BEST day EVER!

There are a lot of reasons why yesterday was the best day ever. Let's start with the main one:

SHAUN WHITE TOOK HOME GOLD!

And we were lucky enough to see it. I say lucky, because the day started off a little rough. The night before, we hit up the Heineken House for the first time. While we were there, the Dutch won a gold medal, so of course we had to wait for him to arrive to the party after midnight. And party we did. And dance we did. A very difficult taxi procurement wasn't helped by the millions of tiny Heinekens I had consumed. So, after a few hours of sleep, we got dropped off at the bullet train. Which we then took to the wrong station, had to turn back, and we were in danger of missing halfpipe. We had to take a very expensive taxi ride up to the venue, and take a painful, slow, crowded walk up (logistics don't seem to be a strength of the Koreans). We arrived just a few minutes before Shaun did his first run.

It was incredible. After being there in Sochi to watch our guys fall again and again, watching him nail his first run so beautifully with such an awesome, supportive crowd was a memory I'll never forget. We took a quick break to get food, which continues to be a challenge here. They basically had sold everything except porridge with beans and this anemic gorgonzola pizza that I hope I never have to see again. Pro: They had Power Ade, which helped with the hangover situation. We luckily missed him falling on his second run on our concession break, but were back in a great position for his third and final one. He was the last snowboarder to finish, so it went straight into the awards ceremony and then he was being interviewed for ages. There was a lot of American flag waving, and the crowd was so happy for him.

We took our celebratory mood and decided to try to find Austria House, our favorite spot at the Sochi Olympics. It was slightly more difficult than Sochi, where it sat right next to the main train station in the mountain cluster. This place was like trying to find some Edelweiss. We had to switch shuttles twice, and ended up only getting there because a very nice woman with an Austrian guy spoke Korean and asked to drop us off on the side of the highway at Austrian House. They were having a snow volleyball demonstration outside.

Once we got there, we went straight for the delicious food. The schnitzel, kasespatzle, and gulasch soup were just what we needed. After a round of drinks, we decided to stand outside for a different view. It had been really quiet, but suddenly, there was a DJ. DJ Mister In Style. And then the media started getting there. Then the free gluhwein started. We started meeting people, including the organizers of the Austrian House and Cameron Myler, the 4 time American Olympic luger. We got more free gluhwein. The announcer, Stefan, was amazing. They were teaching us moves while they televised the snow volleyball match with some very famous volleyball players on the court. We developed a crush on Nik Berger. We drank more gluhwein. We danced. A lot. We got free Austria House ponchos. Prince Albert of Monaco showed up, along with even more media. We hung out with Stefan, who was even cooler in person than he was running the party. We pretty much had to be dragged out of Austria House in order to get to the medal ceremony for Shaun.

We stopped at some mall-like place to get some food, and it was our best Korean so far. I had some spicy cold noodles, Lara selected something she saw on someone else's plate, and Lesley had a spicy squid dish. Afterward, we were having trouble getting transport away from the area, and luckily I saw a woman with a USA hat on and asked her where we could get a taxi, she asked where we were going, and then said "It's your lucky day, I'm going there and I have a car". She got us right up next to the medal ceremony plaza. If we hadn't found her, we certainly would have missed Shaun's medal ceremony.

For those of you not at the Olympics, there is a little ceremony after the event at the venue where they get a little animal, but the actual medal ceremony is that night, in a special location. It's not even in Olympic Park this time, so when they put in the footage of the torch, it's a bit misleading. Each round is presented by members of the Olympic committees or organizations from different countries, and then the national anthem of the gold medalist is played while they raise the flag behind the crowd. Last night was apparently the most crowded night so far, which we don't think was a coincidence given Shaun's big win. It was his third gold, and the crowd was going crazy for him.

Afterward, we met up with our buddy Denver Dave and his friend Mike at a local "Chicken Beer" restaurant. The Korean owners there were the sweetest. After polishing off 4 yards of beer and some soju, we thought that we needed to get to bed earlier than we did the night before, so we had our guy from the restaurant help us negotiate a taxi for 5 people back to Gangneung, rather than trying to get two shuttles and the train home.

SUCH a great day, and one I will not forget!

We're now enjoying our first day of partial leisure, which will likely be followed by some boozing at biathlon tonight!! Thanks for following, post any questions/comments/challenges in the comments!!