True North Strong and Free

So I've always had this cool fantasy that sometime in my life the summer Olympics would come to Seattle. I can just see it now: the Olympic theme is playing, starting with the drum intro, and the aerial camera heads east over the Pacific Ocean, then over the majestic Olympic mountains, and finally over Puget Sound and the Seattle city skyline in the sunset. How awesome would that be? But then again, the summer Olympics in Seattle would probably bring tourists, pollution, and reckless development too.
So here we were, watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter games, only two hours north from us in B.C. I suddenly had this rush of emotion for two reasons. First, the games ARE in the pacific northwest: the most naturally beautiful corner of the earth. The camera panned thick douglas fir forests and the snow capped Cascades. The opening ceremony showed northwest Native art that looks just like what my Grandpa Ray used to collect. Wow, it's happening HERE in our backyard! Second, with my mom and her whole family being Canadian, and many of them still living in Vancouver, I often forget that I am as much Candian as I am American (apart from citizenship, of course). I know it means a lot to my family to have the games in Vancouver, and the outburst of Canadian patriotism surprisingly hit close to home. I will stop short, however, of copying one of my Candian cousins who put a "Canada Kicks Ass" bumper sticker on her car. :)