Day 2 from Vancouver

We had a great day in Vancouver. Derek was off at 8:30am to the curling venue. Production meetings, tests, meeting the "talent," saw the inside of the curling venue, etc. He will be supporting Don Duguid, Colleen Jones, and Andrew Catalan. Elfi Schlegel is also there - so Derek got to meet and hang out with her too (he says he's in with her because he told her how to get free chocolate at the Swiss house). In the afternoon, he went to the International Broadcasting Center downtown to pick up his computer and some other stuff. He got to walk right up to the Olympic cauldron and get some pics - very cool.

In the meantime - I got up early and went to the Olympic Superstore first thing. Got my credit card declined so had to sort that out - I guess they didn't like the fact that we were in Vancouver. When I got outside - there was a protest going on (I have no idea what they were protesting). Right as it got to where I was standing - these guys grabbed the newspaper boxes and threw them into the streets. Then this one guy was holding a rock or something and came up right beside me (like 3 ft away) and starting smashing in the display window of The Bay!! My eyes got real wide and I started walking quickly in the other direction. Lots of tourists/spectators were just standing around. About a block away - I saw the riot police marching towards them in formation. Crazy! And it was only 10am!

I walked down to Yaletown, took the False Creek Ferry to Granville Island (literally the smallest ferry I've ever seen) and checked out Granville Island. Very cool place - amazing public market, neat shops - lots of fun.

Met up with Jennifer and J Atkinson out in Richmond (they were watching speedskating) - and saw the Dutch mob at the Heineken House - a Dutch guy (Kramer) had just one speedskating gold. So no way were we going to be able to get into there. Picked up Derek at the hotel and went to a nearby bar and then onto Granville Island for dinner.

Today - Derek gets picked up at 11:30 and will be out all day. I'm off to the Aquarium for a Dolphin Encounter (go Flipper!) and then I got suckered into teaching some CNBC'ers how to curl this afternoon. Borrowed shoes, borrowed pants - hey, Elly was great when she did this - so hopefully I'll do ok.