2010 Olympic-Saturday

Saturday, February 27th:

Happy Birthday Alice!

Today, we went to Whistler to watch the men's slalom. What an early day! Got up at 4am to shower and get ready to drive to Langara College to catch our shuttle bus to Whistler. We left the condo about 5am and got to the college just before 5:30am. Walked to the shuttle, grabbed our seats and we were off to Whistler by 5:40am. Turned my ipod on and slept the whole way!

We arrived at Whistler Creekside about 8am, went through security and rode the chairlift up to the venue. Alice and I grabbed a hot chocolate, while Chuck went to purchase a hat. It was about 32-33 degrees and snowing. The slalom wasn't set to start until 10am, so we waited! Creekside is on the edge of Whistler and there is not a lot near by.

The Slalom began, but the visibility was terrible. The skiers were having a hard time seeing the gates, so they were disqualifying before they got past the top portion. Two out of the four U.S. ski team members: Bode Miller and Ted Ligety disqualified. That was their last run for the 2010 Olympics. There were 103 skiers in the slalom, only four from the U.S. ski team.

After all the U.S. ski team members finished their first run, we decided to take the bus to Whistler Village and grab something lunch, warm up and dry off. We had first planned to eat at "The Keg", however they didn't open until 12:30pm and it was just before noon. We needed up at "Earls" again, so we knew the menu.

After lunch, we walked around the village. This was Chuck's first time up to Whistler, so we wanted him to see a little bit of it. Stopped at the Olympic store to do a little souvenir shopping, then back to Creekside to watch the final of the slalom.

Two Americans from the U.S. ski team finished the first run, so they skied in the second run, Nolan Casper and Jimmy Cockran. Neither qualified for metals, Giuliano Razzoli of Italy took the gold.

After the Italian took the gold, we watched some of the skiers come down, but decided to head back down the chair lift. (This was the first time that I had ever went down a chair lift...fun, yet a little scary!) We got in the shuttle bus line, returned to Langara College and got the car. Went back to the condo and got cleaned up.

Went to the "Dragon Lounge" at the Sheraton hotel to visit the hospitality center for cosport. This was a hospitality day pass that was included with our tickets. Very nice area in the hotel, with tables for dining and a lounge area. Lots of great food: prawns, crab legs, crab cakes, lobster bisque (not as good as the crab cracker in Kirkland) salmon, beef loin, sauteed vegetables, salad and lots of desserts. Oh, the most important part...open bar!

Today, was Alice's birthday and we had a jammed pack schedule. We wanted to celebrate while we were at the hospitality center, so Chuck asked one of the waitresses to put a candle in one of the martini desserts. There was no singing, but she deserved to have her cake (chocolate mouse)!

We were pretty exhausted from your busy day, so we went back to the condo and went to bed. Stayed up until 2am...22 hours!