Games of the XXX Olympiad aka Summer Olympics 2012!

The Olympics start this week, and I couldn’t be more excited!  Ok, maybe I was more excited for the last Olympics, but that is because I was going to see them in person.  The Olympics are when I clear out my DVR so I can watch every single minute of televised coverage.  The last summer Olympics in '08 I also got RoB hooked, we were getting much less sleep every night because we had to stay up so late to get through all the coverage! And now there is the Live Extra app from NBC so you can stream pretty much anything (live events or what is being shown on TV) to your phone or computer (it looks like they finally have it up and working, but I will be suspect to see how it works through some of the high demand events).

Soccer starts TODAY and even though there isn’t a USA men’s team playing I can’t convince you enough to watch and support our US Women’s National Team.  They are phenomenal and women’s soccer has come a long way with many other countries on top of their game as well.  US opens play against France (whom they beat in the semi-finals of the world cup last year) at noon (EST) today, and I hope some of you will be watching it!

I’ve been trying to keep up with qualifiers for other sports too.  Big ones like swimming and gymnastics are always fun, but I like hearing about some of the more obscure sports as well.  For example, Women’s boxing will be premiering at these games and there is a strong USA contender. 

As I said before, I attended the last winter Olympics in Vancouver and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done!  Here are some pics from that adventure, but it was really amazing just being part of such a worldly event.  The first night we got into Vancouver we were just walking around the streets amazed by all the Olympics had to offer and all the fun we were about to have!

The first event we went to was women's aerials and we had to be in line before ti was light outside and got to watch the sun start to light up the mountain behind us

Yup, that is someone flying through the air!

Curling was super fun to watch!

And they even put up with all the obnoxious American fans!

The torch

The flags leading into the Nordic events

Rings at the biathlon range

CRAZY biathlon fans, probably the best event we went to!

Biathlon

This was our view for the Nordic sprints, we were right at the fence and saw them come flying by!

Wouldn't really be in Canada if we didn't go see a hockey game!

Women's hockey semi-finals Canada vs Finland

Still not much snow, but that didn't stop me!

A couple weekends ago I took a mini vacation back to Tahoe.  The main purpose of this trip was to go skiing.  Over Christmas break there was no snow and that’s usually when I get a lot of my skiing in (especially since I was about to move to Kentucky!).  Well, a month and a half later they’ve had a least one storm but the snow was still very, very sad.  It’s quite a bummer when you go visit a town that relies on a good winter (read: lots of snow) and they just haven’t got it.  It’s all anyone can talk about and it just makes everything feel depressing.  Despite all this I was determined to go skiing, I was flying across the country fergodsakes!  I was determined to make the best of my three days there and I’m pretty sure I did.

Day 1: I flew out of KY super early and was in Tahoe by noon.  I went downhill skiing at Squaw Valley because  they have a great program where they will give you a free afternoon lift ticket if you flew in that day, all I had to do was show my boarding pass and I was on the mountain.  Luckily, my mom and one of my closest friends have season passes so I was able to ski the afternoon with them.  Squaw is one of the biggest resorts in the area and there was only one run that had decent snow.  It was still fun and worthwhile get those few hours in.  Just being out there is one of the best parts; these pictures only give you a taste of the beauty.

Day 2: I headed out cross country skiing with my parents, which was a nice afternoon activity.  My dad and I decided to try a trail that didn’t look like it had been groomed lately and ended up having to take a longer trail (an extra 4 kilometers).  Not only that but part of the trail was just dirt and we had to hike “a little bit” (my dad’s words).  It was nice to be out there but it was so obvious the lack of snow.

Dirt patches we had to cross, carrying our skis.

Day 3: Back to the nordic center for more cross country skiing, but this time skating! Met up with the same close friend I downhill skied with on Friday for a nice morning ski.  We basically went as far out as the trails were groomed before we had to turn around.  Luckily, it got us out to this beautiful lookout

Ah silver, such a rewarding view.

Update:  It looks as though Tahoe is getting lots of snow as I post this, I must be good luck, y'all can thank me for that!