NBC Today Show in Vancouver

Alright so I haven’t kept up to blogging as much as I would have liked to but the past few days have been pretty hectic with the Olympics happening here in Vancouver. Yea, I’m sure by now most people will know that Vancouver is host to the 2010 Winter Olympic games.

In the past few days I have gotten to take photos of Maelle Ricker, Alexandre Bilodeau, visited various areas of Vancouver and enjoyed what has been happening in our city. Today though we checked out NBC’s Today Show that is being shot from top of Grouse Mountain.

We started our morning at 2 AM and picked up our friend Keith to head over to Grouse in time to receive the NBC tickets. NBC gives out 100 tickets on a first come first serve basis which allows people to access the mountain without having to pay. Though once you’re up there they also give first come first serve access to the outdoor section of NBC’s today show as well, so if there are some big names to attend expect a large crowd of people.

Our experience was fairly calm. We found out that Robyn and I could use our Grouse Ski Pass to access the mountain without issues. Once we boarded the Skyride up to the top of Grouse the sun was still down. Vancouver tinkles pretty well when there are no clouds. Grouse does have one of the best views of our city.

After about and hour wait or so, NBC started getting ready for their show. They did some segments from within the lodge at Grouse but more of it seemed to be outside around the fire pit.

Robyn’s friend from Oregon, Heidi, was excited to be on the Today Show, so much that during the weather segment with Stephanie Abrams, Heidi was asked about holding one of the Olympic torches at Birks on Granville Street.

Periodically they (anchors of the NBC Weekend Today show) would come out and talk about various events happening around Vancouver. One segment we found quite interesting was when they brought out Liberty, a female Bald Eagle.

Seeing an eagle up close is pretty cool. I’ve seen a Juvenile Bald Eagle within 15 feet, but being with 5 feet of an adult is neat. I did learn something new, female bald eagles are larger than their male counter parts. Liberty is roughly 12 lbs, seems like a big turkey eh?

There wasn’t any winter athletes being interviewed this morning. We did miss out on Shaun White being interviewed the morning before. I’m sure the weekday Today show will go back to featuring winter olympians but either way it was pretty cool to see how such a popular show is set up, coordinating and executed.

If you haven’t been up to Grouse during the Olympics, I recommend seeing the sunrise and checking out the Today show too. Remember, the first 100 people at 3:30AM get free lift tickets up the Skytram so attend the live taping of the show.

On a quick note, Keith and I checked out the wolf enclosure that Grouse has near the base of the mountain. I heard that they used to be in the same enclosure as the Grizzle Bears but had a small incident so they decided on separating them.

You can check out the rest of my Olympic experience photos over on Flickr too!