Canada 3 - USA 2

Canada 3 - USA 2. What a game!

Period 1:
Goal Canada: Jonathan Toews (12:50)

Period 2:
Goal Canada: Coery Perry (7:13)
Goal USA: Ryan Kesler (12:44)

Period 3:
Goal USA: Zach Parise (19:35)

Overtime:
Goal Canada: Sidney Crosby (7:40)

As against the Slovaks, Canada came out strong in the first two periods, and then sat on their lead. And again, the opponents - this time the Americans - came back. But that final goal in overtime, my goodness ... my goodness, the city erupted with joy ... great joy ... great joy.

Breakfast before the game, at Provence.

We watched the game at Jen's, and afterwards, we walked around the city to take in the atmosphere. Hidden in the picture below are Jennifer, Vero, Sanjit, and Benja. And actually, my original intent in taking this picture was to capture a guy wearing a Scottish kilt, but as soon as I pointed the camera at him, the "subject" just grew!

Spontaneous street hockey games broke out on the streets in Yaletown as well as other parts of the city.















I was pretty much able to point my camera in any direction and capture something interesting, people...

...standing on business awnings, or sitting on light poles:




























...with painted faces:




























...sporting patriotic shirts, sweaters, hats, and gloves; and many of them carried the maple leaf flag:















...driving the streets of downtown, honking their horns, waving flags:















...with big smiles.















At Robson and Burrard the police directed traffic.

It took us 2 hours to walk about 30 blocks, from Jen's place in Yaletown, to a Thai restaurant on Robson just past Thurlow. After stopping for dinner, we went for some ice cream (chocolate and coconut)...

...and after that we made our way back to Jen's. In the meantime, it'd gotten dark, but the party was still on:

We finally got back to Jen's around 11, just in time to get a glimpse of the final night of fireworks in the city:

Canada's win against the USA also meant that we'd won 14 gold medals, the most ever by a host nation.

I'm a bit sad to see the Olympics go. I've witnessed a lot of great spectacles - most notably the last 4 World Cups, some Formula 1 races in the late 90's during the Jacques Villeneuve era, and of course, various fúbol events in my birthplace of Paraguay - where people's joyful expression are part and parcel of the draw, but this was special because it occurred in my adopted home, Canada.

It was a great day (and indeed, a great 2 weeks), to be Canadian.