Olympics

Phil and I cruised from one end of the Olympic park to the other today. It’s ENORMOUS! Long lines preceded entering the Olympic park, Olympic super store shopping, and ordering dinner at McDonald’s (the only food choice by the way). However, we had a BLAST!
We managed to make our way down to the almost front row seats for the “Women’s Final Pole Vaulting” competition (not our original seats). We got to see an amazing Russian athlete, Isinbaeva, earn the gold medal in the sport as well as set a new world record for vaulting 5 meters and 5 centimeters. It was incredible to be a part of her process conferring with her coach and managing her level of nervousness. It was a total rush to be surrounded by so many people with Olympic athletes performing long jump, pole vault, steeple chase (I’d never even heard of this before-very similar to hurdles and involving water), discus, 200 meter prelim, 800 meter run, 100 meter hurdles, 400 meter hurdles, and I’m sure I’ve already forgotten something.
The buildings were fascinating and unique. The Olympic Park subway station was artistically framed in red lights and decked out red and white drums that sort of look like white caviar to me. The Water Cube continuously changed colors while the Bird’s Nest was consistently red. Armies of Olympic workers kept things running smoothly. And at the end of the night, they lined up military style and marched in step out of the building as all of the visitors left.