Twilight, Travel, and Treats

More Olympic Mascot Toys

Mr. TC made my day yesterday. Not only did he take the kids out while I stayed home but he came home bearing gifts.

He got me the only McDonald's Olympics Toys that I had been missing.

Goalie Quatchi moves limbs up/down when rolled

Luge Quatchi

When rolled Luge Quatchi gets Asian eyes (yes, I can say it because I'm Chinese)

I had to line up the whole collection and take a pic - I was overflowing with giddiness.

This is the suggested lineup from the McDonald's toy "instructions." I'm a sucker for manuals of any kind.

I couldn't help but take a pic with mini-Edward

Quatchi teaching Edward the 2 Man Luge

Seriously 2 Man Luge is a real event. It's not some twisted gay porn activity.

See?

Olympics Mascots On Ice

Remember how in my Olympic hockey post my eldest got to meet Quatchi and Miga and I was sad that our youngest one missed it? Well, we pulled the youngest from school on a sunny Thursday to rectify that situation.

I had just bought the boys some Olympics Mascots hats since they were 50% off at the shop next to my office - score!

This is a photo of my youngest sporting sunglasses and loving his Miga hat. Funny how you can't tell if he's napping or not under all that.

My gangsta Miga boy

He really had fallen asleep. Even the 4 year old gangsta has an entourage to carry him around.

Mr. TC gets a workout being the entourage

As promised we trudged through the throng of people and made it to Robson Square - better known as GE Plaza during the Olympics. They've got a free outdoor skating rink with $3 skate rentals. A good deal and I'm happy they brought this rink back after many years without it.

Vancouver Art Gallery all dolled up - looks like Vivienne Tam did it don't you think?

You know Mother Nature has a strange sense of humour when there are cherry blossoms out during the 'Winter' Olympics. She usually saves them for the Cherry Blossom Festival in the spring.

By the way, there is a Zip Trek line going above Robson Square. It's about 6 stories over this major social hub in Vancouver and people travel over 550 feet across. And you get to zoom in the sky across all these people while strapped into a harness for free. Which of course means massive lines (like 4 hours and over).

Hope the logos don't wear off the glass too quickly

Anyways, back to the Mascot skate. Canadian kids spend a lot of time at the ice rink. Thank goodness they love Zambonis and any other form of ice cleaning machine. It keeps them busy while waiting.

After they cleared the ice they put up an inflatable staging area at the other end of the rink. Thank goodness we guess properly where to stand because you couldn't see anything from the other side.

See those people behind the barricade? Sucks to be them

Finally the mascots came out and there were major cheers. Most of us had been standing for about 40 minutes, not too bad but a long wait for the kids.

They each did a lap walking around and hugging almost every kid who was by the rail. It was awesome! My son was in heaven and had his arms out the whole time just waiting for his hug.

First came Quatchi

He is gigantic

Acting oh so shy - they've got the meek Asian bit down pat

Then Sumi

Sumi totally hams it up for the camera

Doesn't it look like he's giving you the finger?

And lastly, my sons favourite, Miga!

Too busy trying to keep my son from climbing over the rail to take a good photo

They eventually came up with a dance that seemed to fit Vancouver. Lots of blues, greens, and sealife. The costumes were quirky but the kids loved them.

These glowing guys remind me of earplugs

Jellyfish

Hockey Quatchi came out to play too

My son left with an awesome smile on his face but the one question all the kids had was "Where is Mukmuk?" I told my son "Mukmuk is having a nap because he's so little." He seemed to buy it.

Here are some around Robson Square pics that I thought to throw in as well

Can you tell I love these hats?

The entrance to Pacific Centre Shopping Mall gets turned into an igloo

With matching polar bears outside

Throng of people at GE Plaza just hanging out

And my favourite sign for the day should have been this - the biggest Canadian Flag in the world

World's Biggest Canadian Flag corner of Georgia and Howe Street

Or even this one



But instead it was this one - it made me go back through the crowd with my cell phone.



Okay, going to Women's Hockey Semi-final tomorrow night with Mr. TC and both kids. Wish us luck.

Before we get to Olympics, just a quick note that I have added some more photos to my Flickr photos on the sidebar. There should be the monkeys from last week but quite a few of my old sugar creations you haven't seen before.

Onto the corporate sponsorship world. Without it, Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics would not exist. Just a reality of putting on an Olympic games in a harsh economic climate.

Continuing on with my Explore Vancouver series let's move on to the Coca-Cola Happiness Pavilion set up in Yaletown at David Lam Park. It's a temporary structure about 8000 square feet and filled with memorabilia and lots of interactive displays.

Here is the iCoke.ca website which has more video and info about the Pavilion.

Coke actually have Youtube videos out showcasing the inside of this place.

Click on the following to see the videos: video 1/video 2/video 3/video 4




This was one of our last stops before heading to the Opening Ceremonies. It is one of the busiest attractions at this free LiveCity area in Yaletown filled with pavilions to explore. You need to get a ticket to come back at a certain time because it gets so busy. Mr. TC managed to get us in a bit earlier by pulling the "we'll be late for Opening Ceremonies" card.

Looks kind of like a big airplane hanger

We're lucky to have gone that day. The lineup once we were allowed in was only about 20 minutes. Last I heard today the wait was about 3 hours. Yikes! I guess that's what happens when things are free and there are over 50,000 people in one area.



I honestly had forgotten there was even an Olympic connection with Coca-Cola. I'm sure it's been there every few years in the TV ads but obviously I wasn't paying attention. Here are a few of the infobites they offered to us while waiting in line.


While in line we got to check out their display of Coke bottles through the years. They had some originals that dated back almost a hundred years. I was just too short to get a good shot of those but I did catch the ones from previous Olympics. It's too bad they didn't label them for us. If I had the time I'm sure I could have inspected each one. The only ones I can make out are the very last row was from Beijing.





Take a look at this photo below.

The round disc under the C in Cola is actually a window. Every 10 minutes a guy wearing an old fashioned soda shop hat would pop out of there and scare the crap out of everyone in line. I kept waiting for him to show up for us so we could receive more free Coke bottles but he never showed.

There was also a display of Olympics torches from past games. I have never been this close to an Olympic torch before and now we had many chances to see them.

Vancouver 2010 Games torch

Summer 2008 Beijing

Winter 2006 Turin

Summer 2004 Athens

Winter 2002 Salt Lake City

For a nice Olympic Torch timeline pic see here.

After 20 minutes in line we were finally led into a mini theatre.

Did you know that the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games mark the 7th year that Coca-Cola has sponsored an Olympic Torch relay? Out of the 12,000 torchbearers about 4000 of them were chosen by Coca-Cola. They looked for individuals who support environmental sustainability and active living in their communities.



This is the stuff you remember when you're finally led into a dark room with a video to watch for five minutes. There's nothing else to distract you so the propaganda seems to have a straight feed through to the brain. I am now a Coca-Cola Believer!

The doors open and you are suddenly let free into the Coke Pavilion. It is a feast for the senses with tons of lights, music, and a general frenzy of activity.

The first thing that greets you is this awesome ice bar. The Coca-Cola and Coke Zero is being handed out at a record pace.

Ice bar made of plastics where they serve up free Coca-Cola in Olympics bottles

The entrance was also lined with gigantic bottles of different designs. These are a few of my favourites.

Pretty

Weird furry one

Love this one

In the center of the room is this giant 20 foot tall glowing Coke bottle.

Wish I had a video to show you...

There are a few activity stations and if you do two of them you get a free prize after. Wonder what it is? I'm Asian. It's known that we are generally cheap and we are definitely all about the freebies.

First activity got me super excited - a chance to hold a real Olympic torch and take a picture. They give you a code to log on to their site and you can email it to yourself. Simple and easy. About time I held the torch since my kids have already held it twice and they're still single digits!

(Sorry about not posting our pic but I didn't have the chance to blur out our faces COPS style so I'll have to leave it out for now. You know Mr. TC will care about that one.)

People also lined up a long time to take a picture with the Coca-Cola bear. He looks wrong to me, just too tall and disjointed. I'm all about the cute and fuzzy but I didn't want to get near this guy.



At the end of the Pavilion you submit your empty bottle for recycling and you get a limited edition glowing Coke bottle in return. Granted it's made of styrofoam and my kids would break it in 2 minutes but still it's one of my prized possessions from the games.

See the Youtube video below that some guy made of his glowing bottles. It seems these things make people go a bit crazy.



Lastly onto shopping. There is a Coca-Cola Pin Trading Centre in the Olympic Superstore. It is next to the aptly named Open Happiness Cafe. There are over 130 exclusive Coca-Cola Vancouver 2010 lapel pins. Thank goodness this is one of those times I didn't cave into the pin trading. Expensive habit!

Over 130 exclusive Coca-Cola Vancouver 2010 Olympic Pins

I might have to digress to a Twilight related post next and then back to Olympics. Yeah for a week off to enjoy the sunshine and Olympics!