It was a trek each day from the city to Homebush Bay. Sometimes the media buses knew were they were going, other times? No worries!

How I loved working with Neal, even if he only had ears for the Optus calling-card prompt lady.

As Australia rolled out its icons during the closing ceremony, Greg Norman, Elle Macpherson and INXS among them, B1 and B2 waved at me. How Aussie can you get!

After his stunning upset of gold medal favorite Alexander Karelin in Greco-Roman wrestling, Iowa farm boy Rulon Gardner got the honor of carrying the US flag in the closing ceremony.

All I remember thinking was, 'this is lovely, but it is s-s-s-s-SO COLD.'

This is the entrance to the Main Press Center, which was across the street from our hotel. Going through security in a Winter Games is much more complex than at a Summer Games. You have to take off all your winter gear and equipment and then gather it all up again. The whole thing takes super-long. You learn how to bundle yourself up in the most convenient fashion.

This is the Canadian men's side in their quarterfinal victory over Finland.

The downhill, super-G and the combined races took place here at Snowbasin.

This is the view of the half pipe venue, which was located at the Park City Mountain Resort.

After Canada defeated the US in the gold medal match 5-2, Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux skated off Olympic ice for the final time. You can read my account of Lemieux's return to playing after his second retirement in 2000 here.

It was a tough Olympics for Michelle Kwan, who fell in her long program and settled for a bronze while young phenom Sarah Hughes took the gold. But here was her exhibition skate to "Fields of Gold," a beautiful end to her Olympic career.

Here I am! Look at my IBM Thinkpad. Wow. Anyway, behind me is Sean Gregory of Time. 

We're in the birthplace of the Olympic Games. 

Sydney was known for the enthusiasm of its volunteers and the support of its nation when it had the Games. Greece? Support? Hey, you're lookin' at it.

I camped out in Time's office in Sydney and Salt Lake and again in Athens. I have headphones on, which means only one thing — transcription! Don't I know how to have fun.

At the Main Press Center, athletes and their agents would walk by all the leading press agencies and look at their work. Not wanting to be outdone, I spent one night posting all of People's stories onto a portion of the Time wall. You have to think PR while doing reporting and this was the best way to do it aside from giving out pins.

Here is the main press workroom for those without an office. The computers in the front are Athos computers from which you can access all the info for all of the venues and flash quotes and press conference quotes for all medal-winning or notable athletes. An information goldmine.

It's fast, it's 24 hours a day and you don't have to be hustled into a restaurant with a seemingly big menu until you are seated and told you can only order between five things and they are all overpriced.

Hanging around the Today Show meant I could cover the talent on the show itself, which was part of my TV beat, and also catch top athletes post-medal ceremonies. Win-win!

This is the shot I love the most of all the ones I've taken at the Olympics. This is the final of the 200m men's freestyle. Waving his arms is the eventual silver medalist, Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands. To his right, gold medalist Ian Thorpe. Next to Thorpe, bronze medalist Michael Phelps.

Here's the press, waiting for gymnasts to come through for quick quotes, especially for reporters on deadline.

So put together, Carly Patterson enters the mixed zone after a phenomenal Games. She won gold in the all-around, silver on the balance beam, and silver as part of the US team.

The torch was lit after legendary gymnast Li Ning raced around the sides of the stadium on a wire and a flame wended its way to the torch. The following opening ceremony photos were taken from my vantage point in the stadium.

This happened very early on in the ceremony and helped distract everyone from the fact that there was no wind and utter humidity everywhere!

After the cool bit where a mass of people  holding blocks demonstrated how script became movable type, this electronic scroll unfurled and another electronic piece of parchment emerged, where children 'drew' on it.

All of these folks covered in LED lights formed a dove and then dispersed. The dove was replaced by a piano where Lang Lang performed.

These tai chi performers looked really impressive, but I kept thinking of just how many people were involved in making this ceremony happen. So many people!

An orb representing a paper lantern turned into a globe. Acrobats performed on a scaffolding surrounding it. This is a rare photo where I actually got the fireworks in focus!

This is the most clear photo I took of all the athletes in the stadium.

What the audience did not see around the world — as the Bird's Nest Stadium was filling up for the Opening Ceremony, early arrivals were treated to performances by dance troupes from each region of China, including Tibet. Here is a real dragon dance.

This is the entrance to the Main Press Center, which was part of the then-newly built National Convention Center. It's massive, but not as massive as the wing the International Broadcast Center gets. Oh, TV, you glamorous thing, you.

Here's a broader view of the press center, so you get a sense of how massive it is.

Each day, there is a schedule of press conferences taking place at the MPC. I attended this one, which was for the US women's soccer team. 

Sadly, McDonald's is ALWAYS on the menu, at every Games, because they are a sponsor and, frankly, cheap and easy. The cool thing in Beijing was they had really spicy sauce for chicken. Aside from fast food, there was also a stand for dumplings, rice and veggies, which was nice.

No, there will be no playing of "I Can See Clearly Now" in Beijing. This is a typical view. Is that the sun? Is that the moon? What time of day is it? Who can tell?

Here is a view from the Bird's Nest toward...toward...I have no idea.

This part of the convention center hosted fencing and the fencing and shooting portions of modern pentathlon. It's the first building I passed every day on the way toward swimming and track.

This was the home of artistic gymnastics, trampoline and handball. According to the designers, the curved roof was a nod to a traditional Chinese fan.

This building, directly across from the National Indoor Stadium, never failed to give me the heebie jeebies every time I walked past. It's like Kafka's worst nightmare. I later found out that this was the Digital Beijing Building, the IT and infrastructure command center for the Games. Yikes!

So in the evening, animation scrolls across the four sections of the Digital Beijing Building. I guess it's not as evil. NO! It still is.

While a Swiss architectural firm won the contract to build the main stadium for the Olympics, artist Ai Weiwei was the project's artistic consultant.

One of the things I loved most about the design of the National Stadium, also called the Bird's Nest, was that all of the things around it, like these guide lights, were mirrors of the big building. Really lovely.

I was so glad this was the main venue for my time in Beijing. The "Water Cube," designed to conserve energy, had that bubble look on the outside with modern simple lines inside. Swimming, synchronized swimming and diving were held in here.

This is just to the side of the entrance to the Water Cube, so you enter and see a wall of water.

When looking toward the exit to the Water Cube, you see this wall of water. It was very serene.

In keeping with the water molecule theme, this is one of the interior walls of the lobby of the Water Cube.

The Water Cube has 6,000 permanent seats and 11,000 temporary seats were added for the Olympics. This is the world's largest natatorium.

This is Jing Jing, the panda incarnation of one of the five Fuwa, the mascots of the Games. Jing Jing represents the black ring of the Olympics symbol. The thing that cracked me up the most was that Jing Jing represented the 'macho' sports, so he was always depicted doing martial arts, judo, boxing, weightlifting and shooting!

Here's a look at the diving area and the start of the main swimming pool. Really cool. 

Here's a fun look at the judges calling the 200-meter individual medley, which Michael Phelps won in record time.

A couldn't get close to shooting Phelps' reaction in the pool, so a shot of the screen will have to do. 

After the preliminary heats for the men's 4x100 freestyle relay, the Australian team answered press questions. From left to right: Andrew Lauterstein, Eamon Sullivan, Ashley Callus, and Matt Target.

This is it! The start of the men's 4x100m freestyle final! Wheeeeee!!!

When Jason Lezak touched the wall, I and Sports Illustrated's Brian Cazeneuve did the unthinkable. Yeah, we cheered. In the press box. Had to be done.

The scramble was on after this medal to secure a shoot and interview with Michael. Thank goodness I already had a breakfast chat with his mom Debbie and sister Whitney!

It is a very patriotic thing to watch your nation's flag being raised and hearing your national anthem. I never thought I was a patriotic person until covering the Olympics.

Michael Phelps had a press conference at the Water Cube following his record-setting 8th gold medal. He then headed over to the MPC, where he held another conference, this one. The next day, he spoke for a half hour to a crowd at a Visa-sponsored event. 

After several failed attempts at securing an interview with Michael, I finally got on the set of the Today Show and was given the okay to speak to him between his intro on the show and his Matt Lauer interview. Here he is being introduced. My time came next. Whew!

Here is an overview of the gymnastics venue.

In an area between the competition floor and the venue press room is a place called the mixed zone, where athletes give some quick quotes while transitioning to bigger conferences or getting drug testing or the getting changed.

I thoroughly enjoyed these animated mascots encouraging fans to make some noise. Ja yo!

Here's the ladies' team event final gold medal ceremony, won by China. The American team got the silver and Romania got the bronze.

Oh boy. I saw this as I was rounding the bend on the media bus toward the motocross venue. Ha ha ha ha ha! Turns out it is part of the Shijingshan Amusement Park, which had been accused of copyright violations. You don't say.

This fancy flying saucer is the velodrome. I didn't get a chance to go in it, unfortunately, but I spent the day near it!

Here is an overview of the BMX venue in Laoshan, which was a 45-minute bus ride out of Beijing. 

There were cheerleaders at motocross. This one was in charge of the area right in front of the press box. I don't think they realized that. I hope she didn't get in trouble for not inciting much fan participation.

I really loved watching BMX in person. There's a lot of potential bumping and wipeouts, plus the bikes can get pretty high in the air.

I had visited Donny Robinson at his Napa Valley home to do a walk-up profile for the Olympics since he was a gold-medal hopeful and BMX was making its debut at the Games. Alas, the feature didn't run and Donny didn't win gold, but it was good to see him get third and talk to him afterward.

Yes, this is Maris Strombergs of Latvia, the gold medal winner in BMX. 

I couldn't make it to all of the Club Bud events, but I did get a chance to talk to 2000 Olympic backstroke gold medalist Lenny Krayzelberg! He first got to know a then 15-year-old Michael Phelps during the Sydney Games.

My dad got into Beijing and had a chance to go with me to a Johnson & Johnson event, which was being handled PR-wise by a friend of mine,Mary Scott. We saw Gao Min, winner of back-to-back golds in 3-meter springboard diving (Seoul and Barcelona).

So my dad gets off the plane in Beijing, takes a taxi to my hotel, gets a quick tour through the Main Press Center to get an Olympic Green access pass, and then walks toward the Bird's Nest. Within minutes, I hear him go, "HeyI It's Tiki Barber!" That's why my dad is SO American

Daniel Boulud invited me to try his new Beijing outpost, so I did, along with SI's Brian Cazeneuve and my dad. Our tasting menus (Brian's a vegetarian one) brought Chinese ingredients into a French cooking style. Executive chef Brian Reimer (second from right) was a fantastic host. Sadly, I hear Maison closed November 2013, but Boulud is looking for a new venture in Beijing.

Not as lavish as the opening ceremony but still grand, Zhang Yimou leaves another beautiful impression of China as the Games transition to London for 2012.