more Olympic photos

After the Gold Medal Game! Ulla / Aina / Kelli / Heather / Zuzanna

USA Hockey at the Hockey House
Meg / Leah / Kelli

On the way to the Closing Ceremony

The Medal Ceremony

Opening Ceremony

USA Hockey officials!

02.28.2010 - Day 19 - Closing Ceremonies

Got up early for breakfast in the hotel... last one:)
We met in the lobby at 9.15am to leave for the Gold medal game. The 1st USA vs. Canada game I was 1.5 hours early and had to wait on the 2nd floor to get into the Olympic Family 5th floor. When we got into the rink; they didn't open the doors till 10am we were lining up on the 3rd floor to get in. The bummer was that we were instructed that all officials were not to sit down until the puck dropped and if there were some left over seats for us then we could sit down. When we entered the booth we were told again by our host that we could not sit down; one of the other officials said that out IIHF was assigned to make sure that we did not have our butts in a seat until the puck dropped. After standing to reserve some room in the back of the sitting area and trying to figure out a good strategy for getting a seat in the packed house they changed their minds and lead us all to a sitting area; it worked out well in the end, but degrading while we were waiting.

Thor, Murph, Leah and I at the game (all USA!)

The first 2 periods were reserved and the 1st match up game had much more grit, but the 3rd period with the US scoring their goals and the last to tye it up in the last 24.4 seconds was great. It was a good hockey game just a bummer that the US lost; we will be hearing about this from out Canadian friends for the next 4 years.

Met the Canada Women's Curling Silver medalist at the game (yes, even the Michael Jordan of curling....)

Photo with President of the IIHF Rene Fasel

After the game we watched the medal ceremony and worked our way next door to BC Place. We ate and had beverages until the ceremony started and I was pretty emotional at this one as the dream is now complete. When they stated that the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games are now officially closed, it hit me. Nickleback (why only one song??? might have something to do with family friendly lyrics?), Avril Lavingne (why 2 songs?) Alantis Morissette, Neil Young (aka: dead cat voice with great lyrics), William Shatner, Catherine O'Hara, Michael Buble and Michael J. Fox were the ones that stood out. http://www.mahalo.com/2010-olympics-closing-ceremony
We walked back to the hotel and hung out in the hotel restaurant; it was good fun to have the group together! It was a late night.