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North meets South Oct 16 2011

3K views 35 replies 12 participants last post by  etyu 
#1 ·
Just creating a new thread where members can upload photos and narrative of today's meet. Weather was perfect, low 70"s and sunny.


At the initial waypoint in Orange County on Friday:
 
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#2 ·
Fueling up before the drive to San Simeon on Friday:

 
#3 ·
At the theater area parking lot this morning (Del Monte Shopping Center) in Monterey right before many other SLK's from NorCal showed up

 
#5 ·
I can't wait to see everyone's pictures. Work spoiled it for me again this time, so really looking forward to having everyone share their experience. It was fun earlier in the year after terrible storms, I can only imagine how great the trip was this time around.
 
#7 ·
Some photos of the SLK lineup in Monterey. About 15 cars in all.
 

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#8 ·
Action shots from the Monterey-San Simeon drive and the stats for the drive from San Simeon to Irvine (non-stop). Note the road sign for the curves for the next 63 miles.
 

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#15 ·
Yeah, it was a good drive. Very little traffic. I was up to 70 mph and 30 mpg but the stats went way down after 15 mins of stop and go on I-5 entering Orange County. The cause was an accident on shoulder on the other side of the freeway. :tazz:


It was very nice meeting you guys. Below is the link some pictures from my plate. Enjoy! :)

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/113642181378211587726/albums/5664244150207993793?hl=en#photos/113642181378211587726/albums/5664244150207993793

some previews below, a lot more with the link above:
The link doesn't seem to work. Do you need to be a Google Plus member? Great looking photos.
 
#10 ·
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 :D; 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.
 
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#11 ·
Just got back not too long ago and though the tush is a little sore, it was well worth it. Especially nice to see familiar faces (Eddy and Alicia) and meeting new friends...Durk and Marcele, Dan, David, Paul, Arno, and from NorCal LarryB and Maria, Stuart, Chuck and Sam.

Eddy, I hope there wasn't any water damage..The Santa Rosa Creek run was a lot of fun! If you were the one that found it initially, thanks. It was a nice finale.

Hope everyone got back safe.
 

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#14 ·
These were some pictures from the Santa Rosa Creek excursion.
 

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#17 ·
Great photos rubenh.
 
#22 ·
Ok, yeah it works on my home computer. The one at work very outdated...
 
#23 ·
DAY 1 (10/14)

We met Peter & Jan, Eddy & Alisha and Paul in the parking lot in Lake Forest. Not shown here is that this is right next to a Verizon store, where throngs of people were lining up to buy the iPhone 4S.


The coast along the 101.


The cars lined up at the Paradise Store where we had lunch. In front is Davids88keys' BMW 135i.


The group at the Paradise Store, right off the 154 just north of Santa Barbara.


Some shots taken in San Simeon in the evening. The local wildlife and some scenery.





Sunset on Friday, taken from our hotel room at "The Morgan" in San Simeon.


This was taken after we had dinner at the Manta Rey. The fog was crazy thick and there was a light misting rain coming out of the sky. I didn't take any pictures at the dinner for some reason. I hope someone else did.
 

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#24 ·
DAY 2 (10/15), Part 1

In the morning at The Morgan, cleaning the cars of the enormous amount of water that settled down. Remember kids, don't open the top until you get the water off!!!


North meets South! The theme of the trip.





A shot of the coast during the first leg of the trip from Monterey to Big Sur. Others already posted more pictures of this, so I'll leave it at this.


Lunch at the Big Sur River Inn.




A smaller group of 10 SLKs continued on afterwards from Big Sur to San Simeon.
 

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#25 ·
DAY 2 (10/15), Part 2

Another shot of the coast during the second leg of the trip.


San Simeon scenery on Saturday evening.



North & South met up in the lounge at San Simeon to chat afterwards and watch Eddy's Hearst Castle pics on the laptop.


Dinner that night. Eddy, I'm very sorry I cut off your head in the second picture. The restaurant was not very wide and I was flying blind when I was taking this picture. Note our esteemed guest from Oregon, Arno the PropDr.



Outside the restaurant checking out the intoxicating sounds of the Walküre.
 

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#27 ·
DAY 3 (10/16).

Last one, I promise!! :D:D

Breakfast in the morning at The Morgan. Two people were foraging that were not actually guests at the hotel. Don't tell anyone!


Pictures of the Santa Rosa Creek Rd run. This was a beautiful crazy bumpy, crazy narrow road. Peter already posted some pictures to show just how narrow it was. Note that a car might be coming from the other direction at any moment. These pictures were taken when I paused the group for a while so I could clean my windshield. The glare from the sun made it very hard to see where I was going. Oh, my lowered SLK bottomed out hard one time during this run.






After the run and having said goodbye to Peter & Jan, two cars pressed on towards Solvang. Paul, Marcelle and myself gorged ourselves on Danish sausages, cheeses etc, and the delectable Ableskiver in this picture.


Some shots of Solvang. Note SLKs in the last one. One thing I discovered during the 101 portion of the run when Paul was leading is that he is quite a madman. I have interesting video to prove this but I fear it might send Paul's insurance rates up, so I'll withhold. :biglaugh::biglaugh::burnout:



A memorable weekend of North meeting South that I hope we can do again someday soon!
 

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#31 ·
After the run and having said goodbye to Peter & Jan, two cars pressed on towards Solvang. Paul, Marcelle and myself gorged ourselves on Danish sausages, cheeses etc, and the delectable Ableskiver in this picture.
Do you happen to remember the name of the restaurant you stopped at? I have to have some of that food next time.
 
#28 ·
It was such a great weekend, talking with everyone and seeing so many SLKs driving together! Glad NorCal and SoCal came together this trip! Thanks to everyone for posting their pictures, I have some video that I need to crop and find a place to host/post, I'll try to do that tonight. It's rather shaky but gives a good impression of what the Big Sur coast drive was like.

Eddy, thanks for mentioning the Santa Rosa Creek Road - it was one of the most scenic roads I've been on, very tight turns and oak trees growing over the road and rustic farm houses with cows and climbing the sides of the mountains (is this a road or a goat trail?!!) to find wide open vistas, but it is really just a one-lane road with 2-way traffic!! Durk's pictures were taken on one of the few couple block-long sections that were actually wider than 1 to 1.25 lanes - very concerning what you may find around the next corner!

Solvang was a real treat, love the photo of the SLKs against the Danish buildings!
 
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