Our first night in Whistler was also the first night since the journey began that we actually got a good night's sleep. After scratching our heads and wondering what happened the night before around 11am, we got excited we'd gotten so much shut eye. Our new Whistler sectional sofa completely did the trick to get us rested up to go see Canada go for bobsleigh gold and - if you can believe it - skip the Russia/Canada hockey game to do it...

Zed and I had a long and spirited conversation after several cocktails the night before to address our dilemma. On one hand, you have Canada poised to win bobsleigh gold with a second team sitting in the bronze medal position - and we had tickets. On the other hand, you had the Canada/Russia hockey game that everyone in two countries had been buzzing about since Canada finished off Germany early last night - but it was on TV. Zed and I unanimously decided that we would wear our Thornton and Getzlaf jerseys under layers of jackets and sweater, watch the first period in a bar, and then head up for the finals. It turned out to be a great move.

After heading into town, we b-lined for the GLC, a bar where a certain youth-oriented, music-themed Canadian cable network has been broadcasting every day since the start of the Olympics. Our buddy is one of the producers and we were hoping to have some drinks with him and watch the first period of Canada/Russia at his "workplace". It turned out that working 24 consecutive days in rainy Whistler had left him pretty sick. And bitter. We found this hilarious (if you find this cruel, you just have to know the guy). We caught up with him while he sipped tea, Canada jumped out to a 4-1 first period lead and we started to feel a lot more comfortable taking off for the bobsleigh.  

We got on the Gondola and were seated with a family of four from Vancouver, the Hislops, who also were a little miffed about abandoning our hockey team to head up the mountain. But it turned out to be a great call. Karma played its hand when we got to the top and found that beer was $6.50. Anyone who's ever gone to a sporting event knows that beer is not $6.50. It's just unnatural. But these beers were $6.50 and we were on a Gold medal mountain!

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After we got down from the mountain about 40 minutes after the big win, I was still buzzing (not a reference to the local herbal culture) with the excitement of where we were and what we just saw. So what better place to kill a buzz than to wait an hour for a table at a restaurant? But continuing the trend of our unbelievable day, the sushi at Sushi VIillage was worth the wait - and Zed even got to try hot sake for the first time. And loved it.

The night continued from there as we hopped to a bar called Moe Joe's to have a drink and watch the Sweden/Slovakia game's 3rd period (gotta scout the opposition). The place was recommended to us by our friend, "The Angriest Man in Whistler", who works for that youth-oriented, music-themed Canadian network. We should've realized he was a poor source. We weren't really feeling the place to begin with and soon after it became hard to watch the game because clouds of synthetic smoke were rising up from under our chairs and green and red lasers were shooting in our eyes. After the Slovaks knocked off the Swedes we stood up and noticed the oldest girl in the bar was 18 and we immediately headed to grab our jackets from the (mandatory) coat check. BS. Good tip Trav.

From here the night went on into a million little stories, but let's just say this. We celebrated with a lot of Canadians - including some wearing flags as dresses. We ran into a TON of Aussies - Whistler has as many as any town on the Gold Coast. We had a few celebratory shots - including a local concoction called a Marijuana Milkshake. And we ended up in a lineup to get into a party put on by the US Ski Team before pulling the plug and heading back to our beloved sectional sofa at Kristen and Johnny's.

All-in-all a Gold Medal day. Go Canada.