GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

June 6, 2015 marked three historical events. The first of which is common knowledge if you remember important dates from World War II. It's the 71st Anniversary of D-Day. June 6 is also my grandfather's birthday. This year he turned 91 although he told me 39. He's completely lucid, he just likes to be funny. And lastly, June 6, 2015 marked the opening game of the 7th FIFA Women's World Cup. This time around the World Cup is being hosted by Canada, our friendly neighbors to the North. During the excitement of the last Women's World Cup, I told Scott I didn't care where we were living (presumably somewhere in America) or what was going on in our lives, we were going to the World Cup in Canada because who knows when it'll be this close by again.

I'm here to report that we made that promise come true! It really was a dream come true for me to attend a World Cup game live. I'm in to sports as much as the next athletic girl, I mean I enjoy watching football, basketball and baseball as much as any other red blooded American but when it comes to women's soccer and specifically World Cup soccer, I go nuts! So this was a pretty big deal for me and for us because Scott strives to make me happy and if I'm happy, he's happy.

Let me back up a little. Last summer was the Men's World Cup and I knew tickets would be going on sale for the Women's tournament soon. I scouted out ticketing websites in hopes to be one of the first to grab tickets. I had to wait a few months to learn where the USA Women would be playing. In February I learned the first round schedule and the stadiums they'd play in. Their first two games were in Winnipeg and their third in Vancouver. Next came our decision, two games in a less thrilling city or one game in beautiful Vancouver. After polling several people who had been to Canada or who are Canadians, they all said, "Vancouver!" even one Canadian who is from Winnipeg! So we decided to get tickets for one game in the more exciting city of Vancouver.

Fast forward to June. On June 12, we got on a plane for Vancouver and early morning Saturday (2am, after a slightly delayed flight) we touched Canadian soil. In the morning we got on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour to see the sites of the city and make more plans of things to see as we went. It also turned out that I got a cold that same day so I followed Scott around with a nasty sore throat all day and into the next. But on Saturday we went to Stanley Park which I explain as being similar to Central Park in NYC. It's a large green park just off the main part of the city with walking and biking paths, hiking trails and lots of trees and ocean views. It's really beautiful. We ate lunch up there and for the first time ordered fish. I've been trying to like fish more and I think I'm almost there. I ordered a salmon burger and it was really good. I'm always concerned that fish tastes like it smells, fishy, and it wasn't! So huge plus for salmon.

Totem poles in Stanley Park were our first stop.

Poutine from our lunch. So good!

View of the north side of Vancouver from our lunch location

Later in the day we went to Granville Island which had some markets and shops. I was (sadly) feeling pretty cruddy so after walking around for a bit went to wait at the bus stop for the hop-on, hop-off bus. We were told the buses come every 20 minutes. Not this time! We waited an hour with about 20 other people. It was really annoying but when the bus did come there was room for everyone. So lesson learned, don't do really touristy things on the weekends because there are lots more people.

Our last stop of the evening was Gastown, named after "Gassy" Jack. Gassy in this instance just means that he talked a lot. It's a hip part of town with a bunch of restaurants and bars and we weren't too hungry so we walked around and then finally hit up a pharmacy for some cold medicine. It was getting near the end of the day so we went back to Cambie St to the little Airbnb apartment we were staying at. It was cute and small but exactly the size we needed for a quick trip.

Sunday morning we took the skytrain (subway) up one stop to go to the local ward, Vancouver 1st Ward for church. We only stayed for Sacrament meeting which was wonderful. We were even welcomed by the Bishop in the opening remarks. He said, "We recognize so many visitors who are probably here for the World Cup and we realize you are probably Americans but we welcome you any way." It was cute.

After church we went back to the main part of Vancouver to catch a bus for Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. It's a park that has a 439 foot suspension bridge crossing over the Capilano River 230 feet up. It looks pretty stable but once you're on it, you realize who wobbly it is but it was an awesome experience. When you cross the river there are other bridges to cross over and up in the trees you go from tree to tree on the canopy walk which was amazing and beautiful. Then back on the main side there was a cliff walk which lets you walk across a rail hanging over a cliff. Pretty interesting but in my opinion not as cool as the actual suspension bridges.

In the trees.

On the bridge. You can't tell but it was shaky up there!

Main suspension bridge in the background. Taken from the cliff walk.

The next attraction was just up the mountain a short bus ride away, Grouse Mountain. We took the 5 minute gondola ride up to the top but you can do what's called the Grouse Grind which is essentially a 2.9 K (1.8 miles) stair climb straight up a mountain. It's often called "Mother Nature's StairMaster" for this reason. And it's a big deal. You can get an annual pass to climb the stairs. You clock in at the bottom and clock out at the top and they will record your time. The record time for men is about 23 minutes and for women it's 30 minutes. Crazy. If I hadn't been sick and we'd been dressed for it, we would have done it. But as it was, the ride to the top was thrilling and the views breathtaking. Grouse Mountain and Capilano are in Northern Vancouver so you look over the main city. At the top of the mountain there were a few other attractions including a birds in motion show where we learned about hawks, eagles, owls and peregrine falcons and saw a wild bald eagle which came in really close to eat the peregrine falcon. Don't worry. The trainer called him in before any real danger happened but she was a little shaken by the almost encounter. We also got to witness a real live lumberjack show complete with lumberjacks, tree climb, log roll, chain saw carving and thick Canadian accents. It made the whole experience complete.

The view from up top. So pretty!

We spent about 4 hours at the top of Grouse Mountain and finally made our way back down to the ferry to get back to Vancouver and up to the little area we were staying. We ate at a not so great Italian place that over charged us (we got our money back for the entre they charged us which we didn't order) and afterwards got DELICIOUS ice cream. We really like ice cream so it was a bonus.

The flight! Definitely something that should be implemented
in all ice cream shops in America.

By Monday I was feeling pretty awful but we managed to catch a bus for the University of British Columbia to look around. Once I had finally purchased my traditional university shirt (I sort of collect them. I have a Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Notre Dame and University of Debrecen - Hungary shirts and now University of British Columbia! Oh and a plethora of BYU shirts.) we walked to the edge of campus and down the stairs to the beach. On the way down we passed a signed that said, "Past this point, clothing optional". I didn't really think much of it since I wasn't feel well but sure enough we reached the bottom and we saw bottoms... and other things. Yes my friends, it was an optional nude beach! Wreck Beach is the name if you want to look up specifics. We saw plenty of naked people and not the kinds of people you want to see naked. I mean, most of these people were old so... yeah. I saw more naked people in Canada than I ever have in America! Sorry that just got a little R or NC17 rated but don't worry, we didn't take any pictures. Let me just paint one quick one for you. There was an older gentleman laying on the beach with a hat, shirt, tall socks and nothing else soaking in the sun. It was a little funny to me that he would be sunning his privates and not be concerned about getting a sock or farmers tan! We just chalked it up to Canadians.

We had lunch back on campus and looked at the gardens then I needed to go home and take a nap. After a 2 hour needed nap, we had dinner at Tap and Barrel, a restaurant recommended by a BC friend.We ate at the location at the Olympic Village and to my dismay, there was nothing really Olympic-y or cool there. Just really nice apartments. Expensive apartments but nice. I got another salmon burger and this time also couldn't taste fishiness but that's because I was so stuffed up I couldn't taste anything but I imagine it was good.

To work off dinner, we walked around and across False Creek to BC Place which was the stadium where the game would be played the following day.

Tuesday, the main event. The whole reason we came to Vancouver! We checked out of the apartment and checked in to the hotel closer to the airport then back to the city for lunch. We decided we wanted poutine, a quintessential Canadian dish that I am not sure how we American's haven't adopted yet. Poutine is french fries, smothered in gravy and topped with cheese curds. Sounds amazing, right? If you don't believe me there is a restaurant in DC called Elephant & Castle which serves it but Canada does it right and adds more delicious toppings. We went with the ultimate poutine which came with the traditional fries, gravy and cheese curds along with green onions, steak, peppers and mushrooms. Philly cheese-stake style! So good! And a mac and cheese hot dog.

With lunch completed, we walked down to the Olympic cauldron to see what was going on since FOX Sports had set up head quarters there and low and behold MIA HAMM was there doing an interview! For those who don't know who Mia Hamm is, first of all, have you been living under a rock for the last 16 years? or do you not care about women's sports? Mia Hamm is one of the most famous female soccer players in the world and she was on the 1999 World Cup team that won the World Cup and the United States hasn't won a World Cup since, although we are always in the running. Last time around, USA lost in the finals to Japan. So I was able to snap a pic with Mia. It was pretty exciting.

Unofficial Mia Hamm selfie. It was legit.

Right before the game we wandered into the fan zone which had a few food trucks, a live game on a massive screen and other fan type activities. We just walked around and 99.9% of the people there were USA fans. Scott looked around and said with a grin, "I feel like you are among kindred spirits." It was true. And I was feeling MUCH better. We went to the stadium then and found our seats only to discover we'd be in the sun for the entire match, minus the last 20 minutes. Before the game started, Scott asked me my prediction. "2-0," I said, "and Megan Rapinoe is due for an assist." Well if you know the outcome of the game you know I was half right. The final score was Nigeria 0, USA 1, Abby Wambach with the goal with an assist from Megan Rapinoe. I got to see my favorite players up close including Ali Kreiger (Northern Virginia pride!) and Christine Rampone who is 40 years old, a mother of two girls and one of the last of the '99ers. She is an inspiration and she played! And she's a defender which is my position so doubly awesome.

Before the game

The match was incredible. There were 52 thousand and some odd fans there. 52 thousand were USA fans and the some odd were Nigeria fans. Definite dream come true. I hope at some point in my life I can go again and hopefully take my daughters.

When the game ended we got dinner along with 52 thousand exuberant USA fans. We didn't want the night to end so we got more ice cream and went to a beautiful park back by the little place we had been staying and got the most perfect night view of Vancouver. It was the perfect way to end our trip. 

In the morning, we caught an early flight to LA and Mia Hamm was sitting right there in first class so I literally got to brush shoulders with a star. When the plane landed at 10:30pm in DC our trip was officially over but the memory of this trip will live on forever. Now we just need to keep watching the USA on to victory in the finals on July 5! U-S-A! U-S-A!