This post may be a bit late but what the hey!

Husband has been working every day since Feb. 5th as an Olympics volunteer, but he managed to get one day off - Valentine's Day. The Finnish fellow who he is assigned to thought this was an unusual day to celebrate. But husband thinks that the fellow's wife may have thought differently.

We started our day with breakfast at a local cafe and then walked to Chinatown to see the Chinese New Years parade. Thankfully, the weather had improved so there was no more rain and we really enjoyed all the dragons, drummers, dancers and their colourful costumes. All the local politians were handing our red envelopes with a candy inside (instead of lucky money).

From Chinatown we made our way to Gastown, the historic centre of original Vancouver and although is was only mid-morning the streets were starting to fill with people.

It was almost noon when we reached the German pavilion, so husband thought it was time for a beer. We could have paid to go into the big beer garden and watch the events on big screen TVs but we resumed our walk instead.

Our next stop was the Olympic cauldron and although it is very impressive, its too bad that a chain link fence prevents people from getting very close.

We continued along the waterside walkway and observed how many visitors were walking there as well. Finally, we reached Stanley Park but we didn't stay there too long and headed back into the downtown. As we approached the centre, the streets and sidewalks became more and more crowded. CTV was broadcasting at Robson and Burrard, so there were lots of people there watching the events and the newscasters. A little further on, Granville Street was a sea of people and street performers. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and that created a wonderful atmosphere.

We passed some of the other pavilions (there are lots since provinces, countries and corporate sponsors are almost all represented by a pavilion) but the line ups were so long that we decided to just enjoy the day.

That night we walked back to Chinatown for our dinner (Chinese food on Chinese New Year of course) and later on went out onto the balcony when Canada won its first gold medal and the downtown erupted (cow bells ringing, horns honking, people cheering, and so on).

What a day!