The Olympics

We went to Vancouver, and to Whistler, and it was awesome. That one word cannot express the incredible experience that I had over the course of a few short days.

Part of the fan club: Tanner, me, Rachel & Colby with Kikkan.
I started out my trip by heading down to Seattle for a long weekend before my quick jaunt up to the Olympics. It was a wonderful and relaxing to see my brother, Maggie, Bryce and even Eric. Everybody came over on Saturday night for a delicious homemade macaroni and cheese dinner (made by Andrew) and to watch the first night of the Olympics. Sunday was spent working on Andrew and Maggie's new house, which is lovely by the way. Bryce happily contributed to the effort and showed us the ropes at the local Home Depot, one of his favorite spots in town I think.

We spent a large part of the long President's Day weekend moving things to the house and cleaning up the copious quantities of junk left behind by the previous owners, and finding a few gems along the way (and some grow lights). We also had the opportunity to watch quite a bit of the Olympic coverage. I cannot say I was particularly impressed by NBC, but it seems to be about what I have come to expect. I was just sad they have massively limited the availability of live coverage on their website.

On Tuesday afternoon I drove up to Vancouver with Rachel Samuelson and her parents. The trip proved uneventful and before we knew it we were in downtown Vancouver in a sea of red hockey jerseys and people walking all about the city center (centre?). We picked up our tickets and made our way to the Hudson's Bay Trading Company. Here we found the most crowded store I think I have ever been in. There was literally a line to get in to the shop. This was grand central station for tourists wanting to purchase Olympic merchandise. After our shopping extravaganza we headed to the plaza where we could get a glimpse of the Olympic Torch. We were really at the Olympics!


We drove east of the city to a suburb where our hotel was located. On the way, we stopped to eat dinner at a Greek restaurant, which turned out to be a delicious. After dinner we checked in to the hotel and turned in for the night. Falling asleep proved difficult, as the big day was finally upon us!

We awoke early and drove to the bussing center where we hopped on the bus at 6:20, with our coffee and muffins in hand, and headed towards Whistler. As the sun came up we could see that it was going to be a bluebird day, and the drive up to Whistler did not disappoint. I need to go back to the area to climb and ski!

We arrived at the venue and donned our black skirts with pink K's, our Alaska flags, American flags, rubber boots and pink Kikkanimal hats. We were ready! The march up to the venue was around a half mile. I suppose this separates the nordic fans from the curling fans-- but for us it was a walk full of anticipation and Rachel playing the Olympic fanfare on her iphone. Yes, we were ready to be ridiculous all day long. When we finally arrived at the stadium, the venue was alive with spectators and all the world's best skiers zipping around preparing for the prologue. I cannot describe how exciting it was to see all of the skiers that I only get to follow through articles or online videos right before my very eyes-- the fastest skiers in the world!

When the prologue finally got underway, I was incredibly nervous about Kikkan's race, the line between success and failure in the seeding race is so fine, a slight mistake can end your day after only three minutes of racing. It was an odd prologue with the sprint World Cup leader, Petra Majdic, falling into a ravine on the edge of the course and racing as the last bib, qualifying 19th. Kikkan skied a perfect prologue, qualifying for the heats as the 10th fastest finisher.

Kikkan in qualifying.

Alaskan fans are the best!
The heats began with Kikkan's quarterfinal first-- featuring, my Norwegian hero, Marit Bjørgen, among other speedsters. Kikkan finished third, putting her qualification in jeopardy. Rachel and I sat nervously through the next four quarterfinals, watching the times and feeling nervously nauseated as each heat finished and Kikkan was still in position to qualify. Finally, or agony was ended, and Kikki slipped in to the semifinals! Guaranteed to be her best classic finish ever.

Kikkan's semifinal was packed with talent, and she was unable to find her way in to the finals, but she ended the day 8th overall, an amazing result. The women's final had Bjørgen powering to victory, looking stronger than the field in all of her heats. Kowalcyzk was second, and the crazy Majdic third-- who was later to reveal that she had three or four broken ribs and a collapsed lung. I still cannot believe her doctors allowed her to race! The men's race was dominated by the Russians, two young men (that I had never even heard of!) won gold and silver. The illustrious, and notorious, Petter Northug claimed the bronze.

The bus ride back was also pretty, however, I think we all dozed off a bit, it had been a long day after all. We returned to Seattle that evening, where Maggie had a delightful dinner waiting for me. One last night in Seattle and then off to the airport first thing-- I had to be to class by 11:30am, quite the morning commute. It was a beautiful flight-- until we hit southcentral, as Anchorage greeted us with rain and nasty weather conditions. What an adventure, the Olympics for only one day? It was totally worth it. See you in Sochi!

Still goofy after all these years!