Swords, hair removal and firemen – City Chase 2010 recap!

Another year down, another day of fun and mayhem on the streets of Vancouver, and now we have 365 days to recover for next year’s City Chase!   My legs have that kinda sore “you had a good workout” buzz, my feet are tired, I have turf burns on my knees and am missing a patch of hair from my right arm, and it was totally worthit.  It always is.  For those of you who didn’t read my blog from last year, shame on you.  Because of that I now have to explain again what the City Chase is (everyone always asks), so here’s the reader’s digest version: you and a teammate join 300-plus other teams, are given a clue sheet with a whole bunch of locations/tasks on it, and you have a maximum of 6 hours to get to and complete 10 of these challenges before racing back to the finish line.  How you do this and what order you do these challenges in is totally up to you, the only rule really is that you can only travel by foot or public transportation. Now that’s out of the way, here’s the annual awesome blow-by-blow recap of how we, Team Llamaface! completed the 2010 Vancouver City Chase.

If you saw a whole bunch of people in red jerseys, some with capes and one guy in a banana costume running around on Saturday, particularly around the start/finish line at Granville Square, that was us.  As one tourist commented, “I don’t think it’s the Gay Pride parade, but I’m not sure” which, of course, made us all cheer and high five her as we ran past.  It started right at 10am, when they told us to run to the Olympic torch.  We were off!  Adrenaline was pumping, excitement was swelling, and we still had no idea what the hell we were going to have to do.  At the torch we finally got our clue sheets and set about deciphering where we needed to go.  From advanced hints sent out via Facebook and Twitter on Friday night we knew that there was going to be something at Portside Park, so we decided to hop a bus right there and figure everything else out on the way.

Chasepoint #1 – 8 Legs or None

One team member had to reach into a big bowl of mealworms and wood chips and find a marble.  The colour of the marble determined what your teammate had to do.  I’m better with creepy crawly things than my teammate Eric, so we figured he would draw the marble, because whatever I had to do was undoubtedly going to be worse.  Yep, it was.  We drew the “mystery box”, which meant that I had to draw a number from a bowl and whatever number I drew was the number of Madagasgar hissing cockroaches I had to dig out of a box and put into a bowl.  I’ve actually held one of these things before (long story) and knew they were dry and harmless, so I just jumped in and was done before Eric had the chance to take my photo.  Nine to go.

Chasepoint #2 – Chasepoint #1

This isn’t as confusing as it looks, the Chasepoint was actually titled “Chasepoint #1″ but it was the second one we did that day, so it was our Chasepoint #2.  A clue we had received via Facebook a few days before the race (but we expected this, because this is the only Chasepoint they actually have every year) said that if we raised CAD$50.00 for Right to Play we would get a Chasepoint stamp that we could pick up at one of two places on the course.  Portside park was one of those two places, so fifteen minutes after the race started we had two of ten checked off.  Sweet.  Eight to go.

Chasepoint #3 – BOWLERAMA

The course this year was probably the most logically laid out of all seven years they have had a Vancouver City Chase, as 90% of the points followed the Canada Line Skytrain line, which is exactly what I had hoped for.  The plan was to hop on the train, go to the farthest away point and work our way back, since the finish line was right beside Waterfront Station. This also gave us more time in transit to plan the rest of our route, so we headed to Richmond.  The idea was to find the Richmond Lawn Bowling Club, which we, thanks to our phone-a-friend online at home, had the exact address to.  Well, we get there, are standing at that exact spot, and find… nothing.  It was a housing development.  After wandering around for twenty frustrating minutes, including asking a whole bunch of people, including other lost Chase teams, we decided to cut our losses and abort.  So we hopped back onto the train, pissed that we had spent all that time on the train for nothing.  Damn.

Chasepoint #3 (revised) Fling it Good

I work at Oakridge Mall, so when the clue said to get to the frisbee golf course at Queen Elizabeth Park, I was on my home turf.  We got off at the Oakridge stop (it was hard, but I resisted the urge to run into my office and say hi to my co-workers) and were soon there.  One team member had to try to get a frisbee into the goal in under four shots.  If they succeeded it was all good, but if it was four shots that meant the non-throwing team member had to have a strip of their arm hair waxed off.  Six or more shots they would loose an eyebrow.  Eric is a much better frisbee-er than I am, not to mention he’s go the arm hair of a shetland, so it was very clear right from the start he was going to throw.  The feeling of helplessly watching the fate of your body hair fly through the air was nerve, wracking let me tell you!  But a good first shot got him close and he was nearly done in three, but a missed “put” meant I was getting my arm waxed.  Poop.  That hurt.  How invented this process?  Medieval torturers?  Thankfully you still can’t really see the missing patch of hair, but the wax didn’t all come off my arm, and when I tried to peel it off all it did was make my hands sticky, so I had to complete the rest of the race with a two-inch square of orange wax on my arm. Seven to go.

Chasepoint #4 – The Wanderers

This one was conveniently located right beside the frisbee golf, so for once we didn’t have to worry about bus schedules or how far we had to walk.  Using high-tech orienteering gear (little beeper tags) and a map we had to navigate a portion of the park and clock in at 12 hidden checkpoints in order.  If we got the order wrong there was a penalty.  This one we made up some good time on, even passing some teams who were already on the course ahead of us.  I might not know my left from my right most days, but I can sure read a map   Four down, six to go.

Chasepoint #5 – Barefoot

This one required about 20 minutes of walking to go from Queen Elizabeth Park to Douglas Park, and we didn’t succeed in finding a bus, so our only option was to hoof it all the way.  By now we were tired, but our successes at Queen ElizabethPark had us invigorated.  We were in good shape.  This challenge was to be tied to your partner, three-legged-race style, and dribble a ball with your foot in a slalom pattern between wine bottles.  At each bottle you had to stop and pick up a glass of water and carry on a waiter’s tray, eventually making a pyramid 6 glasses high.  This was frustrating, damp, and my waxy arm kept sticking to Eric, but we did it, no worries.  As we were putting our shoes back on afterwards the announcement went out on the crew’s walkie-talkies that the first place team had crossed the finish line already.  Damn.  We were only half way there.  I don’t know how they did it… they must have run the whole thing or something.  Damn those uber athletic people!  But we were still in pretty good shape compared to most of the other teams we encountered along the way.  Five to go.

Chasepoint #6 – Blind Grams

Once again, this point was only a block away from the last, so we were there before we knew it and ready to rock.  One of us had to be blindfolded and go out into a field and retrieve seven puzzle pieces, directed by their partner’s voice, and then once all pieces were gathered we could remove the blindfold and both put it together in the shape of a swan.  We learned last year that Eric gives good directions (he actually does know his left from right, go figure), so I was blindfolded.  Besides, nobody would believe us if we said he was the better listener ;P !!! Retrieving the pieces was cake, and putting it together only took a bit longer.  Six down, four to go.

Chasepoint #7  Thumb-athalon

A quick five block walk brought us to the Rogers store at the corner of Oak adn 15th, where we both picked up blackberry smartphones.  We sere seperated, and Eric got a clue sheet with 6 questions on it, which he texted to me.  I had to run around the neighbourhood and find the answers, like what the cost of a shwarma plate was at the nearby flafal joint, or how much the transaction fee was at the ATM inside Esquires Coffee.  The questions were the easy part, but for a tech newbie like me, figuring out how to text/send pics back to Eric took 90% of the time!  All told, though, we powered through this and were soon on our way again.  Three to go.

Chasepoint #8  Local Heroes

Another short five minute walk got us to the plaza behind City Square mall, and a whole bunch of firemen.  Insert happy dance here.  When I wasn’t staring at the firemen we had to don firemen’s hats and jackets, drag a weighted dummy around a course, knock over a cone by spraying a firehose, unroll a full-length firehose and then roll it back up and carry it over a marked line.  This is actually the identaical chasepoint they had in East Vancouver last year, so Eric and I powered through this, already knowing exactly what to do.  Which was good, because it gave me more time to stare at the firemen.  Mmmm, firemen…. Two to go!

Chasepoint #9 – National Defense

This is where reading what the challenges are, not just if their location is convenient, is a good thing.  We didn’t do this.  I have a tendancy to never do this.  Hence the fact that last year Eric had to eat canned smoked oysters adn make this awesome gag/puke sound.  Still apologizing for that one.  A few blocks’ walk got us to Jonathan Rogers Park, just off Broadway, and it was only when we rounded the corner that we realized this was a military obsticle course.  Crap.  This is the type of chasepoint that the really athletic people do.  Like the Olympic Triatheletethat won in Montreal.  He would have been all over this.  We, on the other hand, actually went so far as to pull out the clue sheet, determine there really was nothing else remotely close to us and this fit so perfectly in our master plan, and resign ourselves to the fact that we had to do the freaking thing.   At this point in the day anything more than a strong walk took effort, so, like prisoners walking the green mile, we reluctantly reported for duty, Sir.  They smeared war paint on our faces and fitted us with 20-lb tactical vests and helmets, then our (incredibly nice – we lucked out) drill seargenthad us run up and down the embankment four times, then do 15 push ups and 15 sit ups.  Then came the belly crawl, which tore up the insides of my knees and got a really big wad of dead grass stuck to the wax blob on my arm.  Eric, exhausted and the last in line, cried “but I make video games!” as he put what effort he had left into the crawl.  Hilarious.  But we weren’t done.  That would have been too easy.  Run ten feet, drop to your belly, jump up and repeat the pattern 5 times.  Then, holding hands withanother team, run the lengthof the football field and back, ending with a scramble over a picnic table.  Suddenly I felt like a Survivor contestant, the slow one who gets dragged along by their teammates when they’re all tied together for a challenge.  Not good, but we were done.   One to go!

Chasepoint #10 – En Garde

After a few minutes to recover, it was back onto the Canada Line to Waterfront station and our last challenge of the day.  We had specifically worked it so that this point was our last: it was close to the finish line, we knew where it was without assistance, and I was not going home until I’d done the swordfighting chasepoint.  This is the third year they have had fencing/swordplay, and the first two I had missed because it just wasn’t logical to go all the way there on the route I was running.  This year, however, they had given us the clue the night before (in the form of a facebook-posted crossword I was frantically filling in at 11:30 pm) of Academie Duello, the fencing academy right downtown.  Perfect.  We could make our route specifically so this one was included.   So we crawled in, were fitted withfencing helmets, and I got on a wooden horse (can’t help but insert the Old Spice parody here: we now smell like the team you want your team to smell like, and I’m on a horse) holding a shield and six foot wooden spear.  Eric pushed the horse along a course and I had to spear 3 rings as we went.  Then off the horse, he had to do 15 diamond push ups while I fought off an attacker with a longsword.  SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET!  This wasn’t a play sword, either, it was ten pounds of ting!ting!ting! metal and a crazy guy swinging at my head.  Let me tell you, if it wasn’t for that helmet, I wouldn’t have a head, because his sword was bouncing off me like nobody’s business.  After that, to prove that torture is always fair, I had to do 15 burpies(I HATE BURPIES) while Eric defended himself with two metal shields against an equally crazy guy wielding two swords at his head.  Yay helmets.  We made it out barely alive, but we were done!

The finish line was only three blocks away, so we sprinted (read: walked until we knew the people holding the ribbon could see us then ran to make it look like we had energy left) across it.  Done!  Chased and conquered.  We were exhausted, happy, hadn’t fought all day, and thought we had done pretty good.  The official results were just posted today (if you’re not first you’re in the dark for a few days following the Chase, as it takes a few days for the judges to make sure everything is accurate ), and we finished in 98th place!  Out of 351 teams!  In seven years this is the first time I’ve ever broken the 100 mark, and we beat our record from last year by over a hundred teams.  High five!

All told it was awesome, fun, exhausting and I’m totally doing it again next year!

Tags: adventure, City Chase, crazy, fun, The Amazing Race, vancouver

Gearing up for the Vancouver City Chase!

It’s that time of year again: time for the Vancouver City Chase!

Quite possibly my favorite day of the year, it’s the only day that I get to run around like a madwoman, doing all sorts of random adventures in the best city in the world!  At this point all we know is where the start/finish line is and that a secret hint delivered by facebook directs us to Portside Park, but what we have to do there is still a mystery.  Awesome.  And just because they love me (yes, I choose to believe this), they have decided this year to hold it on my birthday.  Yep, Saturday is all about meeeeee!!

So now we’re in prep mode, which is always an interesting thing to do when you don’t know what you’re prepping for.  My teammate is hitting the gym (of course, two whole days of exercise is going to make a huge difference, lol!) and I’m hitting the streets, trying to familiarize myself with the areas downtown I don’t often get a chance to see.  Like I had no idea where Portside Park was until I google mapped it.  With the Canada Line getting you from downtown to Richmond in 20 minutes, that opens up a whole new section of Vancouver that we never could access before, since you would loose too much time in transit to actually complete the race in the allocated 6 hours.  My spider-sense is telling me to check out areas around the Canada Line stops.  Since my office is not too far from a Canada Line station, I already have my coworkers prepped that if I call they’ll quickly do anything I need (love them!).  Going near work would be too awesome for words. But, of course, I could be way off and doing all this for nothing as the route this year could be completely in the other direction.  That surprise is the wonder of the Chase. 

So far this year, in the other City Chases accross Canada, they have done stuff like strip bowling, holding a live crocodile, whitewater kayaking, shooting machine guns and completing a military obsticle course, so God knows what we’ll be asked to do, but one thing’s for sure: it’s going to be epic. 

And I’m going to love every second of it.

Full recap to follow!!!

Tags: awesome, City Chase, race, The Amazing Race, vancouver

Come to Vancouver – we have the best weather!

               Ahh, summer in Vancouver.   Perfect days with a rare cloud punctuating the pure blue sky, a gentle breeze coming in off the ocean, the majestic mountains surrounding us in a comforting hug, and the sun glinting off the glass skyscrapers of the downtown core.  Damn, right it’s the best place on earth.  And you should all drop what you’re doing and come now.  Immediately.  Vancouver wants you.  We have perfect weather, so take advantage of it before stock runs out! 

                Summer finally arrived at the end of June, after the longest winter on record.  Well, technically winter was exactly the same length as every year, but this year it felt like we skipped spring entirely.  But once summer dawned, it hasn’t let up one bit.  We’ve now had nearly a month straight of “coat?  I don’t even need socks in this weather” weather, and I’m loving every second of it.  Life should operate at this temperature every day.  I guess it does in LA, but here we don’t need to deal with nearly as much traffic, garbage, smog, noise…  you get the point.  As much as I appreciate (and boy do I appreciate) the chance to finally thaw, this weather also shows off Vancouver at its best, and everyone needs to take full advantage of it. 

               Right now we’re in the midst of the Symphony of Fire fireworks competition for four consecutive Wednesday and Saturday nights, which floods the shores of false creek with thousands of “ooooh”ers and “aaaah”ers.  Soon we’ll have the Dragon Boat festival, too.  We actually don’t have a deep pool of festivals and events, but the attractions we have year-round are pretty damn spectacular, and when you see them in this fantabulous weather, they’re even better.  You can immerse yourself in the native culture of the pacific coast at the UBC Museum of Anthropology and then get your nekked on at Wreck Beach; shop Robson Street’s trendiness and then finish off the day at a waterfront cafe on False Creek; bike Stanley Park’s seawall, feed the squirrels and enormous raccoons, then visit one of the best Aquariums around to splash with the belugas and dolphins.  A few weeks ago I did the bike thing for the first time since I was like 6 and it was great.  It’s a really smooth, relaxing ride, and a 2 hour bike rental from Spokes on Denman only cost CAD$10.00!    And regardless of what you do, remember to snag a funky twist on lunch at the world-famous Japadog gourmet Japanese hot dog cart.  Trust me, it’s worth the wait.

          But honestly, I’m here in the best place on earth, and I cannot recommend strongly enough that you should be too.  What are you waiting for, people?  We have sun!!!!

Tags: aquarium, best, bikes, BlogSherpa, Canada, fantastic, fireworks, fun, Japadog, Stanley Park, sun, vancouver, weather

Vancouver – Olympic Detox

       OMG, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics are over.  They were AWESOME, but they’re done now.  Finished.  Kaput.  Put to bed.  We’ve been prepping for this for the past 10 years,survived the gut-wrenching bid process, the constant traffic disruptions that came with building the new venues and Canada Line skytrain, the protests, the adjusting to the Logo that no one initially liked, the crowds, the incredible excitement, the overwhelming patriotism, the nine-hour line ups for the maple leaf mittens, the best hockey game ever, and the raging hangover from the post-Olympics-and-hockey-game celebrations.  Phew.  Now all us Vancouver (and surrounding area) -ites are left tingling, walking around in a daze and thinking, what’s next?

        First thing Monday morning, assuming you were not one of the 40,000 people trying to fly home from YVR,  the most noticeable change was that there is now nothing on TV again.  That’s one of the fantastic things about the Olympics in general: the 24/7  TV coverage.  You can get up at 6 and catch up on all the short track speed skating and doubles luge action that aired the night before while you were watching the moguls skiing and biathalon.  And here in the lower mainland we had this on not one but four English Channels, as well as French, and occasionally Punjabi ones. Multiply this by 2 if you have HD cable.  Author’s note - If you’ve never watched short track speed skating with an over-excited French commentator, you’re missing out, it’s hysterically funny.  Particularly if you don’t speak French.  But anyway, now we have to watch the same boring crap as always, and it bites.

        And then there’s downtown.  The streets are still busy, but you have to walk down the (gasp!) sidewalkon Robson St. because it’s no longer pedestrian only.  The street performers are gone, too, and we miss the guy in the green skivvies on the giant unicycle already.  Thankfully many of the pavilions, art installations and the wait-in-line-for-two-days zipline are still open thanks to the Paralympics starting on March 12th, so it’s easing us back into regular life slowly, not a sudden  rip-off-the-BandAid jolt.  The biggest difference is that the people walking around are no longer all wearing giant maple leafs on their heads (backs/arms/dogs/children), just a few holdouts still are, and the rest are back in their business formal attire.  Oh, and the line for your Japadog is only half an hour again.

        We’re all kind of numb.  It’s over.  It’s OOOOOOVVVVVVEEEERRRRR!!!!  But it was incredible to have it here, we now have state of the art facilities that will help foster the new crop of Olympians, we have a new appreciation of Curling, and we have the most incredible memories.  We are, now and forever, an Olympic City.  We showed the world how beautiful our scenery and our people are, and, most importantly, showed them how much National pride flows through our veins.  Sorry guys, but Canada isn’t just going to sit by quietly anymore, we’re going to scream our heads off, wear red and white mittens everywhere, and apologize for beating you afterwards.  For that, we thank the Olympics.  They brought us together as a Nation, the home-soil advantage brought us out of our shells, and nobody was more surprised by it than we were.  We always knew our country is the best (I’m more than a little bit biased), but we never really laid it all out there to be seen before. 

Vancouver 2010 Olympics, we miss you.  And we promise to remeber you fondly.

But in the meantime, can you help me find something good on TV again?

Tags: BlogSherpa, Canada, excitement, mittens, Olympics, pride, TV, vancouver, zipline

Vancouver – Olympic Life in the Olympic City

        So we’re more than a week into the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games, or, to use a sports metaphor, wll into the home stretch.  Our muscles and wallets are sore, but it’s so, so, so worth it!   The city just feels energized, and it’s freaking fantastic.

        The pavilions, shows and events set up all over the downtown core gives the whole place a theme-park like feel (you line up for a long time, go on a short ride/see a short show, then walk to the next attraction, past souvenir and snack carts and street performers).  And speaking of line ups, at this point I think people are lining up for the sake of lining up.  The wait times at pretty much everything are multiple hours long.  Even just to get into the Granville st. Bay to buy your official team Canada tee (completely disregarding that we have tons of other Bay stores in Metro Vancouver, just a short skytrain away) is like three hours, and that doesn’t come with any guarantee that they’ll still have what you want in your size.  The longest line by far is the zipline, where, according to Radio Canada, a couple recently set the record for waiting more than 9 hours.  The ride is only ten seconds long!!!!  Think about it people, you’re turning waiting in line into an experience in itself, because you’re not doing anything else all day!  I made it into LiveCity Yaletown with only a 40-minute wait, and I was there right at opening.  God knows what it was like by 6!  Even the fabulousness that is the unique Japadog gourmet hot dog cart has a massive wait for your street meat.  By the time you get to the front, you’re ready for dinner, while you’d lined up at lunch.

          But the coolest thing is the overwhelming “We are Canada, we’re loud, proud and we ROCK!”  vibe that permeates everyday life here.  Just sitting at work I see tons of people each day wearing their Canada tees, stupid (or stupid awesome) Moose toques, and flag capes.  Vancouver has become Disneyland all of a sudden, a place where you can wear all sorts of stupid, furry things on your head, your cape has become regular office attire and the world will cease to exist when the puck drops tonight on the Canada versus Germany showdown.  Even the random stranger that approached us yesterday asking for a light said “Go Canada Go!”  by way of a thank you, and those were probably the only English words he knew.

            We’ve definately upped our international reputation, which was pretty good to begin with.  Unless you ask the British, of course, they’re really hammering us, but I think they’re just trying to call our games a failure (yes, they are really using terms that harsh) to make London 2012 look better.  They’re also forgetting that this is a Winter Games and they’re hosting the Summer, hardly an equal comparison, but whatever.  I’m Canadian, I know our games are fantastic, and at least my country has never been bombed, so the Brits can suck it.

          Even Though we still have days to go before the closing ceremonies and the start of the Paralympics, I already know I’m going to miss the Olympics once they pass.  More than anything, in the past week, people have been happy.  All the time.  It’s just a permanent smiling-at-strangers good mood that I don’t want to let slide once the torch has been snuffed.  It’s a pleasure to be in Vancouver.  Even more than usual.  And that’s saying a lot.

Tags: cape, flag, fun, Games, good mood, hockey, line up, livecity Yaletown, Olympics, toque, vancouver, zipline

Vancouver – Living amongst the flame

       The opening ceremonies last night were incredible.  Watching them at home I was just as blown away with the spectacle that is the Olympics as I always am, but then I take a moment and realize – that’s here.  Here here. Like “if I lean far enough out my balcony I can see that”here.   Going home on the skytrain yesterday the whole car just burst into the national anthem, a whole bunch of strangers heading to the suburbs and celebrating the true north strong and free.

Now that’s cool.

        Vancouver’s ceremony definitely did not disappoint.  It’s weird, I think we all have this slight Canadian inferiority complex that expects everything we do to be good, but always has the feeling that someone could have done it better.  I know, it’s stupid, but the show last night reminded us all to snap out of it, that we really are awesome and we’re going to prove it to the world.  Repeatedly.  While wearing a toque.  Preferably one shaped like a maple leaf.   My favorite moments were the projected whales breaching across the floor of BC Place stadium (oh, and just let me add while I remember, BC Place looked incredible, I kept having to remind myself it has a roof  – the first in Olympic history – and that the snow was fake.  The parkas worn by all the athletes were definitely not needed as it was probably 25 degrees in there, although Bermuda’s shorts were right on), and the beat poet’s declaration that Canada was here to kick some ass and take names.  It reminded me of the Molson Canadian ads from years ago that ended up printed on t-shirts and can most likely still be at least partially recited by 70% of the population.  Come on, you know it: “…the beaver is truly a proud and noble animal.  A toque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch, and it is pronounced ‘zed’!”

       As a city we were all pretty hyped up for the games before, especially getting behind the torch relay, but after the opening last night, we’re now officially Olympic mad.  I work in a mall, and both the Bay and Zellers – the official Olympic apparel suppliers – are packed.  I mean hold-on-to-your-children packed.  It’s crazier than the last minute Christmas rush to get your Canada mittens and tees, and there was actually a fight over the last scarf when I was in Zellers.    It’s like we were all laid back “yeah, I’ll get some of that stuff eventually”, but last night has spurred us and our wallets into action.   Personally, I’m one of the true north strong and cheap, so I’m waiting for them to go on sale after the games.  But as soon as those markdowns come, you can bet I’m going to look fabulous.

          And this is only day one.  Tomorrow we get the super fantastic combination of Chinese New Year, with it’s giant parade and great food, and the Olympics, so the roof is going to be blown off this town, that’s for sure!

Tags: BlogSherpa, Canada, Canadian, excitement, Olympics, opening ceremonies, party, pride, shopping, skytrain, the Bay, torch, vancouver

Vancouver – Olympic countdown: 0 days !!!!

            It’s finally here.  Vancouver is suddenly in the midst of a giant Christmas-morning buzz, with people walking around with stupidgrins on their faces and talking in that higher-pitched, excited tone usually reserved for large groups of women at a sample sale.  Even water cooler talk has gone from “can you believe what happened on Survivor last night?” to “Who’s going to officially light the Olympic cauldron tonight?”  In six hours we’ll finally know for sure when the 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies get underway.  And from the scuttlebutt, it’s going to be huge, with Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Nelly Furtado and the Canadian Tenors, amongst others who’ve managed to elude the media thus far, and all the pomp and pageantry and showmanship we know and love.

          Woke up this morning in time to see Arnold Swartzenegger (that well-known Canadian) wade through the masses of people on the Stanley Park Seawall on his leg of the torch relay.  That torch has already done incredible things to unite us as a city and a country, with much larger crowds than expected turning out both to see it run past and also for the concerts and parties surrounding it every night.  Yesterday it was really cool as it was running just blocks from my home and, later, just blocks from my work.  One of my co workers hopped on the Canada Line Skytrain on her coffee break, saw the torch run past, and got back to work in time. Sweet.

         The city already has an electricity that I’ve never felt before, and I think downtown Vancouver buzzes on a normal day.  On Tuesday night, before anything had actually started, I was blown away at the vibe the city was giving off already.  It felt like Christmas, with more Christmas lights out than there had been in December (I guess a lot of downtown businesses are lighting up to show their support, too) and the city just sparkled.  Okay, so I’m a little biased, but I think we have one of the world’s prettiest cities anyway, but combine that with the festivities and it’s incredible.  One of the exits of Pacific Center Mall has become a giant Igloo, complete with polar bear statues, and Robson Square is lit up like a rock concert with lighting and pyrotechnics highlighting it’s new ice skating rink and zipline.  Man, I would love to do that zipline right through the heart of the city.  I don’t think I’ll be able to, the lineups are supposed to be epic, but that would be so cool.

       So cool.  That pretty much sums it up.  As of today, we’re officially an Olympic city forever, and the huge-ass party to end all huge-ass parties kicks off.  I can’t wait.  We all can’t.

GO CANADA!

Tags: excitement, Olympics, party, torch, vancouver, zipline

Vancouver: Ready to welcome the world

We’re in the home stretch now – less than 30 days until the winter Olympics get underway.  Personally, I’m excited, I love the Olympics and having it right here is going to be cool.  I’m going to be watching it on TV (afford to go to the events?  You have got to be kidding me) and going “hey, I know where that is!  I went to school down the road from there!” Or whatever. I always get excited when I see places I recognize on screen, which happens frequently, this is Hollywood North.  Like the end of the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, when they’re walking through a building to a restaurant, I actually squealed “ooh! thats the library!” aloud.  But anyway, during the olympics this is going to be happening at an alarming frequency.  Anyone who knows me, consider yourself warned.

The city itself is starting to show noticeable finishing touches.  The construction walls are coming down on Granville for the first time in like 6 years, we have the spiffy new Canada Line skytrain from the airport to the city center (which rocks!) and even the ads on bus stops and park benches are now citywide exclusively for the official Olympic partners.  Needless to say you can go blocks and see nothing but McDonalds, Samsung, Coca Cola and some random company I’ve never heard of before, but that apparently is the official vaccine supplier for the athletes.   If I can survive the crazy-long commute times – God knows I can barely get on the train on some normal mornings, and when you add eight million extra visitors we’re going to need the people to cram passengers on the trains like they have in Japan – I hope to wander around downtown a bit during the games, because the vibe is going to be electric.  All the excitement, the street performers, free shows, random overheard conversations in different languages to pretend to understand and happiness.  It’ll be great.

If you happen to live in Vancouver and are hoping to get away on vacation during the games to escape the crowds, why haven’t you booked yet?  Do you really have that much money just hanging around that you don’t mind paying eight times the regular price?  The destinations you’re heading to probably have lots of space left, it is the low season, but the flights departing Vancouver don’t and are going to cost you a mint.  At this point it’s not how much but what’s left.  There are a lot of people I see on a daily basis who are surprised by this, but think about it: all the athletes, their fans and supporters are coming and going throughout the games – most of them don’t stay for the whole time, they just jet in, do their event and take off, as do their fans (to avoid a ridiculous hotel bill, as everything’s expensive), and when you combine that with the regular people traveling, there are shit tons of people coming in and out of YVR and only a certain number of seats on the planes.  If you still insist on trying to book for mid Feb, do it now.  Like now, now.  Stop reading this and book this instant or else you’re going to be totally out of luck.

And if you already have tickets, remember that at this point (thanks to the underwear bomber) you can’t take any carry-on onboard the plane with you.  And the heightened security due to that, combined with the heightened Olympic security, means that you’re going to be spending forever in line.  Get to the airport early.  Really early.  3-4 hours early.  Any later and youre going to be in line sandwiched between the chaotic family with the screaming baby heading to Disneyland and the Blackberry-addicted businessman who texts continuously as your plane takes off without you on it.

I’m sure the city will change when the games start, and I’m looking forwards to it.  What it’s going to be like I don’t know, but I’ll report back with the details in two weeks

Tags: airports, commute, crowds, excitement, last minute travel, Olympics, public transportation, security, skytrain, vancouver

City Chase – a step by step rocking recap

                     Yesterday the Vancouver edition of the Mitsubishi City Chase powered by Blackberry (might as well get the full name in there, make the corporate sponsors happy, not that they’re reading this) was successfully run, and, as promised, it was awesome.  I dressed up like a fireman, found myself blindfolded no less than 3 times, saw naked people, went shopping and actually went willingly to one of the disgusting food challenges for the first time ever.   This was the first year for me and the bf, and I had no idea how we would react together under stress and physical exertion, but I’m happy to report all is well and no one has to move out!  There was a little sniping in frustration at the first chasepoint, but after that it only got better and better as the race progressed.  So, I promised you a blow by blow recap of my favorite day of the year, so here goes:

                   We started at Granville Square plaza, right beside Waterfront Skytrain Station and with an incredible view of North Vancouver and Canada Place at 9am sharp with the traditional speech and geeky warm up stretch/dance routine.  Then, at 10am sharp, it was go time.  In past years, in order to receive your clue sheet you have to complete a scavenger hunt that I dread with a passion, as it can take up to 1/2 an hour to find all the obscure objects (a business card printed in a language other than English?  A cocktail umbrella?), eating up a huge chunk of your precious 6-hour maximum race allotment.  Even had a homeless man help me out with that one year.  He had heard a lot of the teams run past saying they needed an apple core, so he found one and got it for me.  That was fantastic.  But this year they made it much easier, you just had to find another team with the same last digit of your team number and then check in with them at the Olympic Countdown Clock.  No sweat.  We found a team of girls wearing head to toe metallic pink spandex (not kidding) and ran to the clock, the whole process taking maybe 10 minutes with traffic.

                  Our strategy was to find what we thought was the farthest away chasepoint and head right there, doing a lot of our additional strategizing Geographically, it may not have been the farthest point, but we started with the hardest to get to one at the Cliffhanger rock climbing gym on Terminal Ave.  This was an important point for us, as we had raised CAD$50.00 for charity in advance of the race, and if you went there you got a chasepoint stamp for the fundraising as well as the task at hand, so it was an easy two points right there.  After skytraining it to Main Street, we discovered there is no other form of public transport from there to the rock climbing, so we had to hoof it.  Getting to the gym, Eric (the bf) had to climb a rock wall while I completed a Sudoku puzzle.  Let me just say, he rocked that wall.  It took him like a minute, he just flew up there.  I, on the other hand, did not have that much luck.  With him down and the two of us putting our heads together we managed to finish that damn puzzle in like 20 minutes and hit the road again.   Apparently some teams were working on that puzzle for an hour, so, despite my supreme frustration, we didn’t do too badly.  Two points down, eight to go.

                    From there we walked the 2.7km (once again, no freaking public transportation!  I don’t think in 5 other races I ever had to run/walk that far in one single stretch before) from Terminal, along Main St and up Prior, heading to Strathcona Park.  On the way we stumbled across another chasepoint, this one a block before the park at Fire Hall No. 1.  It had only said “go to firehall no. 1″ on the cryptic cluesheet, and we hadn’t had time yet to get out phone a friend back home (thanks Mom) to google that yet, so we had no idea it was right there, but since we had found it, we were doing it, whatever it was.  Turns out both team members had to don full firefighting gear, pull a firehose out, knock down a target with the water, then drag a weighted dummy across a yellow line, and then one team member had to unroll a fire hose and then the other had to roll it back up again.  Let me tell you, those outfits are not comfortable.  Not only are they hot as hell, but they weigh a ton.  On the upside, the bf looked great all dressed up like that   This point actually didn’t take too long, and soon we were on our way.

                   One block up was Strathcona park, where I got to be blindfolded while the bf, using only words, talked me through disassembling a skateboard.  This wasn’t too bad, he gives great directions and I’m pretty adept at taking things apart, but the grippy stuff on the skateboard deck did horrible things to my manicure!  Four down, 6 to go.

                  One more block up was La Casa Gelato, Vancouver’s legendary home of the 218 flavours of ice cream.  If this hadn’t been so close to the other points and involving the word “gelato” I probably wouldn’t have gone, as they never give you anything good to eat on the city chase.  Ever.  As a rule I usually avoid the eating challenges, but this one just made to much sense logistically to pass up.  One team member was blindfolded (me again) and had to taste 5 flavours  of gelato and try to identify them.  For every one they got wrong, their partner recieved a penalty.  Of the 5 flavours the only one I got right was ginger, though I heard the others were either wasabi, lychee, corn, balsamic vinagar, fish or pesto.  Honestly, none of those rang a bell to what had tickled my taste buds.  But because of my four errors, Eric had to take one for the team (love you, Handsome) and eat two huge oysters.  I really didn’t think he was going to manage the first one without vomiting, he came pretty close, but once it was down the second one was easy and we were on our way. 

             Finally, public transportation again!  It was now just over two hours into the race and we were finally getting to use our provided bus passes.  The 22 bus took us to VVC-Clark skytrain station (the driver helped us out and dropped us off right at the station instead of the bus stop), from where we trained it to Renfrew station and ran to the Grandview Rona store.  Here the task was shopping.  Sweet.  If I can do anything, it’s shop.  They gave us a list of 8 items and we had to correctly find 6 of them somewhere in the store.  They tried to be tricky, asking for 56 lt of bark chips, when the bags came in 2 cubic feet (it works out to be the same thing), but we quickly saw through this and finished in good time.  6 down, four to go.

              Right next door to Rona was Van Tech Highschool, where we wandered around lost with another team for a few precious minutes before we finally found the chasepoint hidden on a lower field.  Once again I was blindfolded (I was the navigator of the team because I rock with maps, but when it comes to giving small directions, like ”turn a little to your left” I have this horrible tendency to mix up my left and right.  Stop laughing, you know you do it to.  Our little saying is “your left or mine?” even though we’re both facing the same direction. Thus, I was always the blindfolded one while he, who seems to know his left and right, directed) and was verbally directed to walk through a field of scattered balls, where if I touched any of them, I had to go back to the start and try again.  No touches, we finished and were on our way.  Time for the home stretch, and we had it all planned out.  from here on out, all the points we needed were along our rapid transit routes, so we were good.

                  Skytrain again back to Science World, where we got to team up with four other teams and paddle a dragon boat through a marked course.  That was fun and fast. Back on the train, it was straight to waterfront station and the start/finish line to pick up the trivia question sheet we needed to complete for our next point.  Let me tell you, it was hard being so close to the finish line and not be able to cross it, then have to run away again and hop on the nearby seabus to North Van.  The questions were hard, random facts about the world, like “Which country has the lowest literacy rate?” and “where in the world is the highest waterfall?” (I work in travel, I knew that last one was Venezuela), but between our phone a friend and working with other teams we got them all by the time the seabus docked and it was time to run again.

                 In North Van we had two options, either learn a dance routine with the BC Lions’ cheerleading squad the Felions, or draw a nude model.  The clue was very cryptic on this one, as it sounded like you had to get naked, so we had automatically ruled that out (my underwear I’ll do, no problem.  Anything more than that, no freaking way.  Luckily Eric felt the same way), despite the fact that he really didn’t want to dance and had warned me it would take him forever.  Of the two of us, I have the rhythm.  But on the seabus we learned that you only had to draw a nude model, not become one, to get your stamp.  If you were willing to get naked you could get a second stamp, but that was optional.  Since the two chasepoints were right beside one another, we figured we’d try the drawing and see how it went.  I’m a half-decent artist if I do say so myself, and we were in and out of there in 5 minutes flat, chorusing a resounding “NO!” when they asked us if we wanted to get naked for point number 2.  Besides, we didn’t need it, we were done.

                 Back to the seabus, a quick stop just behind the start/finish line to turn in our trivia sheet and officially get chasepoint #10, a run through a construction zone to get to the entrance, and we sprinted to the finish, crossing at about the 5-hour mark.  Apparently the winners finished in 2 hours 48, but I’m still really proud of how we did.  We finished.  I’ve had years when you just have to cross the line with 8 stamps because the course is going to close before you can finish.  And we finished still talking to one another!  I’m under no illusions that I’m ever going to win the Chase, I’m not a runner, but it’s all about the journey and the fun, and it was a hell of a lot of both.  On the upside, he’s already willing to do it again next year!  Sweet!  I’ve converted another one!

               Great course, great year, great race, great fun.  If you hear about a City Chase in your area, do it!

Tags: adventure, City Chase, dragon boating, fun, gross, nudity, odd, public transportation, race, rock climbing, running, vancouver, weird

The Chase is on!

                Saturday in Vancouver, the Chase is on!  It’s time again  for the Vancouver City Chase and I can’t wait.  This is year six for both me and the Chase, and it’s going to be the best race ever.

               For the uninitiated, the City Chase is like The Amazing Race, but all contained within one city, and you can only travel by public transit or foot.  An urban adventure race that’s part scavenger hunt, part footrace, part strategy and part “what the hell, let’s do it”, it’s a ridiculous amount of fun.   Being that I’m totally obsessed with the Amazing Race, this is as close to being on the show that this Canadian girl can get: six hours of running around Vancouver and completing various random tasks at ten chasepoints scattered throughout the city.  Oh, and you’re with a partner, so there’s someone there to drag you along, be dragged, argue with and hug in celebration along the way.  Check it out online at mitsubishicitychase.com or on Facebook and see for yourself.

           The big question is, as usual, what are they going to make us do this year?  All they tell us going in is where the start line is and it’s not until they say “go” that you get your clue sheets, so it involves a lot of blind faith.  Sometimes the tasks are fun (modeling your partner’s likeness out of play-doh), sometimes they’re physical (climbing the 700 stairs to the observation deck at Harbour Centre), sometimes they’re wet (the organizers promised not to make anyone ever do the underwater bowling ever again, as it was almost impossible), and sometimes they’re gross (anything with the words “smoothie” or “dog bakery” mean you’re going to have to eat something really, really gross, and last year for the first time I downed a live meal worm.  Yep, it’s as unpleasant as you’d expect, but thankfully they’re small and can be taken like pills).  God knows, it could be anything.  Kayaking.  Fencing.  Wheelchair basketball against professionals.  Nudity made it’s first appearance last year as one of the optional points was to run an obstacle course at Wreck Beach full-on starkers. 

              But that’s the fun of the chase.  The unknown.  I’m not exactly an overly-outgoing person, my friends would probobly describe me as the “quiet one” in our group, but I am incredibly competitive.  Over the years I’ve discovered that in the heat of the race I’ll do pretty much anything.  Approach random seniors and ask if I can hold their false teeth in a photo; eat the aforementioned mealworm; strip to my underwear in public for a water challenge (because, really, bathing suits are not supportive running attire); and one of my prouder moments came by completing a high ropes course, complete with rappel.  I was shaking the whole time, but that competitive streak of mine got me over that fear, and afterwards it felt really good.

             From a travel perspective (this is a travel blog, after all), it wasn’t until I started this race that I really learned how to navigate Vancouver.  Before the first year I literally studied downtown maps like I was cramming for an exam, and now this girl from the ‘burbs knows her way around.  But also, the race takes me places I might never have gone otherwise, like being a very fast-paced tourist in my own city.    Every year I end up with a shortlist of places that looked really cool as I ran through them, so now I need to go back and really enjoy them.

              But the coolest part is that this is an international race.  All across Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Madrid, Paris, London… they’re adding more cities every year, and the winners of each go on to the World Championships, which have been in Rome, Chicago, Morocco, and this year are in Argentina.  Sure, it’s way easier to race around a city you already have some knowledge about, but still I have this fantasy of running the London or Hong Kong race some year, zipping around on their great public transportation, trying new things…

              We’ll soon see how this year plays out, and I’ll post an after-race recap, but it’s going to be fun!    

mitsubishicitychase.com

Tags: adventure, City Chase, competition, fun, odd, public transit, race, rapelling, The Amazing Race, vancouver