Got home late afternoon today and it was not only a good break/get-away but a memorable one as well. It was great meeting with the NorCal SLK group as well as meeting forum members from NorCal (Ruben and LarryB).
Aside from myself, there was Durk and Marcele (Durkatlon); Peter and Jan (PWSLK); Paul (Mbpaul); David (Davids88keys) who had to leave on Saturday to return to work; Dan (poonia003) on Friday.
Highlights from
Friday included me "leading" 3 other SLK's and getting lost x2 unto closed roads to the OC Performing Arts to meet David; took wrong turn trying to get unto north 405 and David came to the rescue; stomachs started aching and growling about one hour south of the planned Nipomo lunch, so following a mobile call the group ended in a "hole in the wall place" along highway 154 that had delicious tri-tip sandwich. Reached San Simeon around 4 pm. Dinner at the Manta Rey was yummy.
Saturday: the group gathered for breakfast at the hotel lounge with an invited guest
; the drive north at 8:30am was initially tame (lasted 15 minutes) until someone wanted to try his lowered SLK at speed; someone did get nauseous after maybe 60 minutes because of the twists and turns on Highway 1 (blame the road and not the vehicle nor the driver). It was great meeting everyone at Monterey and we are amazed at the organization by the NorCal group. We had a great lunch at Big Sur and a pleasant drive south on Highway 1 to San Simeon: 5 from NorCal and another 5 from SoCal.
Larry and Maria (LarryB) drove down to stay at the Morgan Hotel. Chuck and Sam, and Stuart (NorCal SLK) also drove to San Simeon. We had a great afternoon chatting with everyone and having wine at the lounge at the Morgan Hotel. Someone had 2 glasses and stated "I'm dizzy".
The group was sitting to start dinner at a restaurant across the street when cell phone rang. It was Arno (PropDr)! It was with great honor and pleasure that Arno was able to join us for dinner:tu: To top it off he had Valkyrie with him. We all enjoyed the demo after dinner.
Sunday: We all gathered at the lounge for breakfast. It was a bit of a downer as Alicia and I had to leave immediately after. Hope the others were able to either take a run to Paso Robles or enjoyed themselves at Solvang. Arno went north as did Larry and Maria.
Thank you all (forum members and NorCal group) for a wonderful and memorable weekend :tu:
Photos to follow.