Olympic Pride

Yesterday the Olympic torch found its way to Calgary. I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival for the last week. And finally it was time.

The timing was perfect. Jimmy picked me up at work a smidge early. We found a parking spot right outside my apartment and bundled up a little for the anticipated wait. 1410 was a short stroll in the afternoon sun from my place and the olympic torch was promising to pass right along 17th Ave turning at 14th street.

We made it to the restaurant at 5 and as I had anticipated the place was still fairly open with a couple of tables right along the windows facing the street. Jimmy ordered us some snacks while I looked up the route on the iphone. Never hurts to double check, right??

As the web page open, I slightly panicked as it was only listing the 17th ave route up to 8th street. But the interactive map link confirmed that we were sitting on the route.You could feel the excitement in the air as others piled inside to wait it out and the streets started to fill with red jackets and touques, scarfs and flags. Yeah!! This was going to be perfect.

Our snacks arrived and we alternated between people watching or trying to determine where on the route the torch was at with the live olympic coverage on the tvs. The excitement continued to grow and I could no longer contain it. I think Jimmy was laughing at me as I kept checking my phone to see what time it was.

The timing was perfect, our snacks were done, the bill was paid, we bundled up and found a spot on the sidewalk right as Brenda was walking over to join us!!

Before we had a chance to pick up any swag, we could hear the music coming our way. The first of the caravan was the Coca Cola stage.

It even had a live band on it.

Next came the RBC stage. What a great job that would be - to follow the Olympic torch all over this beautiful country of ours!

After a moment's reprieve, the cheering started again and we could see the torch heading our way.

\

I was so excited with everything that i didn't hold the camera still for any of the pics . . oops!!! Just passed us, another runner got out of the van folloiwng the torch and we saw the flame pass between the two. The runner that went past us turned out to be someone with 1410 - kind of cool!

The tower had the flame lit for the olymjpic torch celebration downtown at Olympic plaza. When Jimmy and I got back to my place, we went out onto my balcony and were able to watch it.

What a fantastic evening it was. I couldn't have imagined it any better than it was.