Cities, Crowds, and Ceremonies.. oh my....

We went to the dress rehearsal tonight. One word-- Fantastic. We were asked to keep things a little under wraps, so I'll honor that and not blab. Gotta say, though, it honored Canada-- our heritage, our history, our land, our people. You will be blown away! I'll discuss this after the big unveil on Friday.

However, I did not appreciate being herded like a lost cow through the infinite kilometers of blue fencing. With all the volunteers wearing their blue jackets and identical toques, it was very difficult to negotiate the crowds. Thankfully my dad came along. I call him a professional "crowd weaver". He can get through the tightest of jams. Plus, he was wearing a black jacket. Under normal circumstances this is hard to spot. But, in a sea of peacock blue-- easy. We were forced to make our way through Yaletown on our way to get to the sky train. I'm sure hoping Vanoc has thought this through, because after sitting on your butt for 3 hours, it's tough to find your way in the dark and in the rain.

On another note, the city is buzzing! People are everywhere, taking video and pictures (I make it my mission to get in as many backgrounds and videos as possible-- I can't wait for my sister to get here so we can do this together. We're pros). I saw some athletes looking "important", a couple of torchbearers, some poor guy trying to explain how to get to some place with very broken English, and of course, the busker at the skytrain station wearing his regalia and carrying a drum. Ahh. Vancouver. You are quite something. I loved the lantern fesitval on Granville and the light display at English Bay (which reflects nicely on the cloud cover). Again, the theme is free. I hope things are waterproof, too, because the weather forecast looks grim.

One tip-- find a police officer from Vancouver if you need to ask for directions. Since this is "Canada's olympics" the powers that be thought it would be good to show their support for all the police across our land. But, when you are from Nowhere, Saskatchewan, you do not know how to get to the skytrain.

More on Friday. We hope to take the kids to the city on Saturday-- I'll bring my camera!