Three of the four ICS drivers for Panasonic arrived at work this morning for 7:30am ready to start one of our busy days. We knew that we had several places to take our clients including venues and restaurants. Around lunchtime, we were pulled aside and asked if we had plans for the evening. We all had the same plans - to return home and watch the opening ceremonies with our friends and families. These plans were about to change. We were told that Panasonic wanted to offer us four tickets to the Opening Ceremonies (there are four drivers, three on duty at any given time). We called the fourth driver and passed the news on to her, only to be told five minutes later that the tickets might not be available after all. We spent the afternoon waiting to find out if we were going and if so, how many of us would be going. While we were passing the time, we went up to one of the rooms in the hotel that we are using as a lounge. We had a terrific view down over Burrard and Robson Street. We could see a large number of police officers standing in the street, blocking all traffic. Then we saw a large vehicle pull out of the back of the Hotel Vancouver. It was followed by another car and another and another. In the end, there were 16 vehicles in the motorcade and we could see US flags on the some of the vehicles. We realized then that we were looking at the motorcade carrying Joe Biden. It sure made the view interesting.
At 3:15pm, we were finally told that we were all going!
The four of us headed out to BC Place. Dick went by his apartment first and the three girls, Sabine, Emily, and I all walked across town. We walked past Robson Square to see the countdown clock, now at less than two hours until the start of the games. We continued along with crowds of people until we arrived at the stadium. We were all so excited to be there that we hadn't even noticed that our tickets were worth $1,100 each! Unbelievable!!!
We made our way to our seats and picked up our audience participation kits which included a bluish/white poncho, a commemorative program, a flashlight, and a candle. Every person wore the poncho which created a screen on which images were projected. The flashlights and candles were used during the ceremony for stars, lightning, and flames.
I loved the perfomances by Brian Adams, Nelly Furtado, and KD Lang and the show was great. I thought that the people chosen to carry the Olympic flag were wonderful. I also thought that it was really special that there was not just one person to light the cauldron but four!
Sometime this week, I will have to make my way back to the waterfront area to see the outdoor cauldron. I am going to treasure the memories from tonight forever!
On my way home from the show, I was driving along Hastings Street when I came across another motorcade. This one was a little different though in that it was led and followed by police vehicles but constisted of about 20 motor coaches. I couldn't figure out what they were all about until they turned onto Highway 1, headed for Whistler. I realized then that they were the buses carrying all of the athletes from the ceremony back up to the Whistler venues.
What a day!
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