Olympic Villagers

 

While Daddy was spellbound by Nordic Combined, Mommy and the boys were completing an Alpine Combined of their own.

  

They braved a ride on the Peak-to-Peak gondola, an extravagant but breathtaking new lift directly connecting the high alpine areas of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains in a mere 11 minutes.   Whether such a thing was actually necessary is debatable -- the two mountains are already connected at the base, and they are each so vast that there's no need to try to ski them both in the same day.

   

  

But there's no denying the scale of the engineering feat.   It's hard to say which is more impressive -- the 4.4 km total length, of which 3 km is an unsupported dangle from a hopefully strong cable, over 436m (1500 feet) above the valley floor below -- or the fact that they were able to get insurance for the darn thing.

  

We're just glad it transported our team safely to Blackcomb and back.

 '

Don't look down, Miles!

  

 Hang in there, Leo.

 Down in the Village, the sun was now out to stay -- the start of a much-needed run of brilliant weather.

  

Back on terra firma, Miles made himself at home in the Olympic Playground...

  

 ... where he found himself on a Olympic ring of his own.

 

 

 As the festivities gained momentum, the Village swelled with musicians and street performers.

Many of the crazier ones seemed to be from Quebec.

Maybe it was just a Queincidence.

  

In any event, we all enjoyed the unfolding spectacle.

 We took the opportunity to test out some official Olympic gear.

  

 Miles was able to shave several hundreds of a second off his personal best.

 
 

  

A number of the winter sport powers had set up their own mini-embassies in Whistler Village (on a smaller scale, no doubt, than they did back in Vancouver).   The "Maison de la Suisse" attracted a lively crowd with its Swiss team merchandise and steady supplies of Glühwein and raclette.

  

The Russians brought their own unique fashion sensibility to the scene -- one that, for better or worse, we will see a lot more of at Sochi in 2014.

 

  

Speaking of merchandise, Miles received a warm embrace from Vancouver 2010's swarming team of mascots.

  

Leo picked up some Olympic swag as well. 

  

 Nice touque!

  

 Meanwhile, who knew that British Columbia had its own unique form of reggae?

  

 Apparently, these people did.

  

 We were content to watch the scene from our hot tub on the terrasse.

 

And somehow, amidst all the activity, Daddy and Mommy were able to slip away to catch one more big event -- Valentine's Day!