Cin Cin and Chan

Day 2...

A little bit more of a sane start today. With such a late night at the Victory Ceremonies, it wasn't hard to sleep.

Today is going to be a fun day, one that Rugge especially has been eager to see come: lunch at Cin Cin (Vancouver's highly acclaimed Italian restuarant). We tried to eat a light breakfast then just hung out in our room until it was time to get dressed up. The restaurant was a few blocks away so we left time to get dressed up and walk down.

We had chosen our fanciest clothes for the lunch also to be attended by CN executives. It was kinda cool strolling the streets of downtown Vancouver in our duds. Cin Cin is in the heart of Vancouver but it's entrance is a stairway leading up to the second floor. It was far from packed but the ritziness isn't for your average tourist. One driver thought we might very well see some rock stars or celebrities. Today, we were the ones who felt like rock stars. In typical Italian fashion, we order primo, fromagio and secondo. Rugge just drank it all in, taking advantage of the full range of the menu items. It was joked that none of the rest of us would be ordering for ourselves but Rugge would be chosing for us so, in fact, he would benefit from 6 three course servings. Fancy dishes, which I could not spell for you, arrived in a constant flow for the 3 hour meal. They were delicious to the palate as well as the eye. Once the last expresso was enjoyed, the girls, Jesse and I ran to our drive ready for the next highlight of the day.

With a quick change and a our tickets around our necks, the 4 of us were driven to the Pacific Colesium past the PCE fairgrounds. I think I was taking there 18 years ago by Heather and Christian? Beautiful Mountain backdrop again! The show is just starting as we take our seats: second row from the ice and right across from the cameras! I had facebooked friends to look for the waving Canada Flag so I made sure to drap the flag over the unoccupied seats in front of us. The show was organized in 3 groups of 2 sets of skaters separated by a rink flooding. We had arrived during the first 6 minute warm up. The lower ranked skaters were to start the competition but some skaters hadn't competed for a couple years and began again specifically for the Olympics.

Marina, being the figure skater of the family, knew the skaters and the moves but learned so much from seeing the skating so beautifully performed so close she could almost feel the spray from their skates as they went by. Plushenko has been one of her favourites and he rocked his program staying in first through the whole night having skated in an early group being an unranked skater. There were some "oooh" and "aaah" moments when skaters performed beautifully but there were many "oops" times with falls and singles instead of triples or quads. Of course a highlight was watching Chan skate to cheers and wild support from the crowd. We left the arena thankful for the amazing tickets, that we had a driver to take us home, and that we'd be coming back for long program on Thursday. My camera took some amazing pictures which I'll have to post somehow.

Back to the hotel where Rugge had just arrived with Gabe, friend Jamie, and our friend JoAnne (whom we will be staying with during week 2 and 3) with her friend. Since we could not all go to the Victory Ceremonies that night, Rugge had given our tickets to friends for the show. And what a show it was! Barenaked Ladies (I love Ed Robertson!) rocked the BC Place thrilling especially JoAnne!

It was my first time seeing JoAnne so Rugge took Jesse up to bed while the rest of us ordered some wings and chips and kept the party going. There won't be any problems sleeping tonight.

ink