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Vancouver 2010 Blog: Final Days in Vancouver

Peter Greenberg Worldwide
Locations in this article:  Vancouver, Canada

Olympic mascot MukmukIt’s our final two days in Vancouver, which didn’t seem possible. We just got here! But that’s always the way it is.

You arrive and relish the fact there are six days stretching out ahead of you, and then poof! It’s over.

Trying to hold onto time never works.

After Granville Island, it was on to the men’s short program at the Pacific Coliseum. It is our fourth event there and we now have the slog down pat. We have stripped down to try to get through security faster. But still, even though we have foregone binoculars (don’t need ’em), umbrellas (what’s a little rain, eh?), and smuggled-in sandwiches so we can avoid the greasy arena food (we’ll eat ice cream!), security is still a challenge.

Vancouver harbor - photo by Seth GrantThis final night, I set something off in the metal detector and the guard wands me. My ankle went off. I lifted my pants leg to show her my ankle. She kept wanding me and the wand kept beeping. Trust me, I say to her, it’s just an ankle. No pins. No hidden weapons. An ankle in a sock. Honest. She bought it. (And meanwhile, at the Opening Ceremony, a crazy guy with forged credentials wound up in Joe Biden’s lap? But they caught my ankle, gosh darn it)

The men’s short program lasts almost five hours, but it certainly doesn’t seem like 5 hours. We’re closer to the ice this time, which requires wearing your coat inside.

Traveling to Canada? Don’t miss our complete Canada Travel section.

Skater Evan LysacekSasha Cohen, with hot red hair, sits one section over, which I later figure out is the family section—the enthusiastic and very attractive young women sitting there, who are wearing Evan Lysacek T-shirts are actually his sisters. I am actually glad for this news, because they were VERY enthusiastic. I was worried.

I love Johnny Weir. To me, his style hearkens back to a time when real men skated with grace. It wasn’t all about tricks, and then obligatorily connecting the tricks with hand waves and head bobs to make it look graceful.

OK, I admit it. I am more Dick Button than I realized. I miss the school figures. I miss the 5.8, 5.7, 5.9, 6 marks from the judges. Did we really have to resort to a mystifying number system that has bled all the excitement out of the marks, just because judges couldn’t manage to be impartial?

Get more insider views in our Olympics Travel section.

Now you have to boo them generally, not specifically. This is not half as fulfilling. Which brings me back to Johnny B Goode.

Skater Johnny Weir Johnny Weir is a throwback, which is so interesting to me. The guy tries so hard to be a bad boy (just check out his Sundance Channel reality show), but he seems to me to be a traditionalist when he skates. Forget the blown kisses and the silly costumes, Johnny can skate. The crowd is behind him this night, and boo the marks that seem lower than what the performance deserved. I hear later on NBC that it was perhaps too simple; the “transitions” weren’t there; maybe it’s his politically incorrect comments. I don’t care about that. He is a joy to watch.

We head home, brown English muffins on the broiler in our toasterless apartment, and eat some cheese from the Granville Island market for dinner, and then begin to pack.

It is very clear that all of our crap is not going to fit into our small carry-on bags.

The next morning we take bags of stuff to the post office (are all postal centers in drug stores in Canada?) and mail packages to ourselves. I manage to fit my big snow boots into the suitcase after that.

Find out more Theresa’s souvenir experiences with Vancouver Olympics Blog: Olympic Souvenirs & Canadian Mittens.

We take the Canada Line to the airport, leaving our home away from home at 3 p.m. for a 6:30 p.m. flight back to LAX. Since there is no direct way for Marie to get back to North Carolina, she is facing three changes of plane and a 10-hour trip. I feel guilty. We say good-bye (chances are I won’t see her for another 10 months, and I am sad), and we make our way to our respective gates as the boarding announcements are being made.

Canadian flag buttonYes, it takes that long. The airlines are not kidding about leaving time to check in, go through customs, etc. I will check my carry-on bag, and bring my computer and a bag of mittens with me. Luckily, Alaska doesn’t count mittens as carry-on.

A Canadian TSA guy stops me. “You’re not allowed to have two bags,” he scolds.

I am stricken, until he laughs and says: “We want you to have three or four bags of souvenirs!”

I am home by 10:30 a.m. The driver who picks me up is from Russia. He’s picked me up before, but never seems interested in talking, but when I tell him where I’ve been, he talks of his homeland, his father-in-law, who used to compete in the Summer Olympics, and Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics will take place. It is a resort area south of Moscow—mild weather, very beautiful. The Russians have already started building the necessary infrastructure.

Hmm, I’ve always wanted to go to Russia.

By Theresa Corigliano for PeterGreenberg.com.

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