Family Fun

I had a great weekend with the family. My boys love cars, as I have mentioned before. I told my wife years ago that when we had kids, I would pick up a classic and work on it with them in order to teach them about turning a wrench. My goal was to get it while they were young so that I could work my way through it before they were old enough to lend a hand. Well, I started shopping for a classic this summer. What to get? It had to be a middle fifties to early seventies. When I started looking, my daily driver went to car heaven. So that idea was put on hold.

I ended up buying a new Mini Cooper. My boys loved the new car. That started the ball rolling. We joined a car club that I found on-line. Mini Owners of America Los Angeles. Come to find out, it is one of the largest active car clubs in SoCal and the largest Mini Club in the U.S. The club consists of owners of both classics and new Mini’s. Our first car run had over 100 minis tooling through Long Beach. My boys loved the classics. So instead of a muscle car, we found a classic after a couple months searching, perfect for garage space economy. They are a blast to drive.

We piled into the new Mini this weekend and headed out with about sixty other cars and drove through Palos Verdes and San Pedro. Through the hills and along the coast, it was a beautiful day in southern California. I apologize to those in the rest of the country, I don’t mean to rub it in, but we get to do this all year around. I drove, mom navigated and the boys kept us informed of who we passed and who passed us. These are memories. Next month, we’ll make more memories tooling through the hills above Pasadena. Maybe we’ll break out the 1962 Cooper.

1962 Austin Mini Cooper and 2005 BMW Mini Cooper

Getting started at Ports O Call. We’re the yellow one on the far left.

Moving up into the coastal hills.