What a night! Obama was re-elected, ballot measures legalizing the recreational use of marijuana passed in both Washington and Colorado, and at midnight we entered our fifth year of existence. Yes, it’s Scout’s fourth birthday today, and we’re celebrating by doing the same thing we do every day: sit in our office over hot cups of good things and dream up ways to inform and entertain our readership.

From being recommended as a key source for Vancouver intel by numerous publications (including The New York Times) to getting the Scout List printed weekly in the Globe & Mail, the website has come a long way. We’ve written 5,391 posts, watched nervously as our social media audience climbed (5,000 Facebook fans and 12,000+ Twitter followers…who the hell are all you people?), survived two major rebuilds (which we wouldn’t have been able to do without major tech help from Karen Hamilton of Tiny Bites and design guidance from Aren and Phoebe at Glasfurd & Walker), and gained only a few pounds and grey hairs.

So not a bad run at all.

We’d just like to take the opportunity today to dearly, sincerely thank all those people who have read Scout, written for Scout, or supported Scout in one way or another in these last four years. That’s you Nic Bragg at Zulu Records, the girls of Victory Gardens, Claudia Chan, Owen Lightly, Sean Orr, Daniel Colussi, Stevie Wilson, Ellen Johnston, John Burrows, Jenny Bachynski, Scott Daniel, Joe Chaput, David Grieg, Amorita Bastaja, Robyn Yaeger, George Giannakos, Rommy Ghaly, Deana Lancaster, Rhys Pender, and many others. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you, and we mean the hell out of that.

We’d also like to say thank you to all the chefs, restaurateurs, bartenders, winemakers, beer crafters, artists, designers, curators, musicians, creatives, small business owners and all around risk-takers who give us things to write about every day. You make Vancouver so much richer with your day to day efforts, and our job so much easier.

As always, there’s much more to come!