The big city

The weather here seems to be drifting into that inevitable pattern we all know so well--blue skies and sunshine Monday thru Thursday, clouds and rain Friday through Sunday. If we still lived in Michigan, this probably would have been a sit at home with a book weekend, but if we had those days every time it rains here we'd be doing a whole lot of sitting at home. So this weekend...we explored. 

This week marks the one year anniversary of the 2010 Winter Olympics, which were hosted right here in Beautiful British Columbia. The whole country seems to spark with excitement all over again. On TV every station is playing highlight reels and holding interviews with Olympic stars, everyone is nostalgically recalling Canada's last stand in the Hockey event, and in the big city (Vancouver), streets are being closed and events are held to relive the magic. Everyone is so eager to re-ignite that Canadian pride that they felt here a year ago. I couldn't feel more out of place. But the fact that Jared and I are not Canadian didn't hold us back from hopping in the car this Saturday and heading into the big city to attend Illuminate Yaletown, a "free winter party in Yaletown featuring contemporary light art installations", as is printed on the promotional pamphlet. 

Jared had discovered this event online somewhere around Monday, so all week we set our little hearts on going on Saturday. And naturally, when we awoke on Saturday morning, the skies were gray and the rain was falling in earnest. And it didn't let up as the day went on, but we threw on our boots and raincoats, packed dinner in our thermos as planned and headed into town anyway (though we were a little reluctant, to be honest). And miracle of miracles, as we headed closer to the coast we saw this:

This is some sort of technology / science / machinery museum? Perhaps that will be another grand adventure (maybe there's a coupon for it in our entertainment book!)

Blue skies! We arrived just in time for the clouds to roll back enough to give us a spectacular sunset over the city. Our raincoats, to our amazement, were completely unnecessary. In fact, as the night progressed, we actually saw the moon and the stars.  So we spent the rest of the evening poking around the city. 

At the crack of 6:00 when the event started, we were in line with the rest of the city, waiting patiently to enter the Roundhouse Community Center. At the first stop, we helped transform an old train engine into a "constellation of thousands of tiny lights!" (also a direct quote from the pamphlet..it's just so concise, you know?) Basically each participant made a little light out of a battery, some sort of LED and (apparently) a tiny magnet. Then, once it was finished, you could just throw your little light at the train and it would stick right to it. Unfortunately our craft station, as we later discovered, was not equipped with the tiny magnant, so when we threw our little lights at the train they just plunked right off. So we lovingly tapped them to the train instead. My little phone camera doesn't really do dark photos..but I gave it my best shot. 

Here is the train:

We were kind of at the beginning of the group, so it wasn't all that cool :) 

But these balloons were:

They were controlled by some sort of motion sensor technology--"become the avatar and create your own experience!" We didn't wait in line to do that, but the balloons still looked pretty.

And so were these lantern things:

I kind of wish I'd had both of those at my wedding :) 

These rock like structures lit up in synchronization with background music. They were pretty neat. 

So all in all, the actual event was kind of a let down, but it was a good excuse to get into the city and explore a bit. And there were a lot of people walking around in their Olympic pride gear, boasting their Maple Leaf mittens and holding little Canadian flags, which was kind of fun to see. For me, it was just a fun chance to spend some time with my husband, and that's always worth it :)