Lots of Glory for USA Team and Squaw Valley

Busy days. Lots of watching the Olympics, but not much time for blogging. Here's what's been happening:

• Lindsey Vonn collected 2 gold medals and Squaw Valley skier Julia Mancuso has won two silver medals. The Sierra Sun coverage of locals is the source to read more about Julia and her teammates. Bode Miller picked up a bronze medal in the downhill on Whistler.
• The Canadian hockey team won last night -- we are hoping they stay in the game to play against the USA Team when we finally arrive in Vancouver next week. Canadians LOVE hockey and it would be amazing to be surrounded by their fans at a game. Also, four of the members of the Canadian team are on the San Jose Sharks Hockey Team: Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thorton, and Dan Boyle.
• The NBC Olympics beat out American Idol on TV on Wednesday night. :)
  

Other: Flags and gloves.
Watching the Olympics, it is clear that fans and participants wave their country's flag or wear clothes with a flag or colors of their flag.... so we picked up a few American flags locally so we would not need to buy them at (predictably) higher prices in Vancouver.

Gloves are a natural for standing in the cold, but normal gloves are not ideal if you want to take lots of photos or videos. So, we picked up 2-part glove-mittens. The mitten portion can fold back so your fingers are free to work a camera. My pair is from Iowa-based FoxRiver.

Rescue Dog Invited to Winter Olympics

The Squaw Valley Ski Patrol Avalanche Rescue Dog Team has been invited to provide assistance at the Olympics in Vancouver. This is a big honor for the dog handlers and their four dogs. They are the only team invited to the Winter Olympics. Matt Calcutt will be coordinating the team in Vancouver.

See the Associated Press article about 3- year old black and white Border Collie Wylee and also see him in an action video

I first learned of avalanche rescue dogs in the 2009 book, "A Wall of White: The True Story of Heroism and Survival in the Face of a Deadly Avalanche" by Jennifer Woodlief. It is a gripping story of the March 31, 1982 avalanche at Alpine Meadows (Lake Tahoe, CA). Rescue dogs were new back then, but Bridget, a young German Shepherd, found and saved a woman member of the ski patrol who got buried in the main building of the Alpine Meadows Ski Resort. The book talked about WOOF, a nonprofit Wilderness Finders organization that was founded in 1975 in order to train dogs to rescue humans lost in the wilderness. Pick up a copy at the Bookshelf at the Boatworks in Tahoe City.

Another good book that includes avalanche rescue dogs is Tahoe mystery writer's book, "Tahoe Avalanche: An Owen McKenna Mystery Thriller." This is a great page-turner!

Heading North to Vancouver

This is a travel adventure blog by a California couple.
It is our first trip to Vancouver and Whistler.
It is our first Olympics.

We are doing our research, including watching The Olympic Series special collector's edition DVDs on the history of the Winter Olympics, Golden Moments 1920-2002.

We are following Squaw Valley's "tweets" on Twitter. They hosted the Winter Olympics back in 1960 and are eager to win the opportunity to host again in 2020. We plan to wear our Squaw Valley Olympic headbands when we are watching the outdoor activities on Whistler. We practiced using our Flip video device last month when Squaw Valley celebrated its 50th anniversary of hosting the Olympics.