- Joined
- Dec 4, 2004
(I write these reports up for a few friends and so I know what to expect if I go back...please feel free to ignore)
Final thoughts on Kelowna and the Skatin’
Kelowna is a beautiful tourist and retirees’ town of 118,000 80 miles north of the border on the east bank of Okanagan lake. This is the banana belt of interior BC. There are way over 100 wineries within an easy drive of Kelowna. There is a very nice lakefront park area where the arena is. There are two main restaurants for fans to eat near the arena, but unfortunately, one lost its liquor license Halloween night, where pub crawling in costume seems to be huge, and it is was shut down for five days. I saw very few homeless/street people in Kelowna and on my drive 80 miles to and from the border. I did not see one 5-10 acre lot filled with junk cars and boats, which is all too common in WA State. Much of Kelowna’s main drag is a typical 6 mile long strip mall.
Canadian drivers are much better than US drivers, IMHO. Aggressive driving was a rarity. Billboards are allowed in this scenic area, unfortunately, but in the Okanagan Valley at least, highway info signs are small, few in number, and there are little if any warnings that main hwy. intersections are coming up. Signs indicating view points along Rt 97 are non-existent so you have to act quick if you want to stop admire the valley. Gas is about $5 a gallon and the paper and local TV news keep close track on which liter is a few pennies cheaper here or there. Many Canadian stop lights have flashing warning lights 100-200 meters before the intersection letting one know they have to be prepared to stop as the light is changing. This is a great feature. The cross walks have count down timers, another good idea. HOV lanes on boulevards in Kelowna are usually the right hand lane.
The arena is a typical 5,000 seat hockey affair, with a good pitch, a bad sound system, and seats that were hard as a rock. Even the padded ones. Unlike the London Ontario hockey arena where worlds was held , there were lots of bathroom stalls for men but the arena chose to not convert any of them to female areas for the event. A hamburger was over $10 Canadian, with nowhere to sit or even standing tables . On Friday, the main parking lot was full by noon so the attendant was parking people anywhere he could. Other non-arena lots filled up also. Parking was a potpourri of ways of paying, lot owners, costs, etc.
The crowds for the main events looked to be about 2,000 souls or so. There seems to be a certain percentage of people from Canada at Canadian events that I have been to that are figure skating fans, and a percentage who are fans of Canadian figure skaters only, or anything Canadian. Not being critical here, just my personal observation. There was something that did bother me about the event. There were a number of videos on the Jumbotron (which was an old piece of junk and I am being kind) that were clearly not ISU videos that only featured Canadian skaters, past and present. I asked a number of long term well known fans if I was alone in my feelings that these were inappropriate at an ISU event and I was not alone. I cannot remember having only USA videos at ISU events in the US…..maybe the nationalism overload was getting to me….
Highs for me, in no particular order.
1. Stephen Carriere…you rock
2. Mura, you were awesome.
3. Rika and Satoko, cant wait to see you two progress.
4. Alene Leonova, your short was wonderful…..
5. Courtney Hicks. I will be seeing you again at nats and want to see you do well.
6. Pogo! Max! Sui and Han! (and seeing Shen and Zhao)
7. Friendly Canadian people, seeing all my skating buddies that showed up
Not so highs.
1. Adam, I have watched your practices….you are awesome. Good luck with the nerves.
2. Madison and Zach, you are always wonderful to watch…hope the injuries go away and you do great at nats….pain sucks
3. German dance costumes? 4 nipples? Really?
4. Odd hamburgers. I ate burgers at the arena, and at two eateries. The Canadians use a very fine grind and the burgers look like some sort of untextured grey matter…almost tofu like. They weren’t especially bad tasting…but all three only rated about 3 on the 10 point burger scale.
5. The number of clean programs in ladies and Mens hwell: The number of Sasha C./ MK type spirals
Final thoughts on Kelowna and the Skatin’
Kelowna is a beautiful tourist and retirees’ town of 118,000 80 miles north of the border on the east bank of Okanagan lake. This is the banana belt of interior BC. There are way over 100 wineries within an easy drive of Kelowna. There is a very nice lakefront park area where the arena is. There are two main restaurants for fans to eat near the arena, but unfortunately, one lost its liquor license Halloween night, where pub crawling in costume seems to be huge, and it is was shut down for five days. I saw very few homeless/street people in Kelowna and on my drive 80 miles to and from the border. I did not see one 5-10 acre lot filled with junk cars and boats, which is all too common in WA State. Much of Kelowna’s main drag is a typical 6 mile long strip mall.
Canadian drivers are much better than US drivers, IMHO. Aggressive driving was a rarity. Billboards are allowed in this scenic area, unfortunately, but in the Okanagan Valley at least, highway info signs are small, few in number, and there are little if any warnings that main hwy. intersections are coming up. Signs indicating view points along Rt 97 are non-existent so you have to act quick if you want to stop admire the valley. Gas is about $5 a gallon and the paper and local TV news keep close track on which liter is a few pennies cheaper here or there. Many Canadian stop lights have flashing warning lights 100-200 meters before the intersection letting one know they have to be prepared to stop as the light is changing. This is a great feature. The cross walks have count down timers, another good idea. HOV lanes on boulevards in Kelowna are usually the right hand lane.
The arena is a typical 5,000 seat hockey affair, with a good pitch, a bad sound system, and seats that were hard as a rock. Even the padded ones. Unlike the London Ontario hockey arena where worlds was held , there were lots of bathroom stalls for men but the arena chose to not convert any of them to female areas for the event. A hamburger was over $10 Canadian, with nowhere to sit or even standing tables . On Friday, the main parking lot was full by noon so the attendant was parking people anywhere he could. Other non-arena lots filled up also. Parking was a potpourri of ways of paying, lot owners, costs, etc.
The crowds for the main events looked to be about 2,000 souls or so. There seems to be a certain percentage of people from Canada at Canadian events that I have been to that are figure skating fans, and a percentage who are fans of Canadian figure skaters only, or anything Canadian. Not being critical here, just my personal observation. There was something that did bother me about the event. There were a number of videos on the Jumbotron (which was an old piece of junk and I am being kind) that were clearly not ISU videos that only featured Canadian skaters, past and present. I asked a number of long term well known fans if I was alone in my feelings that these were inappropriate at an ISU event and I was not alone. I cannot remember having only USA videos at ISU events in the US…..maybe the nationalism overload was getting to me….
Highs for me, in no particular order.
1. Stephen Carriere…you rock
2. Mura, you were awesome.
3. Rika and Satoko, cant wait to see you two progress.
4. Alene Leonova, your short was wonderful…..
5. Courtney Hicks. I will be seeing you again at nats and want to see you do well.
6. Pogo! Max! Sui and Han! (and seeing Shen and Zhao)
7. Friendly Canadian people, seeing all my skating buddies that showed up
Not so highs.
1. Adam, I have watched your practices….you are awesome. Good luck with the nerves.
2. Madison and Zach, you are always wonderful to watch…hope the injuries go away and you do great at nats….pain sucks
3. German dance costumes? 4 nipples? Really?
4. Odd hamburgers. I ate burgers at the arena, and at two eateries. The Canadians use a very fine grind and the burgers look like some sort of untextured grey matter…almost tofu like. They weren’t especially bad tasting…but all three only rated about 3 on the 10 point burger scale.
5. The number of clean programs in ladies and Mens hwell: The number of Sasha C./ MK type spirals