And What a Day it was…

Unbelievable experience.  We were walking to the bus stop to go into Whistler to hear Ali Milner and her band play at the Olympic Torch Lighting celebration.  As we got to the corner the torch was actually going by!  A life experience.  Made me cry.  So rather than wait at the bus stop, we followed it out to the highway.

Ali on the big screen at the Olympic Torch Lighting

When we got into town, we went over to Skiers' Plaza.  Huge stage.  And absolutely enormous crowds.  Finally we saw the flame coming in from up the mountain, driven by our friend Julia Murray on snowmobile.  Julia is the daughter of Crazy Canuck, Dave Murray, and she will compete on the Skier Cross team this Olympics.  She handed the torch off to another Crazy Canuck and also a good friend, Steve Podborski who skied down the mountain with it.  I cried again.  Steve handed it off to Tyler Allison, a grade 12 student here in Whistler, who is a future Olympic hopeful for the London Games.  Tyler lit the cauldron.  Ali sang O Canada, and guess what,  9000 people in the Plaza sang along with her.  What a moment!

After some speeches,  Ali and the band played a terrific up beat set that had the crowd dancin' on the snow.  Lots of folks were filming.  I hope it ends up on YouTube.  Let us know. Then Ali grabbed her keyboard and raced over to the Whistler-Canada Olympic House to play for another party with the Premier.  An absolutely fantastic night.  We are all caught up in Olympic fever.