Looking Forward To Seeing Betty

It's Day 16, and the Games are winding down. The last couple of days included a visit to the Olympic Village, interaction with Olympic gold medalists from the track, football pitch and swimming pool, and more pin trading than should be legal for any one person.

This morning included time for reflection on the London Olympic experience. I took at taxi to Parliament Square (where this Games officially began for me personally) for a morning meeting at the London Media Centre, then I spent an hour at church learning about the Unitarian Universalist congregation of London founded in the 1780s.

Oh, and picked up a Closing Ceremony ticket.

I look forward to the return to Olympic Stadium and seeing the cauldron in its end-of-field location.

The London Olympic cauldron designers and ceremony team nicknamed the mega-torch "Betty" as a codeword to keep its design, construction and installation a secret, so it will be fun to revisit "Betty" before the flame is extinguished.

The changeover ceremony for Rio 2016 is also highly anticipated -- I hope there are some fun surprises. My money is on a Pele cameo. I hope also to get another shot at photographing Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton) like at synchronized swimming.

As my fingers type this post, for its money from Team Spain in the Olympic basketball. Go USA!

There are tons of photos and heaps of videos to upload and share, which should be good fodder for more post-Games updates to this Olympic blog. I appreciate everyone reading and sending nice notes of support via Facebook during the last 16 days, and look forward to sharing more of the London Olympic story, a look at Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 and more photos very soon.

Photo via The Guardian and Getty