Yesterday I went on a Miata run (Pat was tied up on CWL business).  Twelve cars from the San Diego Miata club were visiting the Island.  They were on an extended loop trip that took them up through the interior of Oregon and Washington to  Kelowna,  then over to Whistler, across to the Island for a visit with our club.  They contacted our club a month ago so we organized a short day trip to welcome them with a lunch at a pub before they drove down island to Victoria.  From there they would take the ferry to Port Angeles and then along the coast home.

For them a very aggressive drive of 19 days considering the limited trunk space.  Pat limits our Miata travel to a maximum of a week.

They wanted to experience BC in the loop and fortunately their visit to Kelowna and the drive to Whistler included some clear warm days to see the mountains.  Unfortunately the visit to the island came on a wet overcast and cool day.

Never-the-less we had twelve cars from our club to meet them in Nanaimo then a group drive through Fairwinds golf community ( Nanoose Bay) and up the coast through Parksville to a lunch at a pub on the beach in Qualicum.  A nice drive but as we were sitting in the restaurant we had to convince them that the view East out of the windows over the beach normally came with beautiful mountains over the horizon.

But we had a great luncheon.

You could have dropped the 12 San Diego couples into our club membership and barely notice the difference.  Same age group, same personalities and same love of the Miata drives.  They were very polite about the 13 °C weather and rain by commenting about the luscious greenery of the island.

We have a standing invitation to drive down for one of their group events.  Not sure I could convince Pat to live 2 – 3 weeks out of the trunk of our Miata.