North County Coastal Tbird Drive
On Tuesday, October 12, a bunch of us from the Classic Thunderbirds of San Diego (San Diego Tbird Club for short) got together in a Del Mar parking lot for a ride up the coast. Weather was perfect. We wound our way through Del Mar village in our Tbirds and by the beach, then past the racetrack and into Solana Beach. The High Surf Advisory that morning made for beautiful crashing waves as we drove past beaches.
We drove into Cardiff-by-the-Sea and past the decorated“Cardiff Kook”; the coast highway then took us into Encinitas. Turning off Hwy 101, we went past the two iconic Boat Houses. Built in 1928, they were added last year to the National Register of Historic Places. They’ve never been in the water – the city rents them out to tenants!
We continued to the Moonlight Beach parking lot where we were joined by a couple more members. They had just had a smaller 15” steering wheel installed on their ’57 – looks great! We stayed at Moonlight Beach for a while, enjoying the ocean view and taking photos.
Back on the road again, we headed north through “funky” Leucadia and into south Carlsbad; there were more crashing wave vistas as we headed down the hill toward South Ponto Beach. We turned inland, heading to the Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park where we were met by a park docent. Two more members met us there (without their Tbird — too far for them to drive their newly rebuilt 312!) and we all viewed an introductory film at the Visitor’s Center before embarking on the docent-led guided tour.
Afterwards, our group of 12 gathered in a covered eating area for lunch. Conversations centered on the driving tour, the Park and future events, including what to do for a holiday party of some kind. A few ideas were kicked around that we’ll flesh out in the coming month.
[This post was modified from its original, written by Gary Noyes, for the November CTSD member newsletter.]
