The red mittens sold by HBC stores across the country are the hottest item at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Photo credit: SBC9 on Flickr

Worn by thousands of torch-bearers over several months and priced at $10 a pair, they’re one of the best deals of the Games (and a great way to show some Canadian pride). Even Oprah herself got a pair (and a pair for her audience members) as these mittens have been the fashion cover story of the Games. Around Vancouver, the mittens are making appearances in some unlikely places.

Robert Burns – Photo credit: Kanpeki Yume on Flickr

Lord Stanley – GusF & Inukshuk – Jonathan Caves

Harry Jerome in Stanley Park – Photo credit: lbp09 on Flickr

Should you have photos that I may post of the “Girl in Wetsuit” or any other statues sporting the mittens, please add them to the Miss604 Flickr Group.

With Day 9 and Day 10 whizzing by this weekend, it’s becoming more and more of a reality that the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, and the giant super happy party that its brought to the city, is all about to end fairly soon. I’ll be stopping by a few more pavilions today to check out more Olympic festivities before the fun is gone.

Photo credit: Susan Gittins on Flickr

However the first order of business is my Day 11 recap. Yesterday was filled with Cold FX, Halls lozenges, and an attempt at a mid-afternoon nap after which, I headed out to Yaletown to the Yahoo! Flickr party.

There we enjoyed music, food, an open bar, and the incredible cuteness of a mini Quatchi sporting a homemade costume.

Members of the IOC were in attendance to inform everyone of the Official Olympics Flickr Group. Upload your Olympic photos (even from inside venues) in order to share them with the world. It’s a step in the right direction as they focused on “sharing” content but just not using your Olympic photos for financial gain.

Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

I took a quick break from the photo geekery to walk up to the CBC as I was on Radio 3 with Lisa Christiansen.

We went back to the Flickr party, scoping out the pedestrian thoroughfares in Yaletown complete with buskers, DJs, and a visit from the Coca-Cola torch relay truck.

At the end of the night, Canada won gold again. This time in pairs ice dancing as Moir and Virtue became the first North American duo to win gold in the sport.

Medal Count for Canada on Day 11 – February 22, 2010
Gold: 5
Silver: 4
Bronze: 1
View full medal count by country

Coming up today there is a rally at 12:30pm over at the Countdown Clock in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery for MukMuk, the “sidekick” mascot. People are hoping to support a campaign to have him upgraded to full mascot status.

It is also Saskatchewan Day at the Olympics so it may be a good time to check out their pavilion.

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