My Journey to the Winter Olympics

As a child I have fond memories of watching the Winter Olympics on TV. I was a young girl on the island of Kauai with dreams of being a figure skater one day. I remember my mom buying me rollerblades and I used to skate in the driveway and imagine that I was on a rink. You can only imagine my excitement when I realized my upcoming trip to Seoul was taking place during the opening of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. I had my sights set on getting there, seeing it and hopefully meeting an athlete or two. 

The road to the Olympics was a bit of a bumpy one. We didn't have tickets and didn't know how we were going to get there. In total I was traveling with 5 friends and nailing down when we would go, what to see and how we would get there was a bit tedious. When we finally agreed on what we wanted to see the tickets to the events were selling out so quick that we were left with no other option but to try and grab whatever we could. 

I registered with the official olympics site and purchased 5 tickets for the women's snowboarding half-pipe final the same day as our return flight to Hawaii. After buying the tickets I realized booking the train tickets was no easy task as much of the routes were sold out too. But in the end I had faith that it was all going to work out and we would get there. 

We decided it would be best to go Sunday (the day before our departure). We managed to score additional tickets on the train from Seoul to the nearest train station. After arriving in PyeongChang we managed to snatch up 6 tickets to the Cross Country Skiing event that afternoon. Watch the video below for a look at the journey. Sadly, I don't have more images or videos as the weather was so cold my iPhone kept shutting off every time I took it out. 

Gladly though, it was really such a dream come true. I love every moment. Being there, the excitement, all the people in attendance from across the globe, the camaraderie, live music, emcee, sound blaring from the speakers and even the risers and ice were all a part of the experience. It was truly incredible to be there amongst these world class athletes and to see their friends and family making the voyage to cheer them on. This truly was a day I will never forget!