My wife and I spent this year’s annual holiday in Northern California. We had visited the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas on previous occasions but we had never been to the wine and redwood counties of Northern California before.
Based upon this visit I would thoroughly recommend it, if you enjoy tranquility, nature, culture, friendly people and good wine. Not that we had much of the latter because it took every ounce of my concentration to drive a not particularly responsive car (Ford Fusion) on very challenging roads and ‘on the other side’.


Some of the attractions we particularly enjoyed were: –
The Jack London State park and Museum. The Grace Hudson Museum, Ukiah. The Mendocino Botanical Gardens near Fort Bragg, The Point Reyes Lighthouse and several State and National Parks with their spectacular redwoods.


I should make a special mention of our visit to the The Hess Collection (winery and art gallery). We were taken on the tour by Erin who was both charming and knowledgeable. During the tour I noticed a Porsche 365, in very good condition, parked in the staff car park. I of course had to take a photo and here it is: –

Porsche 365 at the Hess Collection Napa 09/2011

One of the places we stayed at was Ukiah. How very fortuitous that was for me because on the
16th and 17th September I encountered the Fabulous Flashback Car Show organised by the Early Iron of Ukiah Car Club. Fabulous was the right description. It was a petrol head’s dream, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! I spent several hours taking pictures of cars which caught my eye, especially the rare ones like the Willys, Studebakers, Parkards, De Sotos, Edsels etc.


All the photos I took are on this Youtube clip – http://youtu.be/g4ghdNK6bqc


But here a few selected samples: –

 
I hope you enjoy these few examples but for the full range click on the Youtube link above.
 
With best wishes,
Nick
 
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