Hello fellow deviants around the world!

As I am typing this, I am in my hotel room in the great city of Vancouver B.C., Canada. As the whole world knows, this is the very city that will host the 2010 winter olympics in mid Feburary. I just got a quick look at what the city has to offer so far and it looks quite promising. Here is what I have to share with everyone reading this. This journal will keep track of what I've seen from August 24-28.

Day 1: August 24, 2009
I arrive late in the afternoon and already see the city still getting prepared for the big day next year. While there's plenty of construction going around, I see plenty of it in the form of loft apartment buildings. For sushi fanactics like me, this place is paradise. Even before arriving at my hotel I already walked by like ten different sushi restaurants.

Shortly after unpacking and exploring the city, I already spot a humongous Olympic landmark counting down to the day when the city hosts the Olympics, down to the last second.
Going through the various grocery stores I instantly recognized the differences in food prices at a Safeway store.

Gallon of milk: $6.00
Half gallon of ice cream: $9.00
Box of common cereal: $6.00
Cut of steak: $15.00-$25.00/lb

Surprisingly the cost of fresh produce costs about the same. I guess you can call it Canada's attempt at getting it's citizens to eat healthier and/or go vegan.

Day 2: August 25, 2009
Getting up early, I took the straight route to Stanley park. At 1,000 acres, it's the largest park located within the downtown metro area of the city. After spending most of the morning at the park and seeing the many trees and birds, I started going along the northern Vancouver Harbour seeing loads of boats as well as Canada place and the Vancouver Convention centre.

Going through the historic Gastown, I began the mighty trek along Hastings Drive to the Pacific Coliseum, one of the places the will host sporting events for the Olympics. After going through Chinatown and its' historical garden, I finally checked out the General Motors Place and of course, the BC Place Stadium. BC Place Stadium is the very place that will host the opening and closing ceremonies and be the first place in olympic history to host these ceremonies indoors. Yaletown was also quite ineresting, looking just like the Pearl District in Portland.

There were many gift shops hawking gifts and souviners revolving around the winter Olympics, but none like the ones in Gastown. Many were packed with olympic memorabillia. It's there that I learned more about the Olympic Mascots of 2010 they include...

Miga - A mystical sea bear. Part orca and part kermode bear. All black and white.

Quatchi - A common sasquatch (bigfoot) who enjoys playing all winter games. All brown.

Sumi - An animal guardian spirit with the wings of a thunderbird, legs of a black bear and hat of an orca whale. With a brown body and green clothes, he is my favorite of them all.

Mukmuk - A Vancouver island marmot. Not an official mascot, but a sidekick. Short and brown, he reminds me of a brown Pikachu.

All these mascots are seen on everything from keychains, t-shirts, plush toys and even coffee mugs. With so many to chose from, I just got myself a few signature postcards, but I might get a few more souvenirs in the future.

Day 3: August 26, 2009
I started the day by taking the bus over to the University of British Columbia (UBC) to check out the UBC Winter Sports Centre as well as the campus. Taking the opportunity I checked out Vancouver's famous "Wreck Beach" and eventually stayed a while. Then it was off to the Vancouver Olympic Centre at Hillcrest park. That pretty much sums it up for the Olympic Venues in the Vancouver metro area. Taking the opportunity, I took a look at the shops along Broadway and Granville. Heading bak to downtown Vancouver, I checked out the Edgewater Casino and felt like I was back in Vegas, surprisingly they didn'thave blackjack. Taking the long way around False Creek, I stopped in Granvile Island and checked out the many authentic shops.

In addition to all of this, I finally took the time to visit the local banks and add a lot more to my Canadian coin collection. I almost got all the Olympic commemeratives. But there's still a lot more to collect and it looks like I won't be able to complete all my Canadian coin folders this week.

Day 4: August 27, 2009
Storm Hawks fans rejoice! Saving one of my top wanted places for last, I finally went down to the Nerd Corps studio outside downtown Vancouver and checked out and photographed the place from the outside. The place looks nothing more than a brown storage building with a few windows and a small parking lot. I was lucky enough to see a few of the animators come in to work. Like the Cyclonian Talons, they're people who are in their 20's and early 30's. Some even had backpacks and looked like nothing more than college students. Makes me wonder is Asaph Flipke is a guy who's around my age.

Since I already saw everything that I wanted to see, I went back to working on my coin collection. Currently I have all the Olympic commemorative quarters except all the last one of 2009. Along with that, I got a few more Olympic souvenirs to take home as well.

In conclusion this was a trip was well worthwhile and I really enjoyed everyday of it, even though my feet got sore from all the walking. Deviants who are reading this, make note that I actually plan on going back to Vancouver again, one week before the Winter Olympics officaly begin. Possibly see where all the athletes are hanging out and maybe even run into some of them.

Good bye from Vancouver and keep hoping for a great opening and closing ceremony!