Journey of Five: August 2012

We had a wonderful time celebrating the Olympics here in London. What a great time to be here!

Our excitement started by watching the torch relay. It ended up being a parade that started with large buses/trucks from corporate sponsors.

Kids waiting for the torch

Then there was a group of torch bearers that came with one guy holding the torch. I read somewhere they each hold the torch for about a mile or two then pass it on to someone else. Several of the torch bearers were nominated by their community because of their volunteering and contributions for the community.

We got tickets to three events, but BBC offered 24 channels broadcasting live of all the events. The first event we went to was shooting. Ray and Neil went to the Royal Artillery Barracks to see the 50m pistol finals and skeet.

Neil outside the shooting venue.

One of the things Neil commented on was how touching it was to see all the emotion that the Korean man showed when he won the gold.

After everyone had packed up, the officials started taking questions from the audience. Neil was selected to ask a question. He asked about the flags that were at the end of the shooting range and what the colors on the flags meant. They only told him it helped the shooters determine wind direction, which he said he already had figured it out beforehand but so he didn't get his actual question about the colors answered.

At the venue they had the torch for visitors to see. So Neil and Ray got their picture taken with it.

Next was synchronized swimming. This was really cool because we got to see the Olympic Park. Ray and Lexi joined me for this event.

Welcome to Olympic Park

Olympic Stadium

Aquatic center this way (crowd control with foam fingers lol)

This is how close our far our seats where, but it was alright because we could see good enough.

This is me and Ray, as you can see I was so excited to be there :)

Awards ceremony for synchronized swimming. Russia won gold, China won Silver, and Spain won bronze. I will say that the people for Spain cheered the loudest. The Spanish are VERY loud people who are sports enthusiasts (see our Barcelona trip) lol. We decided that Ray was too quite to live in Spain lol.

The last event Ray took Lexi to Taekwondo because they have been taking classes together for the past year. This event was held at the Excel expo centre, which is in the Docklands area of London.