For the Vancouver Olympics, I had lodging on the famous Granville Avenue. I was told, if you followed USA Interstate 5 that starts at the Mexican border, all the way through California, Oregon, and Washington state, to the Canadian border, then kept on the I-5 counterpart in Canada, it would eventually turn into Granville Avenue! In fact, my hotel was called Chateau Granville, a Best Western property. I thought it was interesting that in their outdoor seating area, there were blankets at all the tables! These people are equipped for cold temperatures! A large portion of Granville was completely blocked off to automobile traffic, and designated as a "Pedestrians Only Corridor". In place of cars in the streets, there were many exhibits, and "Kodak Moments" set-ups.
Granville was also the location for numerous olympic pin-trading vendors. It is quite a popular hobby to collect Olympic pins from the past decades of games held around the world.
There was plenty of shopping along Granville. One store window showed that everything in their store was made from ripped-up and re-designed denim (upper left). The sign of another store was painted on skateboards (lower left). A contest was also underway to design mosaic tiles for their "Art Under Foot" beautification project. (upper right photo). One store that normally sold only linens and mattresses "recreated" themselves in order to draw traffic into their store. They had a display of all the official Olympic mascots stuffed animals in front of a bobsled, where you could have your photo made (lower right)
Granville took on a whole different look at night, with TV broadcasters often doing live interviews from that location (upper right). The sculpture on the lower right is made from plastic beverage bottles and the lantern "trees" on the lower left photo consisted of lanterns made by Canadian school children. The dampness of the streets made for nice reflections. This area had a huge police presence, including a platoon of mounted policemen that kept things under control. I felt safe being out in the pedestrian corridors after dark, not only because of the abundance of law enforcement officers, but also because of a new Bible verse I learned for this trip: "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;" Psalm 91:5 Miles of smiles! Tricia
Granville was also the location for numerous olympic pin-trading vendors. It is quite a popular hobby to collect Olympic pins from the past decades of games held around the world.
There was plenty of shopping along Granville. One store window showed that everything in their store was made from ripped-up and re-designed denim (upper left). The sign of another store was painted on skateboards (lower left). A contest was also underway to design mosaic tiles for their "Art Under Foot" beautification project. (upper right photo). One store that normally sold only linens and mattresses "recreated" themselves in order to draw traffic into their store. They had a display of all the official Olympic mascots stuffed animals in front of a bobsled, where you could have your photo made (lower right)
Granville took on a whole different look at night, with TV broadcasters often doing live interviews from that location (upper right). The sculpture on the lower right is made from plastic beverage bottles and the lantern "trees" on the lower left photo consisted of lanterns made by Canadian school children. The dampness of the streets made for nice reflections. This area had a huge police presence, including a platoon of mounted policemen that kept things under control. I felt safe being out in the pedestrian corridors after dark, not only because of the abundance of law enforcement officers, but also because of a new Bible verse I learned for this trip: "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;" Psalm 91:5 Miles of smiles! Tricia
