Tomorrow I'll be boarding a ferry to Vancouver in order to photograph classic cars in the 5th annual Steamworks Concours d'Elegance. Vancouver is close enough to my home in Sidney that by stepping onto the balcony of a nearby mountainside hotel it is possible to see the twinkling lights of the city's chairlifts. Yet it will require almost three hours by ferry and intercity bus to reach the destination hotel. I'm not taking my car, for this is the upcoming Labor Day weekend. Traffic is horrendous and the ferry vehicle lineups... well, you don't want to know. Still, it's a first-class concours and worthy of the trip.

The event takes place in Gastown, an historic old section of downtown Vancouver next to the cruise ship docks. A lengthy section of Water Street (appropriately paved with cobblestones) is blocked off for the event, which is named for the Steamworks Brewing Co., a restaurant located at the beginning of the block, itself named after the world's only steam clock at the other end, where tourists patiently wait to see a puff of steam and hear the whistle that marks each quarter-hour. This Concours is not large, owing to space limitations, but organiser and restaurant owner Ely Gersovitch, himself a collector, tries to assure the quality and variety of classic autos makes a visit worthwhile. Featured this year is the 1932 Ford coupe.

[Packard photo from '06 Steamworks: Philip Powell]