Day 10 of my Vancouver 2010 Olympic experience involved getting up early and heading to Yaletown to drink some gin ahead of the big game. Over the last year or so I’ve received many requests to judge competitions, from chocolate recipes to essay contests and most of all, mixology.

The judges – Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

Yesterday George in Yaletown hosted the first-ever Mixlympics, an international bar-tending competition featuring Martin Miller’s Gin. Contestants needed to use the gin and one of five block box items in their drinks. With 10 minutes to prepare 4 drinks for the judges, it was a heated and frenzied battle, but there were good spirits all around.

International Contestants

Canadian Contestants

Photo credit: John Bollwitt – View all on Flickr

Two competitors hit the bar at a time, walking out to their own theme music and sporting their nation’s flag. Once they were in place, the “black box” ingredients were revealed. They received bonus marks for incorporating any of these items in their drinks.

Black Box Items

One sip from each as I judged tasty and creative concoctions. Every now and then we were also given some food samples from the restaurant – from scallops and bacon-wrapped sablefish to potato skins stuffed with pulled pork.

In the end, hometown favourite Mark Brand took home the gold medal. Not only was his drink creative and delicious, he used two of the black box ingredients and even made bitters on the fly. For even more bonus points, he served his drink in a Calgary ’88 Olympics glass from Petro Canada.

Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

It was a great international competition that I see picking up steam and potentially being a hit in future Olympic cities. At the end of the day though, we took home a gold and a real silver thanks to Kristina Groves’ performance in long track speedskating.

Medal Count for Canada on Day 10 – February 21, 2010
Gold: 4
Silver: 4
Bronze: 1
View full medal count by country

Day 9 for me at the Vancouver 2010 Games included hanging out with John for the first time in a while. We took it easy in the morning before heading out to Granville to cover the red carpet at Club Bud‘s NHL party for several hours in the evening.

As each guest passed through, many were stopped for interviews which consisted of a few staple questions. Are you enjoying your time in Vancouver? Can you believe this crowd?. All of the celebrities took spent time with each reporter, posed for photos, and then headed up the stairs into the enveloping dance-beats of the Commodore.

Red carpet stars included: Jon Hamm, Hayden Christensen (with Rachel Bilson), Lochlyn Munro, Kristi Yamaguchi (with Bret Hedican), Michael Bublé, Logan Huffman, Geoff Stults, Bryan Greenberg, Shaun Majumder, Patrick Chan, Tara Lipinski, Joe Sakic (who just squeezed by as media was distracted) and many more.

Some other special guests were Chris Walts and Michael Doyle from The 49th Parallel podcast. Chris won the chance to be the Club Bud “Party Crasher” to document the night using social media on behalf of Club Bud. Even yours truly was interviewed as well for Shaw TV.

Inside VIPs mingled about the crowd, obliging fan girls and boys with Facebook profile-boosting photos, before heading to their lounge behind the velvet rope. The atmosphere inside the venue was far different than the previous evening that was hosted by Burton with more men in jerseys and women in micro-dresses. However, the attitude was happy, joyful, and boy could the Bud-pumped crowd bust a move.

Club Bud is hosting three more nights with sponsors Under Armour, lululemon athletica, and the Budweiser party itself on February 25th.

All photos by John Bollwitt for Miss604.com – view the rest of the set on Flickr. You can view all of my Twitpics from the red carpet here: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Once the Vancouver 2010 Olympic party comes to an end it won’t be with a grinding halt. Many attractions will still be open to the public throughout the Paralympic Games March 12th until the 21st.

Pavilions & Attractions
From my master list of pavilions the following will still be open:

This may be the perfect time to check out some of the pavilions that were just too crowded during the Olympics. With 150,000 people leaving the streets and heading back home, I know Vancouver will suffer a bit of depression when the party’s over.

Photo credit: Tyler Ingram on Flickr

Our city’s equipped to entertain year-round so be sure to check out Vancouver once its out of the spotlight as it’s just as luminous without it. However, my suggestion is to have an annual winter festival at Robson Square with every highlight we’ve seen so far. I think the area is underused (normally) as a public space and it would be a nice legacy of the Games.

Which Olympic attraction would you love to see stick around?
Leave a comment to list your favourite

With many establishments being accused of bumping up prices to serve the Olympic-sized crowds, there are a few businesses that are welcoming the influx of visitors by offering up free tours of Vancouver.

Photo credit: zzinger on Flickr

Tour Guys
Type: Guided
Cost: Free
Tour options: Gastown & Downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park, West End & Granville Island.
Website: TourGuys.ca

Vancouver Art Gallery
Type: Guided or self-guided
Cost: Free until February 28th, 2010, depending on the tour you select
Tour options: Buggy, Brown Bag, Crit Night, Early Morning History, Exhibition, Staff Pick, Hot Spot tours. After March 1st other tours are free with gallery admission.
Website: Vancouver Art Gallery

Gastown Walking History Tour
Type: Self-guided
Cost: Free
Tour options: Follow along spots of interest found on this online map.

KitsTREEmap
Type: Self-guided (about 3 hours if you do the entire circuit)
Cost: Free
Tour options: Follow along spots of interest found on the online map.

lululemon athletica
Type: Running tour
Cost: Free
Tour options: Start at lululemon athletica Robson for a running tour every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 2:00pm.

Commercial Drive Artwalk
Type: Self-guided
Cost: Free
Tour options: Until March 21st, 2010 pick up a passport and visit destinations along the Drive to get it stamped.

UBC Botanical Garden
Type: Guided tours
Cost: Free
Tour options: Daily drop-in tours 11:00am – 12:00pm at the UBC Botanical Garden.

Should you have any tips for more free tours around town I’d love to hear about them. Also, keep your eyes peeled for “photowalks” being mentioned on Twitter. They often walk through various neighbourhoods and are a great way to explore.

It comes to this – our neighbouring nations play each other in tournament hockey action at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Team Canada takes on Team USA at 4:40pm PT today over at Canada Hockey Place and even last night you could see flags from both countries being paraded up and down Granville street. The city is a rumbling mass of patriots from around the globe and none more loud and present than those representing Canada.

Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

People keep asking who we will be cheering for, me being born and raised in Metro Vancouver and John being a permanent resident of Canada, originally from Iowa. Even though he’s in love with his new host country, one thing is certain, he is a Team USA guy to the core. John will be cheering on the team that brought us the legendary Miracle on Ice back in 1980, a team that has a proud, strong tradition of hockey and undying patriotism. The Vancouver Canucks’ own Ryan Kesler will also be sporting the red, white and blue, which is another reason he’s excited to cheer for his home country.

On the other hand, I did spend some time in Boston so you’ll catch me cheering for the Bruins now and then (when the Canucks aren’t in the picture). However, when it comes to international play such as this you can be sure that there is only one team that will move my soul, and that’s Team Canada. I know where I was when we won gold in Salt Lake, I have painted a maple leaf on my face, I have joined in on spontaneous versions of O! Canada (in either French or English), and growing up I played pond hockey on frozen fields in Surrey (even though as the goalie I had to use a broom).

This is Canada’s game, this is my country’s pride and joy. No matter how much I love America for being such a friendly and loving neighbour (filled with amazing people, most of them with the last name Bollwitt) I’ll be wearing red and white today.

Sitting with my husband wherever we choose to watch the game I know there will be cheers for both side of the 49th parallel. The city will erupt with each goal, regardless of the net in which the puck lands. This is the beauty of Olympic hockey.

Photo credit: syume on Flickr

Places to watch the game today