Nokia Xplore Challenge

Yesterday I participated in the Nokia Xplore Challenge using a new Nokia X7. The idea was to take an urban blogger (me) and switch them with a suburban blogger (Jodi from RantsnRascals.com). We would make up a route that included five stops of interest and each use our Nokia X7 handsets to plot the course, take photos, check-in to the locations on social networks, and tweet.

I sent Jodi around Granville Island, False Creek (Olympic Village), to Stanley Park (Klahowya Village), and ended her course at Casa Gelato in East Vancouver (where you can find 516 gelato flavours). The route she planned for me went through Aldergrove and Abbotsford. I picked up my sister and one of my nephews in Surrey and we spent the afternoon getting from one location to the next with the help of Ovi Maps (the map application on the Nokia X7). I saved the stops under Favourites > Routes in Ovi Maps and used the GPS to navigate to each location.

Stop 1: Salmart
Notes: Helpful and friendly staff, lots of thrift store treasures and actually quite a busy place on a Wednesday afternoon.

Stop 2: Anne Marie’s Cafe
Notes: Adorable (and spacious) 50’s style diner with red vinyl booths, checkered floor, and toy cars for my nephew to play with while he avoided his french fries.

Stop 3: Mill Lake
Notes: Beautiful park with an impressive playground, public washrooms, cool leafy trees by the lake, and public pool (with a rope swing that looked like so much fun).

Stop 4: Birchwood Dairy
Notes: A part of the Abbotsford Circle Farm Tour. There’s a petting area for farm animals and big lawn near the corn field where you can enjoy your ice cream fresh from the dairy on a sunny afternoon.

Stop 5: Granny & Grumpa’s Antiques
Notes: We were greeted by a friendly pup as we took photos and browsed the unique treasures and antique finds.

All photos from the stops in this post were taken with the Nokia X7 and I sent them to my laptop via Bluetooth for uploading to Flickr (although I could have sent them directly to Twitpic or Facebook as well). I only used the in-phone photo editor on one image (where my nephew is on the slide) since it was too dark when I took it, without flash.

All in all, it was a really fun day. I’m a sucker for adventure challenges and having the phone as a resource and to document the day was a bonus. Goodness knows I needed the direction as I haven’t explored Abbotsford nearly as much as I should.

Disclosure: The phone was furnished by Nokia and I will get to keep it. I was not paid to participate in this challenge.

Related post: You have one day left to enter to win a Nokia C7 handset plus 1 month of free service from WIND Mobile.