Feb. 22 - Heading to Richmond

We take off tomorrow, so it was up early to watch the USA-Finland Bronze medal game in the Olympics.  We got the first 2 periods in,  and then went to breakfast with a bunch of Doug and Stella's friends (they meet for breakfast at different restaurants every Saturday morning).  It was a nice visit, as we know most of the people.  There was only one fellow we hadn't met previously, and he was easy to talk to.  He was quit interested in our trip to the World Junior tournament, so we had lots to talk about.

After breakfast, we headed back to Stella's place (Doug went to the farm to work on some electrical repairs to the barn).  We watched the last period of the game, even though we already knew the final score.  Hard as it is to believe, we felt somewhat sorry for the Americans, even though we didn't mind that they had lost.  It was like their hearts weren't in it (just like Canada's wouldn't have been if they had lost yesterday).

After that, it was get the car loaded up and leave for Richmond. 

Little bit of Snow This Morning

It had snowed in the morning, and there was about 2 cm at Doug and Stella's house.  The temperature was just about zero, so it was really close to rain.  The roads were wet, but not slushy, and traffic moved quite well on the freeway.

We got to Richmond in plenty of time to check into our hotel and then go over to the Richmond Oval to meet with the fellow about the Speed Skating Championships that I will be doing Photo Finish for late in March.  That is a pretty impressive complex.  There are 2 ice rinks for hockey/speed skating, 6 basketball courts, a number of ping pong table courts, and of course their indoor track.  All this on the second floor because there is parking on the level below.

I got a chance to get a run-through of the equipment they have, and a look at how the set-up for the event.  This gives me an idea of what I will need to bring with me, and an idea of how the system will work with all the steps.  At first glance, it is very similar to what we do at track meets, but I know the process is very quick.  Hopefully Daniel can come down so we can set up our network and work two computers.

After that, we needed to purchase a few things for the trip, then we went and had dinner at White Spot.  Once again, a very nice meal, although there was a hockey team of little kids in there eating with their parents.  The kids were quite loud, and their parents seemed to think it was "cute".  We didn't agree, as I'm sure the rest of the patrons in the restaurant didn't, too.

Then, back to our hotel to get our bags sorted out.  We had to get the weight down to 20kg for the trip out, and figure out what we were leaving in the car.  Most of that thinking was done already, but the few final things were important to get organized.  After that, it was finish off this blog post, do some emailing, plug in the electronics to make sure things are charged, and then get ready for bed.

Just watching some TV now, but I figure we will be in bed before too long.  Tomorrow is going to be a long day.  We are supposed to fly out at 12:20 pm, but there is some snow happening now, so maybe we won't be on time.  We'll see.  I suppose the next time I will be able to add to this blog is when we are in China.  Again, we don't know what our internet access will be, but if there is access that will work, I will be adding to this as often as possible.