Day 2 – Newport Dunes Alpine SoCal Rally (Newport Beach, CA)

Welcome to Day 2 of our Alpine SoCal Rally! Today was Saturday the 23rd (see agenda flyer below).

Our rally attendees gathered for breakfast at the designated site between the wagonmasters’ Coaches. Our hosts and co-hosts, the Vaughn’s and the Hambarian’s had a superb breakfast spread prepared.

Mike and Greg toasted bagels.

We had yogurts…

… and plenty of fruits as well.

As you can see from the agenda at the beginning of this post, everyone is free to do activities on their own for the day. The only planned activities are a Social Hour at 5 PM and a Potluck dinner at 6 PM.

I’m pretty sure everyone found something to keep themselves occupied with for the day… the towns’ official website (www.visitnewportbeach.com) lists a plethora of activities for the area and says the following: “Newport Beach, California is a coastal fantasyland where leisure and style come together in ten distinct neighborhoods, each with its own unique charm — Airport District, Balboa Island and surrounding seven islands, Balboa Peninsula, Balboa Village, Cannery Village, Corona del Mar, Fashion Island, Mariner’s Mile/Westcliff, Newport Coast/Crystal Cove, and the Back Bay. Visitors can enjoy unlimited things to do in Newport Beach. Enjoy luxury shopping, spa treatments, championship golf, and sample a bit of the sophisticated and aspirational lifestyle found here.”

The website also goes on to say that; “Newport Beach is home to Newport Ensenada Yacht Race, Newport Beach Film Festival, Restaurant Week, Newport Beach Independence Day on the Bay, Hyatt Regency Summer Concert Series, and the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade. With the largest recreational harbor on the west coast, Newport Beach activities are abundant. Visitors can choose aquatic adventures from sunset cruises to stand-up paddle boarding. Art walks, wine tastings, tours, live entertainment and cultural venues will fill your itinerary. Create lasting memories on idyllic California beaches, breathtaking seaside cliffs, harbor-front promenades and leave with the desire to return.”

For a complete guide on outdoor activities view the PDF here or to view a full events calendar click here.

Several of our members (myself included) chose to visit the annual Woodie Club and Car Show at Doheny State Beach (←link) in Dana Point which was taking place today. Doheny Wood (←link) is one of the Premier Woodie Events of the year, presented by the largest Woodie organization in the world, Southern California Woodie Club. Doheny Wood is a wooden vehicle only event, presented every April at beautiful Doheny State Beach, Dana Point, California and is the only woodie event that is held on the sand of the emerald blue Pacific Ocean.

Fellow Alpine Owners’ Greg & Marcy Vaughan own a “Woodie” that they brought to the rally and they planned to attend the Doheny Wood event today. So I used the opportunity to follow them down the Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy 1) to the event on the Harley.

Greg & Marcy Vaughan traveling down the PCH in their 1940 Ford “Woody”.

Stilla, Jennifer and Kaan opted to get in some more “beach time” and took the Silverado for the day. I learned later that they visited Balboa Beach and Laguna Beach. Stilla reported that she even spotted some more whales 😉

Here’s Greg & Marcy (below) once they arrived at the event and parked their immaculate 1940 Ford Deluxe.

Greg & Marcy’s window tag for the car show.

Several of our other rally attendees also came down to the car show. We had a great time wandering around and admiring all the fine automobiles on display. I’ve been to plenty of car shows, but they were always general in nature and had all kinds of cars. This show was unique in that only “Woodies” were allowed. It was really neat to see so many in one spot at one time.

Enjoy some pictures from the car show:

(L to R) Frank Krauland, Mike Hambarian, and Greg Vaughan at the Doheny

Raffle prizes were doled out during the day. An event official announced winning numbers.

Lots of memorabilia and event t-shirts for sale.

Mike and Frank admiring one of the more “unique” cars on display.

Marcy & Greg did some comparisons of the competition.

(L to R) Mike, Frank, Marcy, Greg, and Donna.

The Doheny State Beach, next to the car show.

The Doheny State Beach pier, next to the car show.

Doheny State Beach, next to the car show.

After spending a couple hours at the cool car show, I rode the Harley down the coast (south) to Capistrano Beach and then San Clemente. I turned around at that point and returned to Dana Point where paused to take the pictures below.

’96 Harley-Davidson Softail Classic overlooking Dana Point Harbor.

It was really great to get out on the bike for the day… it’s been awhile 🙂 After taking a couple more pictures of Dana Point Harbor (below), I took the PCH (Hwy 1) back to the RV park and arrived with plenty of time to spare before “Happy Hour”.

Dana Point Harbor and the Ocean Institute (notice the sailing ships at the docks).

Back at the Newport Dunes RV Resort & Marina (see site map below), the Coaches are really packed in with limited space for tow-vehicles.

SiteMap-4-14_Lge — Our row of Alpines (inside the red oval).

Here’s a view of our Alpine Coaches (20) in a row with all our towed vehicles lining the street (below).

It’s getting pretty crowded in the small sites here. At our site, we still haven’t deflated the Sea Eagle raft from our outing on Friday. We might still take it out again.

Prior to “Happy Hour” at 5 PM, I gathered the Alpine SoCal Executive Board Members that are here in attendance at the rally in order to hold a quick “Board” meeting so we’re more prepared for the General Membership meeting we plan to conduct after tomorrow’s catered dinner. The meeting was quick and painless – a testament to the professional and highly-qualified members of our Alpine Coach SoCal group. And then it was dinnertime… time for another famous Alpine Potluck meal!

Everyone brought out their favorite dish to share and (as usual) we had way more than we could eat! Our rally host and co-host (Greg and Mike) helped serve some of the dishes as everyone filed through the line.