Monterey Bay

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Monterey Bay

To car enthusiasts, Monterey Bay is one of the special places in Northern California. In addition to mesmerizing coast line roads, blue ocean, temperate climate, and mouth watering seafood, this place hosts many high speed and historic racing events. Laguna Seca circuit is located just a few miles west of Monterey Bay’s sand dunes off Highway 1.
Due to the rolling hills and valleys that make up the region’s landscape, Laguna Seca circuit features the highly respected and challenging high speed turns, switchbacks, and hairpins. The elevation changes on the turns give the continuous 3D racing experience that is rather unique to this circuit. The famous corkscrew turn pushes not only the limit of the drivers but also to the engineering teams that build and tune the chassis, suspension, and brake. Even Avatar 3D movie could not match the thrilling ride that will make any driver’s heartbeat runs at overdrive with an ear-to-ear smile on his face. The runaway crisscross sinuous rubber marks on the turns and the markings on the barriers are constant reminders of how dangerous and challenging this course is.

American LeMans Series, Red Bull US Grand Prix MotoGP, and Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion are the world famous racings held yearly here. Occasionally though, there is no international event at Monterey Bay, not even US Open Golf Tournament at Pebble Beach. No fans line up waiting for autographs of sports celebrities. At times like this, only locals are seen at Cannery Row coffee houses reading Monterey County Herald newspapers over blueberry muffins and bold coffee. A few domestic tourists are sightseeing, buying colorful salt water taffy candies, and visiting the world famous Monterey Bay aquarium.

The large red brick building with white-frame evenly spaced windows and the wooden wild-wild west saloon buildings along the Cannery Row used to be the epicenter of sardine canning industry. Today, these buildings host restaurants, hotels, and shops catered to locals and visitors. The traffic on this late Saturday morning was light as the wine tour buses had not arrived. A 1950’s Corvette, a 1970’s classic Camaro and a Firebird were spotted here. The aroma of coffee and breakfast foods with a hint of ocean salt filled the air. The sounds of harbor seals, sea otters, and pelican could be heard from the direction of the Fisherman’s Wharf.

Me and my friends didn’t have a grand plan for the day. We didn’t have a course to concur. We didn’t have a schedule to meet. Our mission was simple, enjoy the day with our fine cars in this beautiful area...@driving-vacation

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