Helen’s selling soap at a cart in a mall down in White Rock so wasn’t going to be able to see the parade as it passed near home but the day’s relay actually started (at a rather hideous 6:30am) down in White Rock just opposite her mall. So we decided to both go down to White Rock and see it there together.

Of course we were lateish leaving home. Took the side-roads through White Rock to avoid any traffic snarl-ups and by the time we got to the mall the parking lots were jam-packed. After getting the car sorted out we ran over to the start… only to be faced by crowds coming BACK in our direction… we’d missed it. Helen started walking down the road after it but a) there’s crowds of people coming back at us and getting in the way and b) the torch is being taken away from us by people RUNNING. Never going to win that battle.

So back to the car. The people in the car next to us had done their homework and knew where the torch was going next so we headed off to the sea-front to try and catch up with it. Parking along the sea-front was nuts… simply nuts. The parking lots were full, the streets were full, the residential areas were full. By the time we’d managed to find a parking spot (you know what’s coming, don’t you?) we’d missed it again. Helen goes into panic mode and we start running down the street after it – but you already know the problems with this, don’t you? We gave it a good try, running along the sea-front for a good ten minutes but to no avail. Defeated, we headed back to the car (which by now was a long way away).

At this point Helen’s getting despondent and realizing that she really rather wanted to see the torch. We checked the clock… 7:20. Torch is in North Delta at 8:35, mall opens at 9:30… hmmmm… we can just about make it there and back.

So off we head back to home (why didn’t we think of this before I’m thinking). We got back to North Delta and parked near the route. We had plenty of time to get a good spot, run into some people we knew and watch as other people turned out and filled up the route. Then the police start driving up and down and the road’s closed. The excitement levels are building as the sponsor’s vehicles pass by – lots of official torch relay bottles of coke and life-size Olympic mascots and… wait… the guy in that truck looks remarkably like John Biehler. Hey – it is! And Miss604 sitting in front of him!

Quite a surprise!!

Then the torch arrived. Pretty cool! But at the end of the day it’s just a guy in funny clothes jogging with a flaming torch. Admittedly not something that you see every day but somehow it seemed a little anti-climactic (or maybe that was just after the shock of seeing John and Rebecca). We all had a good laugh and then headed off for our days and we got back to White Rock JUST in time for Helen to open up.

Some more pictures: