Day 163: 2nd Day of Olympic Festivities

Today was a full day of Olympic festivities. I started off at Granville Island then went to Richmond Ozone.

My parents and I went to Granville Island at 1:30pm. We walked around to see what was happening. We heard some music in the Place de Francophone area (by Performance Works). It was some performers drumming in the air. It was so neat to watch. It happened to be just a rehearsal and the show was starting at 5:30pm. We didn't have time to watch the final show. We didn't go in Swiss house (Bridges Restaurant) because it was a restaurant serving Swiss food. It wasn't a pavilion and anything to see. We missed the 2pm food sampling at Atlantic House. I showed them some of the houses on the water behind Emily Carr. There was an art gallery close by and we went to see that. After that, I met up with my friends in front of Emily Carr and my parents went home. My friends and I went to have some lunch at the public market. After lunch we stood in line for an hour for the free food samples at Atlantic House. We had halibut ceviche, yellow split pea cake, salted beef and pickled root vegetables and smoked salmon sphere, creme cheese and caramelized apples. The food samples were so delicious. We then walked back into downtown to pick up the car to drive to Richmond.



I have never been to the Richmond Ozone before. We were there to see the Lion Dance because it is Chinese New Year today. It was great. There were 10 lions dancing on stage at the same time. I have never seen anything like that before. There were two large screens there for us to watch. The right screen had the video of the performance that was happening. The left screen had the highlights of the days' events. I think because it is Chinese New Years, there were Chinese kung fu demonstrations and Chinese singers. We only stayed to watch the opening act and two songs of the main act. Before the concerts, there were fireworks. It was only 10 minutes long but it was almost as good as the fireworks at English Bay. We ended our night at Pearl Castle in Richmond Center. I shared a seafood hot pot and logan hot bubble tea with a friend. Great way to end the night!