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  • NCG GTG: Marin Brewing Co.

    Posted on January 23rd, 2010 tcorzett No comments

    Today the NorCal GOATs has a get together at the Marin Brewing Co. for lunch. As always, there were caravans from various areas of the bay to the meet. I connected with a few people from the central valley and a new CGM GTO owner from Castro Valley.

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    After a brief stop to get some fuel, the gang headed out. The drive up went smoothly (some random person in front of me even paid my toll on the bridge) and we made good time.

    The rain that hammered this area over the past week was sticking around just long enough to rain on our parade. It wasn’t too hard (nothing compared to this past week), but it was consistently sprinkling over most of the drive. I didn’t wash my car for this meet (again), and was glad of that when the rain was coming down. But on that note, I really need to spend a couple of hours washing and detailing my car!

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    When we arrived at the Marin Brewing Co. the rest of the group was already in the restaurant. It was a little disappointing not to get there earlier for the typical talk in the parking lot, but we were able to get some of that done after the GTG. We went in and joined the rest of the group just in time to order food.

    After a GTG at the Marin Brewing Co. a few of us headed to the Golden Gate Bridge to take some photos. The drive to the bridge was terrible… being the leader, trying to keep everyone together, and not knowing the area is just a nightmare situation. After driving around and circles (at least three times) trying to get everyone together… I was finally able to find an area to pull over and regroup. From there, things went a little smoother, which was nice.

    The parking area at the Coast Guard harbor was very wet and full of many puddles. One nice thing is that the center ‘road’ portion of the lot is paved, so despite having dirty puddles, it wasn’t too much of an issue. The parking lot was quite wet/muddy and I was really surprised that everyone came in for photos. I think it was the dirtiest place most of these GTOs have ever been!

    The lighting was far from ideal (everything was backlit), but I don’t really think you can take a bad photo with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

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    Because of the earlier rain, people’s cars were dirty… so I wasn’t too worried about getting the perfect picture. I mentioned to people that we need to be here at sunrise to get the best light, and didn’t get many people who seemed interested. I totally understand not wanting to make an hour (or longer) drive before the sun is up just to take some photos, but sometimes that’s what it takes to get the really spectacular images.

    The drive home from the Golden Gate Bridge was typical Northern California driving… patches of really heavy traffic even on a Saturday! A few of us stopped briefly at the Dublin Hooters to deliver a NCG jacket and calendar to a member who was unable to make the cruise.

    The day was very enjoyable. Great conversations as always and really good to see everyone and what they have been working on since the last time. I think there should be a few good photos for those who made the trip to the Golden Gate, so that was cool too.

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