Waits, Lines Are Long at Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion in Vancouver, BC

Vancouver -- It was Valentine's Day in downtown Vancouver, and I was swayed by the front of the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion. The building contained not only gold coins, but also the official Olympic medals.

My boyfriend didn't object, so we raced down the very long block to the end of the lineup. One hour tops, I thought to myself.

There was a brief moment of panic, after an hour of standing in line, when we thought we were only in the lineup for the Boutique, and would not see the medals. A sigh of relief went down the line, after one of our new friends ran up to the front to ask a guide.

The next hour was worth waiting as we found out that we would not only get to see the medals, but we would have the chance to touch and hold them, and have our photo taken with them.

When the pin lady came along, she nearly got bowled over. We wanted our official Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion pins, or else!

We made it to another hour and forty-five minutes. The nice young guide came up to us, counted ten of our new friends, and said, "Come with me." We were guided up to the red ribboned area.

We joked we had another three hours to go before we even got inside.

When we finally made it inside, we were handed white gloves to wear when holding the medal, so the acid in our hands did not corrode the metal. The time went quickly while we were awaiting our turn with the medals. We popped into the gold room to see the the million dollar "one dollar" gold coin, with the Queen on one side. Huge gold bars occupied the display cases, and several beautiful gold coins.

We had the chance to get our "inside the pavilion" pins. I traded a ratty old quarter for a brand new, freshly minted Paralympic quarter. I also got a souvenir book to store my quarter collection. You could collect a new quarter each day, though I can't imagine anyone would stand in line for four hours a day for a quarter!

And finally, the event we were all waiting for: The Story of the Olympic Medals Room. There was a display case along one side of the wall showing how the medals were made.

In the middle of the room, heavily guarded were the two official sets of Olympic medals. One square set for the Paralympic Games, and one round set for the Olympic games. A gold medal, silver medal, and bronze medal in each set. The medals feature native Indian artwork and if all the medals minted are arranged together, they show a story. Each winning athlete is given a huge scarf showing where their Olympic medal fits into the big picture.

My boyfriend joked about whether my Valentine's Day had been worth standing in line all day. But seeing the Olympic medals in person is a once in a lifetime event, and only a few thousand people have been allowed to actually touch and hold the medals in their hands!