Helicopters and bluebirds

Helicopters fly around all the time. They're either army ones or medical ones or mountain ones. This past week, they were doing practice runs and pickups from the mountain to our polyclinic in the athletes village. It's pretty cool to see (and hear) the whop whop whop from the copter and a little nerve wracking to see someone hanging in a stretcher from it. Even though it was practice (and made a few of the athletes nervous based on the tragedy in luge at the start of the Games) it's still very eerie. It was a good thing they did practice, though, based on the craziness of the women's downhill! Wow -- those were quite the spills! We were watching the races in the dining tent (over a Big Mac and fries...) and the wipeouts created quite the reaction! Especially when they said that one girl was going to air lifted out -- which means we can literally SEE the helicopter from the athletes village do the pick up on the hill! It's crazy!

Not only that, but we're so close to the action in the village that during the men's races, we could faintly hear the announcer from the grandstands (all while sorting through linen containers!)! And not only THAT...but my chalet is a mere 15 minute walk to the base of Whistler Creekside where these alpine events are happening!!

This is a live picture of Whistler mountain at the EXACT moment the Men's downhill was on. I was watching on tv just inside in our break room and just had to run outside to capture the moment! It was cool.

Below is a picture of a section of the flags lining Legacy Way. On days like this bluebird you just can't help but take pictures all the time! The building right in front is the High Performance Centre with a gym and games room and the building on the left is where the US and Aussies are staying. If you look closely, you can see two Czech athletes -- this is the only area of flat pavement in the village so a bunch of athletes do sprints here.