Twilight, Travel, and Treats

These mittens were very hard to find for Christmas 2009

Today I donned my red and white outfit (Go Canada!) and we headed out to watch day 104 of the Olympic Torch relay. It was sunny yesterday but today it was pouring rain. Should have guessed as after all, it is Vancouver.

We all hoped that rain down here means possible snow up on Cypress Mountain since they've had to bring in snow as the weather has just been too nice.

No snow on Cypress Mountain (we call it Cypress Bowl)

We were going to watch the torch relay twice today. Once with all the kids from school at a nearby street corner and once in front of our house. We watched the pre torch parade with the gratuitous corporate sponsorship. I personally love seeing the Coca-Cola trucks since my aunt has been collecting Coca-Cola souvenirs for years.



They were just handing out these bottles and I was lucky enough to get a red one and my wonderful friend KR gave me her black one too. She knows I'm a collector as I've let her into the twilight vault and she was rendered a bit speechless.





A guy came by carrying one of the torches that had been previously used during these Olympics (of course they've cut the fuel line so it could never be re-lit). This was pretty cool and I was very excited I got a photo of both my kids holding the Olympic torch.

Passing around an Olympic torch amongst the kids

One of the moms asked the man what he had done to get this honour of carrying the torch. Did he run with it? He answered "Actually, I'm the mayor and this torch now belongs to our District." I don't know who was more embarrassed, the mom or the mayor. There was a kind of hush because nobody had known who he was. Had we actually voted for him?

After about 40 minutes in the rain and multiple police cruisers teasing us that the torch was coming, the torch bearer finally arrived. Lots of cheering and the kids were super excited.





I saw the torch for all of 10 seconds but it was worth it. Made up for my kids playing swordfight with their Canada flags for half an hour in the pouring rain. Sorry about the lack of decent photos. We had all the kids up front so us short adults in the back didn't get as many good photos.

Soaking wet we scrambled back in the car to head back home in time to watch the torch come down our own street.

Mr. TC is such a boy scout. He was so prepared that he actually set up a big tent for us to stand under in the driveway. I guess he's heard me gripe about the rain for long enough to know that the tent would keep me quiet and happy. Remember, I'm an indoor girl. Smart man.

The torch came down our street and this time we had a much better view, even if it was dark and approaching evening.

Taken while I'm standing in my driveway

The flame actually went out about 20 feet past our house and they had to light it again from the constant flame that was going in the trailer with the motorcade.

Re-lighting the flame

Off went the flame and it's entourage onto another part of Vancouver. I saw on the news tonight that a torch bearer proposed this evening and his girlfriend said yes. Apparently this is a growing trend. I can't really fault them. It's not a cheesy jumbo-tron proposal so I'll be happy for them.

On a twilight note, I originally wanted to run a series of mini-E at the Olympics. Mr. TC has been quite tolerant of my twihardedness (remember he actually drove me to Forks) but this is where he drew the line. Apparently me taking photos of mini-E in front of thousands of other people at the biggest event our city has ever seen was not his idea of a good time. So, this is the only mini-E Olympic photo for today.



I may still photoshop him in and figure out other creative ways to get around the mini-E Olympics embargo. We'll have to see how stealth I can get.