First Sunday Drive - July 6 2008

[starlord]

Hey SF Bay smarties! We have a great drive comin up next month, as many of you know I attended the drive earlier this month and had a blast cruising with all the classic 'Benz cars, and the smart car got a lot of attention and interest from people who practically begged us to bring more smart cars on the next run.

(excerpt from MBCA used by permission)

The First Sunday of July will find us in the Santa Cruz Mountains - starting in Los Altos and ending in Felton. We'll be visiting two great wineries along the way. Thanks to Rick & Cherrie for planning this great route and also for arranging our no host lunch at the end of the drive. Our ending spot is the home town of the Roaring Camp Railroad for any train buffs. You can take a ride on a steam train down to Santa Cruz, spend an hour on the boardwalk and then take a train back to your car.

(end of excerpt)

So, let's see a show of hands who wants to do this drive, there's plenty of time for those that want to come to join in, and for those that don't there's lots of time to come up with a creative excuse ;)

[starlord]

Here's directions to the starting point:

FIRST SUNDAY DRIVE - July 6, 2008 - Los Altos to Felton

DIRECTIONS TO THE STARTING POINT:
Los Altos Rancho Shopping Center
654 Foothill Boulevard, Los Altos

As usual, be sure to arrive in plenty of time to get signed in, grab a cup of coffee and chat with new and old friends. Watch for the blue and white balloons to locate our group and the sign-in sheet.

From Highway 280 (north or south) take the Magdalena Avenue exit in Los
Altos. Drive north east to Foothill Boulevard and turn left on Foothill. Turn
right to enter he front parking lot of the Rancho Shopping Center. Our group
will be meeting as close to the Starbucks Cofee as space will allow.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE DRIVE:
- DEPARTING @ 10AM
- EXIT parking lot at east end and turn RIGHT on Foothill Boulevard. Drive
0.9 miles.
- LEFT on El Monte Road. Drive 1.4 miles.
- Bear LEFT onto Moody Road. Drive 2.8 miles.
- Stay LEFT onto Page Mill Road. Drive 5.8 miles.
- RIGHT onto Skyline Boulevard / Highway 35. Drive 2.7 miles.
- RIGHT to arrive at Thomas Fogarty Vineyards 19501 Skyline Blvd.
> We will be parking in the lower parking lot and will be limiting our time
during this stop to 40 minutes.
- DEPART turning LEFT onto Skyline Boulevard. Drive 19.5 miles.
> Watch for very fast cross traffic!
- RIGHT onto Bear Creek Road. Drive 1.8 miles.
- LEFT into driveway of Byington Winery at 21850 Bear Creek Road.
> We will try to limit our stop here to 40 minutes.
- DEPART turning LEFT onto Bear Creek Road. Drive 7.3 miles.
- LEFT onto Highway 9 (toward Felton). Drive 7.5 miles.
- ARRIVE at La Bruschetta Restaurant at 5447 Highway 9 in Felton.
> This marks the official end of the drive.
> Arrangements have been made for a group lunch at the restaurant and
they have agreed to provide separate checks

[Alan_Hepburn]

My wife and I will be camping a few miles from the end point that weekend - sounds like a fun drive, except we're not wine drinkers. Is there anything else that we could do while others are doing the wine-tasting thing?

[LittoDeviL]

Hey would love to join but yea... I also don't drink.. anything to do while others are wine tasting? Can we drive our smart onto the winery and crush all the grapes? =D.. j/k..

-Larry

[Alan_Hepburn]

So is this still on the calendar? I'd hate to drive all the way up to Los Altos to find an empty parking lot...

Also, any ideas on how we non-wine drinkers can amuse ourselves while others are partaking of the grape? Maybe if there's enough of us we can move everybody's cars around in the parking lots?

[smartcar4me]

Count me in.
I live in Marin but don't mind the nice drive down 280. Wine tasting sounds fun! Just bought my Smart 6/27 and really having fun! Black/silver/black. I call it the "Black Marlin". Perfect car for an Oakland Raiders fan too! Silver and black attack vehicle.

Doug

[starlord]

Hi everyone!

yep, I confirm this is still on, looking forward to a great morning drive with my fellow smarties

As for me, I do a good homebrew ale but not really a wine drinker either. I plan on spending the free time walking the grounds (Thomas Fogarty has amazing views and some interesting architecture, and Byington Winery has picnic tables, BBQ, and will teach you how to play Bocce Ball, something I always wanted to learn, LOL!)

I imagine that there'll be other goodies besides wine that we'll find along the way, of course, there's always our smart cars to look at and talk about, take photos, etc, that often takes up more time than I'd expect ;-)

And Larry, if you crush grapes with your smart car, you know you're going to end up with... (pause for effect) ... a purple cow! hehe!

(here's the wiki for those that missed the joke..)
Purple Cow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See you there!

[JohnnyBGangsta]

How is everything doing with all of the fires going on? How many people are expected to show up?

[paul c]

.. I'll be picking up my smart from the San Jose center this Saturday. I can't think of a better way to christen it than with a pleasant drive and a glass of white wine. See you Sunday!

[LittoDeviL]

Originally Posted by starlord

Hi everyone!

And Larry, if you crush grapes with your smart car, you know you're going to end up with... (pause for effect) ... a purple cow! hehe!

(here's the wiki for those that missed the joke..)
Purple Cow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See you there!

"Purple Cow ice cream or yogurt is black raspberry ice cream or yogurt with chocolate and white chocolate chips." mmm... yum... ha ha ha.. i'm on!

I was suppose to take a flight out to New York on saturday night but I'll wait until after the drive, this sounds more like fun! I'll fine new path and trails to take my cow on while everyone else is wine tasting Starlord, lets follow the stars! hehe

-Larry