more amazing people that I’ve come across during my Olympic adventures:
Jon Montgomery
After winning the gold medal in skeleton, he walked through Whistler Village to do an interview and someone handed him a pitcher of beer which he drank from…to me this is one of the defining moments of the games that really make them Canadian for me…after hearing Jon be himself in interviews and in person, watching him enjoy his time in the spotlight in his own uniquely Canadian way is just awesome.
Shane Koyczan
The slam poet that for me, stole the show at the Opening Ceremonies in BC Place. I had a chance to shake his hand and say thanks for writing and performing such an inspiring piece.
Jane Roos
Jane is the founder of CAN Fund which helps Canadian athletes to continue to be athletes by bridging funding gaps and raising money on their behalf. I met Jane at the CANFund Athletes House which is an amazing space (donated by Shaw Communications, overlooking the Olympic Cauldron) that gives athletes and their families a more private place to relax during the games. Jane is another person that works tirelessly in the background to make the games happen for all of us.
The Fans
No matter how tired I am or the time of day during the Olympic Games, I never get tired of the fans I’ve encountered around town. Nothing has made me happier during these past few weeks than the positive vibe the city has…I hope we find a way to keep it going because the city has never felt so alive to me.
This is just too awesome to not post:
This girl was in the media centre with her family watching the women’s gold medal final hockey game…she made my day!
kk and I had a chance to talk with Johnny Weir (USA: Figure Skating) about his experiences in Vancouver during these Olympic Games:
As I’ve mentioned before, the BC Media Centre hosts a lot of press conferences. One highlight of many of them is long time Vancouver favorite, Nardwuar the Human Serviette asking questions of various people on stage.
First he asked Governor Arnold Swartzenegger about his previous vinyl efforts:
then today, he asked Canadian Ice Dance Gold Medalists Scott Moir & Tessa Virture about Scott’s previous aspirations of becoming a SWAT team leader:
(make sure you watch til the end to hear Tessa finish Nardwuar’s famous jingle)
He even stopped in when the Stanley Cup was here to find his great uncle’s name who won the cup with Chicago in 1961:
Thanks for being awesome, Nardwuar!
UPDATE: Narduar has posted a bunch of other videos from his Olympics experiences and they are pretty cool.
I never expected to be doing many of the things I’ve had the chance do during these Olympic Games. The pavilions during the Games have been a great way to learn more about my country and a boon to the various tourism organizations in Canada.
As I mentioned in my previous post, Alberta rented out a train to give people an Albertan experience but the Travel Yukon folks took it one step further by offering folks a one day Yukon experience by actually chartering an Air North 737 and flying a bunch of us up to Whitehorse for a day:
Once there, we were met with dancing Klondike girls and an amazing feast of Yukon food (sorry no food pictures – too busy eating before we had to head out):
Since it was a very short trip, we were then whisked off to our chosen tours right away. I picked dog mushing at Muktuk Adventures as I’ve never done it before and it seemed to be the perfect Yukon activity to do.
I took turns with my partner riding in or driving the dog sled.
While I really wanted to just sit in the sled and take photos while someone else drove, it really was amazing to be in the driver’s seat. Not that I had to do much, the dogs know what to do and all I really needed to do was hold on and step on the brake to slow them down occasionally…all they seemed to want to do is run.
I nicknamed her “Crazy Tongue” for obvious reasons (but I found out her real name is ‘Sweetie’):
She also kept looking back at us as if to say “hey, lay off the brakes dude, we just want to run!”. Watch for her in this video:
When the dogs overheat, the stop and roll around in the snow and eat it to cool off
As you can see, we had perfect weather for our adventure
Muktuk Adventures is run by Jack Turner who as run the Yukon Quest many times and raises/trains dogs for the race. He talked to us about how the dogs work as a team and how important trust is in that relationship. It was clear to see he really loves his dogs and treats them as if they were his children.
Once back from dog mushing, we then headed to the McBride Museum for a reception and had the opportunity to sample some great local Yukon beers:
try out panning for gold (it’s harder than it looks):
I even managed to find some (about a dollar’s worth):
and to experience the Sour Toe Cocktail:
That really is an actual human toe that you put into a shot of whiskey…it must touch your lips for you to officially ‘do the sour toe’…but here’s Captain Dick to explain what this is all about:
Yes, I did it…and have a certificate to prove it:
After the Sour Toe, we were once again whisked off to a dinner banquet for the Yukon Quest participants.
This is a gruelling contest where entrants spend over 9 days out on the trail with their dogs covering 1000 miles from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon. I was honored to be in the same room with these folks who truly push the envelope of human (and canine) endurance. I quickly noticed how big of a deal this was as there were many people at the banquet that were collecting autographs of all the mushers…it was just like they were rock stars.
Unfortunately, we had to head out early from the banquet to make our plane back to Vancouver. Before we got onboard though, there was one more surprise for us at the airport:
Something tells me this doesn’t happen for everyone that visits Whitehorse but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
I don’t think I can express my thanks to Travel Yukon for the once in a lifetime chance to experience a day in the Yukon. It was truly an amazing day that I won’t forget.
Last week, I had the chance to ride the Alberta Train to Whistler. Yes you read that right…although I didn’t go to Alberta, for a good part of the day, I was treated like I was in Alberta.
Normally, the train is the Rocky Mountaineer but Travel Alberta had rented it out for the duration of the games give guests an Alberta experience while travelling to Whistler to take in the Winter Olympics.
Once in Whistler, I had the chance to take in Women’s Alpine Skiing (Super Combined) at the Whistler Creekside Olympic Venue:
Lindsey Vonn (USA) during a qualifying run:
Athletes training on the course before the actual race:
A huge thank you to all the folks at Travel Alberta for inviting me to experience Whistler by way of Alberta…it was truly an amazing experience.
