Vacay in Van

So, while waiting to work, I'm managing to have a pretty decent time in Vancouver.

I arrived late Thursday night, and had trouble sleeping due to a mega-dose of caffeine, and blasting LMFAO on the car stereo to stay awake on the Coquihalla highway.

Friday, I managed to pick up the Opening Cer

emonies Dress Rehearsal tickets (free for volunteers) for my host family, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that each ticket came with a free bottle of wine. Walking through a sketchy part of town holding two bottles of wine may not have been the best of ideas, though I've been told that it would've been more dangerous with two bags of crack. Due to a mix-up with VANOC, I also had to turn down a free hotel room at the Westin in Whistler. That's probably the first and last time I'll ever do that. Lastly, I mixed in a quick workout, and then played 18 holes of frolf ("disc golf" to all the geeks out there) with Dylan, Matt, and Matt.

Yesterday, Dylan, Charlie (the dog), and I, took off into the backcountry to punish ourselves. Two hours from Vancouver, on the Coquihalla highway, we decided to explore a top secret location, which is a few minutes up the road from Falls Lake. A 2.5 hour skin brought us to the end of the logging road, at which point we de-skinned, and skied some VERY heavily treed lines to the base of a saddle. We re-skinned, and pushed on to the summit of an un-named peak, for a grand total ascent of 4 hours. From the summit, we rolled into an untracked chute of legendary steepness, for a 1,500 foot descent. A long bushwhacking traverse brought us back to a clear-cut, and a quick skin took us back to the top of the logging road for a crusty cruise out. The expression on Charlie's face explained perfectly why the expression is "dog tired".

Today was a day of recovery and discharging firearms. We headed out the Vancouver Gun Club to shoot a round of sporting clays. By a combination of luck and skill, I managed to place 2nd in my squad, with a pitiful 17/50. In everyone's defence, the course set-up was VERY difficult.

I'm planning to rock Whistler tomorrow and Wednesday, after which I'll be picking up Guy and Gail at the airport, and moving in with my host family for the games. My first shift is Thursday, but it's only a training shift to get oriented with our protocols and workstations.

There are police officers EVERYWHERE, and they seem bored and restless. There is something intangible in the air here, but you can feel that the city is gearing up for something BIG.