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Welcome to the eleventh instalment of our “On the Road to…” series! The deal is simple: manufacturers loan us vehicles, we drive them to sweet locations, shoot photos along the way and then share that experience with you.

In the TENTH INSTALMENT I drove the all new Acura ILX Hybrid to Whistler, breaking a streak of 9 SUV outings prior to it. The car had an automatic transmission and was an entirely new driving experience to me as I’d never driven a hybrid and had a few moments of “So THAT’s how it saves gas!” (one specific moment was the first time the engine completely turned off to conserve gas at a stoplight, like a fake stall, then started up all by itself after I let off the brake). If the ILX was a bit unfamiliar then driving this TSX was like getting into my favourite sweater after a long summer; familiar and comfy. With a manual transmission (also a first in this series), driving it wasn’t simply comfortable but was actually a fun experience. The joy of shifting may be a small one, but it’s one I miss as the car I currently own is an automatic.

So let’s get into this trip, shall we? Here’s a shot of the car a little over halfway to our destination on Galiano Island (hint: we’ve taken you THERE before).

This journey to Galiano was actually a father-and-son adventure with my 4 year old and I, and we decided to start a new tradition at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal: throwing rocks! If you’ve been there you know that the long, thin strip of road right before you hit the terminal is tempting to stop at (especially if you’ve made reservations and don’t need to worry about rushing). On the East side people can be seen picnicking and launching their boats, and it’s a bit of a hotbed of activity on any given afternoon. On the West side is way more calm; tons of herons can usually be seen looking out onto some sort of port where trains are either dropping off or picking up something that I assume is coal. This is where we decided to throw rocks before boarding the ferry and invoking our old tradition, which is the one that sees Arlo eating a yogurt and me eating a traditional breakfast before checking the gift shop to make sure that Grant Lawrence’s book, Adventures In Solitude, is still front and centre. I’m happy to report that this award-winning book is actually now sitting beside another acclaimed title that I love, John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce. If riding a ferry to the Gulf Islands is an experience I recommend as truly experiencing BC culture as well as nature (and it is), then so is picking up one of these books while on board.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

On June 8th and 9th, the 4th annual Vancouver Festival of Ocean Films will open its doors at the Vancity Theatre to screen some amazing films focused on the beauty of our oceans, and some of the threats to its health. V.I.A. is a proud media sponsor of the festival, publishing a series of blog posts highlighting some of the Festival’s films.

Photos and words by Nicolas Teichrob

STAND is a surf and SUP film focused on the west coast of British Columbia from north to south, and what is at stake with the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker route. Produced by Nicolas Teichrob (of Roberts Creek) and Anthony Bonello (of Whistler), STAND was a two-year production that involved some of the most difficult logistical obstacles either of these filmmakers had ever faced. The film follows expedition stand-up paddler, Norm Hann (normhann.com) as he travels the length of Haida Gwaii, a group of Bella Bella students building their own wooden SUPs, and west coast native and iconic surfer, Raph Bruhwiler, on Vancouver Island. These elements are presented in the film thoroughly, but what isn’t shown are the behind the scenes stories and ups and downs that occurred while producing STAND. Here is a look at a few of the more memorable moments from STAND.

Mike McQuade and Norm Hann going over some maps in Mike’s surf shop (North Beach Surf Shop).

During Norm Hann’s 2010 paddle expedition that saw him paddle the tanker route from Kitimat to Bella Bella, Norm looked across the ocean to Hecate Strait and fixated on Haida Gwaii. There was a spark born at that time and this manifested itself in a 2012 expedition to paddle from Masset in the north to SGang Gwaay in the south. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Each week we sift through the nearly 8,000 entries that our friends at the Canadian Design Resource have made since 2005, selecting one particularly awesome Vancouver-centric design that they’ve featured and sharing it with you here.

Our In The Village on False Creek project, in which I moved my family down to the former Olympic Village and blogged about it for a year, came to a close last month. We wrapped up the final month by holding a t-shirt contest where we commissioned 10 local illustrators to give us their interpretation of what makes the Village awesome. After you whittled down a top 3 through an online vote the judging panel made up myself, Bob Rennie and senator Larry Campbell went to work and chose Kim Ridgewell and Leah Gregg’s design as the WINNER. I’m pictured wearing it here outside of our suite; the campaign may be over but we’re staying put in our rental unit because we absolutely love living in Southeast False Creek. Oh, and my son Arlo is wearing Tyler Quarles’ DESIGN, which we got made in kids sizes!

Want to win one of these tees? Cool, because Rennie wants to give you one. Simply go down to the Village, shoot a photo of something you think is awesome, and post it to Instagram. Tag it #inthevillage and mention @RennieVancouver. Boom. The first 25 people to do this will receive a t-shirt. The Rennie team will contact the winners and they can pick up at the Village Presentation Centre.

As a side note, did you see the piece by Andrea Woo in today’s Globe and Mail about Richmond’s 365 Days of Dining campaign? They talked about our In The Village project in it! HAVE A LOOK.

TELUS has been a Community Sponsor of ours going on 3 years now and every once in awhile we share a story about the work they do. As a community-minded organization, beyond giving millions of dollars to local charities every year ($44M in 2012), they also organize a day of giving where their employees are encouraged to go out and volunteer for different causes where they live. This year it was spread around with the #givewherewelive hashtag, and as some strange coincidence might have it their web site – givewherewelive.ca – was designed by one of our other Community Sponsors, Domain 7. Have a LOOK.

On that site you’ll find stories about this year’s day of giving, one of them being where they asked their Facebook fans asked how they give back in their community. @kevcurtis (from Vancouver) told them his story about how he prepares meals & cooks for seniors at South Granville Seniors Centre, so the TELUS team surprised him… in a big way. See how in this video below…