Golden Ticket

I was awarded one of 100 Golden Tickets given out by GSK for employees that make a difference in their communities. Joe and I just enjoyed an all-expenses paid trip to the 2012 London Summer Olympics! My colleague from when I worked in North Carolina nominated me for this trip based on my work with Emily's foundation, and it certainly was a once in a lifetime experience!

GSK offered 2 extra days - one before our events, and one after. We only took the before since Nolan is so little and I knew I'd want to get back and see him once our events were over. It was nice to have the first day to relax, take in the city, and adjust to the time difference.

Taken right before leaving for the airport. Nolan was helping us cheer on Team USA!

We left on a Monday evening and got in Tuesday morning. What a difference flying business class makes! We flew British Airways and we were definitely spoiled between the posh business lounge in the airport and seats that fold all the way flat on the airplane. Unfortunately, we had a good amount of turbulence on the way over so our sleep was interrupted, but at least we got to watch some new release movies - I watched the Hunger Games.

When we got in, we took a bus to our hotel for the first night - the Heathrow Marriott. We took a two hour nap and had lunch at the hotel then got right to sightseeing in London. The hotel had a free shuttle to the tube station and we took the Picadilly line into Picadilly Circus. We then walked over to Trafalgar Square

Joe at Trafalgar Square

Olympic countdown at Trafalgar Square

We then took a detour since a lot of the roads were closed around Buckingham Palace/Parliament due to the Beach Volleyball setup.

Closed Road around Horseguards parade

Sign for Horseguards Parade

Relaxing on chairs in Green Park

Our roaming around did eventually bring us to Buckingham Palace

Statue in front of Buckingham Palace

The "bobbies" were being so fun and jovial

That night we met my/Emily's childhood friend Elise and her boyfriend Loren for a yummy Indian dinner! They live in Reading (right outside of London) now so it was fun to see friendly faces during our travel.

Elise and I outside the post-dinner pub

We headed back for the night. The next morning (Wed) we went downstairs for (complimentary) breakfast at the hotel then checked out and met our GSK representative in the lobby. We met a few other GSK people as well and boarded a bus to our hotel for the next few nights - the Hilton Towerbridge!



Which, not-so-coincidentally, is around the corner from THIS:

We're in London for the Olympics!!!

Taking a walk with the rest of the GSK crew

Gorgeous Tower Bridge

There were several "Live Sites" around London where they set up large screens and people could gather and watch the Olympics together - this one was right next to our hotel.

London Live Site

We checked into our hotel and had an early dinner all together at the London Chop House which overlooks the other side of the bridge:

Tower Bridge from other side

Our view from dinner - amazing!

after dinner photo

After a yummy dinner, we all boarded a bus to horse guards parade.

Our GSK guides - follow the sign!

we're legit

beach volleyball tickets!

Horse guards parade was an amazing venue, and I had fun doing a bit of people watching on our way to our seats:

I think this nicely sums up typical Canadian vs Brit

Switzerland represent!

Flags outside the venue

GSK colleague posing with the Bobbies

We settled into our seats just around sunset and enjoyed this amazing venue!

Our backdrop - incredible!

London Eye in background

The atmosphere at the game was so fun - the announcer was hilarious and they really tried to make it into a beachy party atmosphere. They had beach dancers that performed during the breaks (think beach blanket bingo style)....

Fun beach dancers (even if they had to run to their robes after each dance since it was so cold)

Our tickets were for four games (each game only lasted about an hour). We saw 2 men's matches first - Brazil v Canada and Germany v Switzerland. Both 2-0 wins (Brazil and Germany). Then 2 women's matches - Austrailia v Czech Republic and USA(!!!) v Austria. USA women's was Kerry Walsh and Misty May Treanor so everyone was really pumped to see them play.

Is this real life?? Having so much fun!

Fourth game of the night - Misty May and Kerry Walsh!!! Eventual 3 time gold medal winners.

USA scared us a bit losing their first set EVER, but ended up winning 2-1. (Czech Republic won their game 2-1 as well). We were happy to cheer on May-Treanor/Walsh from home to eventually win their 3rd straight Olympic Gold Medals. It's safe to say they've secured their place among the best ever women's beach volleyball players and it's cool to know we got see them play live as May-Treanor is now retired.

We got home late and went straight to bed after our long day. The next day we got up and had breakfast at the hotel before boarding a bus in the AM to take us straight to the Olympic park. We had the entire day to walk around the park and tickets to attend Men's basketball (2 games).

Gorgeous flowers in the Olympic Park

Follow the sign! The Olympic stadium is in the background!

Sign in Olympic Park with all the arenas - it was so neat to walk past them all!

Red sculpture in Olympic Park - an elevator runs up to the top and the grey spiral is a ramp down.

Olympic Park -  Stadium and blue skies in London!

The Queen's Diamond Jubliee boat!

Life is good

VIP

The basketball arena aka "the Marshmallow"

Large stage and screens in the middle of the park to watch the games live

The Velodrome (cycling)

Where the athletes live!

Rings up on the hill

Bobbies on horseback

Heading into bball!

about to head to our seats

Our group posing with the bobbies

They were so much fun - he put his hat on Joe right before I took the photo!

First game - Argentina vs Tunisia

view from our seats

Entertainment between games

2nd game - Russia vs. Brazil

The Today show set - right next to the basketball arena

More crazy fan sightings :)

Joe with Wenlock - Olympic Mascot in the Olympic Megastore

Golden Wenlock!

After buying a ridiculous amount of souveniers, we used the remaining time in the park before dinner to climb the big red tower near the stadium. We took the elevator up to the observatory and were treated to panoramic of the olympic park and London.

The Olympic Park from above

One of the first things I looked for was the olympic stadium and torch. The biggest disappointment I heard while there was that the torch is not visible from outside the stadium (it is inside the stadium whereas past olympics had it atop the stadium). An even further disappointment was finding out you still couldn't see the torch from the red tower! It happens to be in the corner that is not in view - not a well-thought out layout if you ask me!

View into the Olympic Stadium. 

London from afar

Overlooking Olympic Stadium

The best view of the torch - the jumbotron cam

In the Observatory

After dinner at the hospitality center (nice to have access to free food and drinks all day!), we opted to use our unlimited tube tickets they gave us to find our own way home rather than catch the bus. This allowed us to walk around the park at night and take everything in a little while longer.

The stadium at night

The Aquatics Center

Joe and the stadium at night

Team USA!

Water Polo arena

The red tower lit up

Cool light up sign in the park

Coca Cola's interactive house - many sponsors had fun things like this, but the lines were crazy long!

All lit up at night

It was our last night in London so we took the tube back and took one last stroll past the gorgeous Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge at night

Joe and the bridge at night

Kate and the bridge at night

Pretty walkway along the river

On top of the bridge

Taken by an American we met who works for the Olympic Committee and gave us cool USA pins!

We ended the night with a pint at the local pub with some colleagues. The next morning we got up early before our coach to the airport for one last (PSU pride) shot at the bridge.

What a once in a lifetime trip this was! It was amazing attending the Olympics. I was nervous about how overwhelming/crowded the city would be, but it wasn't that way at all - I think a lot of the city residents coincided their holidays with the games so they'd get out of town. Navigating around and going to the games was totally do-able and makes me want to try to attend again when the games are in the USA again.

The trip was only 3 full days in London so it was such a whirlwind - many others chose to extend their trip further, but we had a very important little guy to get back to at home, which made the end of our trip not too sad. We had a wonderful happy reunion and 2 full weekend days to spend every moment with little Nolan. Maybe he can join us on our next big adventure, whenever that is....