This is a basically a collection of random thoughts and observations of my three-week stay in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics:
Vancouver is truly a remarkable city. The vibrant downtown area just feels new, with lots of tall metal and glass buildings. It's completely walkable and there's so much to see and do, not to mention one of the world's great parks right on the edge of the city. Water is in abundance, which means terrific seafood in world-class restaurants.
I think we sampled every crab cake within a five-block radius of our hotel and ate everything that could possibly come from the sea -- the sablefish at Market in the Shangri-La was absolutely tremendous. We ate there several times, including after the closing ceremonies when we saw Evan Lysacek, who became the first American man in 22 years to win a gold medal in figure skating, and Kristi Yamaguchi, who was one of the first athletes I ever interviewed when I started at Bloomberg.
Outdoor activities are in abundance in Vancouver, which is just a very fit, very hip place to live. It's little wonder its regularly ranked among the best North American cities in which to reside.
These laughing-man statues were in a small park near the seawall that rings much of the city. The artist designed all of them in his own likeness.
Heading to Vancouver, I didn't expect to see dark green grass, flowers on the trees and convertibles with their tops down. The weather itself downtown was great most of the time, save for a few days of rain at the beginning and end of the trip. Notice the flowering trees behind the statue above...
It was cool to see road signs that were written in English, French and sometimes Inuit. Above is the Inukshuk, a traditional symbol of the Inuit culture that was traditionally used as a landmark and navigational aid. The Inukshuk, in addition to being fun to say, also represents northern hospitality and served as a creative symbol for the Games -- it was used in the main logo for the Vancouver Olympics.
It was excellent having prime seats to the best events -- I covered hockey, alpine skiing, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, short track speedskating, figure skating and bobsled.. The one I didn't get to that intrigued me was curling, though I'm still a little confused on the rules.
The media center was a good set-up. Accessible, well-located and not a bad office-away-from-office for a short period.
They even brought in the macots in for us to visit with...
And the medals themselves. We had to wear white gloves to handle them... They're a bit unconventional, but that seems to be the case with the Olympic medals nowadays.
I was a big fan of the free massage area in the media center for overworked journalists. Our shortest day was probably about 12 hours, with days up to 16 hours, so it was nice to get the kinks worked out of the neck, shoulders and back. Lack of sleep, stress, carrying heavy backpacks and being hunched over a computer for hours on end can take their toll.
The long days made for late dinners. I don't recall once eating dinner before 10 pm and most were after 11. That said, most of our dinners were first-class… No complaints there. From Market to Town Hall to Coast -- I usually don't eat at restaurants that have a flaming rock tank out front, not to mention a Lamborghini.
It fascinated me that Canadians say "zed" instead of the letter Z. I remember interviewing some fans at one of the first events I went to -- a father with his 7-year-old son -- and he spelled his name for me. When he got to the Z in their last name, he said "Z" and his son immediately said, "Dad, why did you say "Z"? The father then stopped and explained to his son that folks in the U.S. say Z instead of Zed... So why Zed? I don't know.. But it's different.
Speaking of different, I'm intrigued by the 2014 Winter Games coming up in Sochi, but the apparel the Russians were wearing was absolutely hideous. They were decked from head to toe in garish red and white unstylish athletic garb every single day. Not a fan at all…
I was a big fan of "Canadaman." He was everywhere. Decked out in his own version of red & white with Canadian flag for a cape. Some mixed in special touches such as body paint, full hockey gear or a helmet with a siren on top... It seemed we had thousands of sightings of Canadaman every day.
While Canadaman was a popular phrase for us, the word from the Olympics that will stick with me is a simple one, but the way it was uttered was truly memorable.
I went to the short track speedskating events at the Pacific Coliseum to see Apolo Ohno and the rest compete in one of the most entertaining winter sports you can witness in person. Pure chaos. But the starter may have been my favorite part -- just before the start of each race, as the skaters would glide up to the line and take their positions, he would issue his deep-voiced, slightly drawn-out and accented "REAADY" that echoed through the stadium. Awesome. And then the gun would sound, the racers were off and the controlled chaos ensued..
Unquestionably the most popular item at the Games were the knit red mittens made by Hudson Bay. They sold for just $10 a pop and were the must-have item for fans visiting for the Olympics. Unfortunately, they sold out extremely quickly. I walked into the store at the media center to send postcards on my second or third day there, right when a shipment came in. I didn't pick any up, figuring I'd wait until later, and there were no more to be found... I had several requests come in for the mittens and searched and searched, but to no avail.
I was more successful searching for an elusive beer made by a Vancouver brewer R&B. Cirullo told me about it right after I got out there -- R&B Ravens Cream Ale, on tap. I did my due dilligence, searching restaurants, bars and pubs, but had no success. At one point, I'd tried 16 different establishments without being able to locate the brew. Then a helpful waiter at one of the excellent restaurants said he'd heard of it and inquired with the bartender, who gave me the phone number of the brewery. I called and left a message. They got back to me that afternoon and I asked if there was a place in the Gastown District that might have Ravens Cream Ale..
Sure enough, about eight blocks from the media center there was a restaurant called Chill Winstons that had it on tap.. I searched it out in the far reaches of Gastown, just across the street from the statue of Gassy Jack, as seen above. The district was apparently named after him. Why he was gassy, that I don't know...
But the beer was damn good. And the search was a fun one, allowing me to sample different regional ales along the way. Quest completed..
A look at the Augusta National clubhouse from the end of Magnolia Lane.
A look back down Magnolia Lane toward Washington Road..
Flowers in bloom on Augusta's par-3 course. 
K.J. Choi tees off in the Masters' annual par-3 contest. 
A cool late-afternoon tradition; the mowers fan out on the first fairway... Very impressive. 
A look at the inside of Augusta National's impressive media center, with stadium seating, giant video screen and manual scoreboard. (Plus a cafeteria just behind where I'm standing complete with great chow, not to mention daily Kristy Kremes and beer on tap..) 
A view from the veranda on the back of the clubhouse.. 
The gentle, and significant, rise to the 9th green. 
Augusta's par-4 10th hole.. Amazing the way it plunges from the tee and bends to the left down to a raised green. Statisically, it's the most difficult hole at the course. 
One of the Masters green concession buildings on the course.. 
The water-flanked green at the par-4 11th, the start of Amen Corner.. 
The par-3 12th over Rae's Creek. One of the most recognizable holes in the game of golf. 
The players and caddies walk off the 12th green and head to the 13th tee. 
The fairway at the par-5 13th hole, which bends to the left along Rae's Creek. You won't find a blade of grass out of place... 
The green at the par-5 13th surrounded by the creek, bunkers and, of course, azaleas.. 
Some great stadium-style seating for the fans... er, patrons. 
Anthony Kim practices some pitches... 
A shot of the Bloomberg crew on the clubhouse veranda -- perhaps the greatest lunch spot in the sportswriting world. In addition to the requisite Arnold Palmers, I opted for delicious creamy clam chowder, a spicy crabcake sandwich and warm peach cobbler a la mode to cap it off. 
The big scoreboard along the first fairway.. The entrance to the media center is between the hedges on the right.
The green at the par-5 second hole, which swings to the left and spills downhill. Best have a good, reliable draw at Augusta... 
I've learned that the one thing you don't want to do after a major sporting event is fly out of whatever city you're in the next day. In this case, they were saying it was the busiest day in the history of the Vancouver airport and they were warning all travelers to arrive at the airport at least four hours before their depature. Thanks, but pass... Instead, Mike (my colleague and good buddy from Atlanta) and I scheduled our flights out for Tuesday morning and decided we'd take full advantage of our first day off since the Olympics began three weeks earlier.
The media buses were still running from the Main Press Center in Vancouver to the Whistler Media Center, so that made transportation easy. We decided -- okay, Mike decided -- that we'd suck it up and catch the 6 am bus with our other colleague, Dave. There was only one other guy on the entire bus, so it was easy to stretch out and get some extra and much-needed Zzz's.. As I've written about, the drive up to Whistler is one of the most beautiful you'll find, but with the sun not quite up at that early hour, getting more sleep was the top priority.
We arrived in Whistler just before 8 am and headed right to the rental shop -- Dave and I to get skis and Mike to give the snowboard a whirl. Those two guys headed right up the mountain, while I took a little extra time to put my contacts in and talk to the fellas at the information stand about where exactly I should start out. It had been a good 10 years since I'd last been skiing, up in Killington, Vermont, and I wasn't feeling real confident. So they directed me to take the Village gondola, get off at the first building, then head across to the Olympic chairlift and take the relatively tame Olympic run down. That seemed only fitting, so I did that several times to get my ski legs under me once again; It wasn't quite like getting back on a bike, but I got the hang of it and didn't injure myself.
Mike got on the snowboard for the morning before switching to skis. I considered it very briefly before coming to the realization that spending the entire day just learning how to remain upright didn't sound that appealing...
Ah, the Inukshuk at one of the lower summits. Talk about terrific views. Was a perfect place to take some photos of the entire surrounding area -- I even helped Mike climb up to take a picture sitting on top of its "head". The views were truly breathtaking. While skiing, I'd stop repeatedly throughout the day just to soak it all in...
In late afternoon, we hopped on the Peak to Peak gondola from Whistler Mountain to Blackcomb Mountain. Mike and I were actually the last people to get on before it closed, and we were very glad we were able to catch it. Talk about a cool ride. As you can see from the sign above, it's a record-setting gondola -- an 11-minute ride that crosses a massive valley. There is a gap of almost 2 miles between the last two suspension towers on each side of the valley, so in between them, the cables hang completely unsupported. For people with a fear of heights, I could see how it would be a little nerve-wracking... But talk about a view.
Both of these photos were snapped from the Peak to Peak gondola.. So being that we were the last people to catch the ride across to the other mountain, where they also shut down the lifts just after 4 pm, we were basically the last people at the summit. Talk about a cool way to end the trip -- we were essentially closing down the mountain! 
It took over 40 minutes to get down from where we had gotten off the gondola on Blackcomb and it wasn't until about halfway down that I realized that the rental shop was supposed to be closing at 5 pm. I frantically called with an almost-dead cell phone and fortunately got someone at 4:56 who said there should be someone sticking around until 5:30 or 6 pm to close up. Big relief, since we had left our bags with our computers, etc. in the storage lockers in there... 
But this wasn't any game. This was The Game. One that 2/3 of the entire Canadian population stopped to watch. Two-thirds!
Fans with a giant Canadian flag which was passed around the lower bowl of the arena.
Luongo reaches into the air as Canadian players throw gloves and sticks into the air..
From celebration to devastation. The U.S. players can only stand on the ice and watch Team Canada celebrate...
Mike prepares to send in his game update from press row as the players congratulate each other after the game..
The customary post-game handshake. Neat to see. These guys wanted to beat each other more than anything during the game, but they're all NHL players and many of them are teammates..
Raising the flags after the game. Finland took the bronze medal -- a game which we'd seen in person the previous night -- by beating Slovakia. 