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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2010-02-10
'Vancouver is one of my favorite cities.'
Robert Hanashiro has arrived in Canada to photograph the Winter Olympic Games for USA TODAY.
By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY
Photo by Robert Hanashiro / USA TODAY
Bob Deutsch gives a walking tour of Vancouver to USA TODAY colleagues Denny Gainer (left) and Jack Gruber.
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Feb. 10, 2010
Dear Brad,
How’s the weather there buddy?
While the west coast is being pelted by rain of biblical proportions and the east coast is getting enough snow to stage its own Winter Olympics, the weather in downtown Vancouver is, well, spring – like! At least it is on Tuesday the day most of the USA TODAY staff and I arrived here.
My day started off with the alarm buzzing at 4:30am and a shuttle ride to LAX at 5:30. The Alaska Airlines fight surprisingly had a lot of empty seats for one going to an Olympic host city just 3 days before the opening ceremony.
The first thing I noticed after landing at the Vancouver Airport at 11:30am is … the weather. It was sunny and warm- sort of like back home in Los Angeles in April!
Unlike most Olympic Games, there is no “Media Village” so the press is scattered around various hotels in town and those working up in Whistler are housed in rented condos.
After my first bus ride of the Olympics and then checking into my hotel, I turned around to head to the elevators and who should I literally run into? My USAT colleague Bob Deutsch, clutching a bag of take-out Chinese food!
Bob and I spent a few minutes catching up and I ran out to explore the neighborhood for a bit and find a place to get a quick lunch myself- which ended up at a small Japanese restaurant next door called the Barefoot Kitchen where I got an order of “bull duck” (actually fried marinated chicken) and a California roll.
Vancouver is one of my favorite cities. Deanna, Emma and I vacationed here a few years ago and had a great time. I’ve been looking forward to coming back here ever since.
Jack Gruber, Darr Beiser and Eileen Blass arrived a few hours later and after a quick dump of their gear we headed out to the bus stop to head to the Main Press Center.
When the bus pulled in, who should come bounding out? Nuccio Dinuzzo! We all yelled "Noooch!"
As Jack says, "That dude is EVERYWHERE!"
While I will come to hate spending time on buses soon enough, the ride to the MPC was a great way to see the area and all of the people out walking around in the beautiful afternoon sun.
Nuccio had only been in Vancouver a few hours and as usual had made friends with everyone!
Photo by Robert Hanashiro / USA TODAY
Nuccio Dinuzzo and Bob Deutsch on the bus to the Main Press Center.
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After we got on the bus we sat there for a few minutes and someone asked the driver "When are we leaving?" The driver replied "We gotta wait for Nuccio!"
The Oly Volunteer I sat next to turned to me and said, “That Nuccio is some character!”
And as we walked from the bus stop to the MPC one of the crossing guards said "Hey Nuccio, you’re back!"
We all had some small "credential issues" and it just took a few minutes to fix. The MPC is located right on the water and the view, especially today, was simple spectacular.
Sightings at the MPC:
• Steve Fine (walking & chatting with Bob Martin)
• Kevork Djansezian (ran past him as we were rushing out to catch a bus back home for dinner)
• David Phillip (spotted while walking past the AP office door)
Wednesday I think I’ll be making a couple of visits to venues, checking out the women’s ice hockey arena and curling. (Yes curling! I shot two days of it in Torino, so I will be shooting some of it this time as well.)
All is good here - except the cable TV in the hotel doesn’t have the USA Network so I missed White Collar and Burn Notice!
OK, going to finish unpacking and catch up on some sleep.
Oh yeah… the weather forecast for Wednesday: Rain.
Guess I better get used to that.
Related Links:
Hanashiro's member page
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