Olympic Fever

As an ex Vancouverite living south of the border, it's hard not to get caught up in Olympic Fever. It's right here, in my back yard, even though I now live in the U.S. The torch was going to pass through my little non-discript border town Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. I would be late for work! I got up early and did all the right things. Red jacket? Check! Believe toque? Check! Fresh batteries in camera? Check!
Even the best plans sometimes go array. I arrived at Peace Arch park, which is a 12-15 minute walk from my home. Standing on the hill looking down, I could see the crowd had already started to form and they lined up on both sides of the arch.

I pulled out my point and shoot trusty digital camera, snapped a couple of pictures and made my way down to the crowds

The bright light is not the torch, that's from all the tv crews set up on the other side of the Peace Arch. People politely lined up and made a path for the torch bearer to pass through. After taking these few pictures my camera gave me a warning "Batteries Exhausted". You've got to be kidding me, I just put new ones in before leaving home. Quickly I turned it off, hoping it would have a bit of juice left to capture at least one picture of the torch bearer.

Here is the torch arriving for the cross border ceremonies. Love the hockey sticks in the photo. Yes, it's blurry, it's the best my camera would do with the weak batteries

Here is the U.S. torch bearer taking the flame into the U.S. for several hundred yards.

This torch bearer is calmly waiting to take her turn, she would be running the torch back into Canada and on towards Vancouver.

These ladies? Well, I just had to see if I had one last picture in my batteries. These gal pals are 85 years old and came down from BC to see the torch pass through the Peace Arch. It was a cold morning, it was early. But they put on their Believe toques, bundled up and came out to see this once in a life time event.
Now that's team spirit!
Sharon