2011 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HOLIDAY MOTOR EXCURSION DECEMBER, 2011 (Special thanks to Marilyn Balduff, for recapping the tour and sharing these photos and to Harry Arends for sharing his music with us)             Wow!!  We had the largest and greatest Holiday Motor Excursion ever.  Beautiful Southern California weather of 85 degrees in December brought out hundreds of cars and spectators.  We had so many cars and support vehicles that we had to close our parking lot because it was totally full. Many thanks go to Egge Speed Shop, our sponsor for helping us with this event.             The Holiday Motor Excursion is made up of two parts: a car show and a tour.  The car show is open to many vintage cars and we had over 270 cars on display and hundreds more spectators viewing them.  The Tour is limited to pre 1932 cars and we had over 180 cars on tour.             At the car show we had every type, size and model of vintage cars that you could imagine and lots of spectators.  There were many original early cars and people in period costumes. We had  horseless carriages such as Locomobiles, Popes, Stoddard-Daytons, Model T Fords, Buicks, Tourists, Studebakers, Pierce Arrows, Stanley Steamers, EMFs, Hudsons, etc.  There were many classic cars such as Dusenbergs, Packards, Pierces, a Rolls Royce and Lincolns.   Jay Leno even brought his beautiful Cunningham for all of us to see.   There were lots of vintage motorcycles and even some vintage bicycles.  The Model A and Model T people were very well represented with lots of great Fords.  We had some hot rods, a vintage fire engine, a Jitney bus, and many more interesting machines.  Two large helicopters circled above observing all of the action.             The Holiday Tour this year took us up a long steep grade on Lake Street in north Pasadena to Farnsworth Park.  Most of the cars took this grade in stride, however a few overheated due to the warm sunny weather.  Upon arrival at the Park, donuts, coffee, hot chocolate and orange juice was served.  Everyone enjoyed talking, eating and taking car pictures in this very pretty residential setting.  We were then off to more touring with our cars.  The tour this year took up into the mountains where we observed many beautiful ranches and then down into the canyons with lots of homes decorated for the holidays.  We drove high above the rose bowl and adjacent park where the last minute finishes were being done to the Rose Parade floats.  The obligatory drive across the old Colorado Street bridge and then down Colorado Boulevard, the route of the Rose Parade, was very enjoyable.  The town of San Marino was our next destination.  We drove past the famous Huntington Library with its manicured English gardens and art collections of such masterpieces as Thomas Gainsborough’s Pinkie and Blue Boy.  Lunch for most of us was at Clearman’s Galley, a local Pasadena hangout.  Then there was dessert at one of our member’s homes.  Here everyone enjoyed his gorgeous car collection while eating tasty sweets.             A large thank you goes to the Southern California Region of the Horseless Carriage Club for organizing and working on this tour and car show.   Return to top