Madelyn Drover had visited B.C. before, but never to Prince George. Until last week.
The 15-year-old athlete from Portugal Cove - St. Philips, Nfld. competed in the squash tournament all week at the 2015 Canada Games at the Northern Sport Centre.
The tournament wrapped up Saturday and as the sun set above UNBC marking the close of the Games Sunday, Drover spent a few moments reflecting on her time in Prince George.
"One of my favourite memories was staying in the athletes' hotel with all the other squash athletes and seeing my teammates play," said Drover, who's only played squash for two years. "The food was awesome and I'm pretty sad to leave."
The Games officially wrapped up Sunday with the closing ceremonies at UNBC's outdoor courtyard which featured the athletes' parade, a celebration of the last 18 days and the extinguishing of the cauldron.
Aidan Rafuse spent most his week over at CN Centre and the Kin arenas behind the bench as the trainer for Nova Scotia's men's hockey team.
Nova Scotia finished fifth in the tournament with a 3-2 win over host B.C. on Saturday.
"It was a great experience this week, I had a great time."
Ontario's Megan Smith, who skipped her team to women's curling gold Saturday night with an extra-end victory over Nova Scotia, said competing in the multi-sport Games was a unique experience.
"It's so incredible because you have all these different sports and everyone is cheering you on and you're part of a bigger Team Ontario," the 17-year-old from Sudbury said Saturday at the Prince George George Golf and Curling Club. "It's just something I've never experienced before and I probably won't for a really long time, so it's pretty cool."
Even though Nova Scotia's curling team was disappointed in Saturday's outcome of the gold medal game, the rink was disappointed in the week they spent in northern B.C.
"It's been amazing, we've had so much support from back home," said skip Mary Fay. "The volunteers here have been great. We've really enjoyed our experience. We're going to be sad to go home, but it's been amazing."
Earlier Sunday, the Canada Games Council handed out several awards to various teams on their success at the 2015 Games.
New Brunswick won the Centennial Cup, which is awarded to the provincial or territorial team that shows the greatest improvement from one Summer Games to the next or from one Winter Games to the next.
Yukon earned the Jack Pelech award, given to the provincial or territorial team whose athletes, coaches, managers and mission staff best combine competitive performance, good sportsmanship and spirit of fair play, co-operation, and friendship. The award is named after Jack Pelech, chair of the Board of Directors of the Canada Games Council from 1971 to 2001.
Saskatchewan and B.C. shared the Claude Hardy award, served to recognize the talents and dedication of the provincial or territorial mission team. Hardy was a former Games athlete and Chef de Mission for Quebec.
